120.39/9–144
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Harriman)
Sir: The Department has received your Despatch No. 884 of September 1, 1944, with regard to the marriages of United States Government [Page 936] personnel to Soviet citizens, and agrees fully both with the concern expressed by you as to the increasing number of such cases and as to the need for corrective action.
If such a statement as you propose, testifying to the employee’s knowledge of the regulations and the consequences of their contravention, were required to be signed in Washington prior to the departure of the employee for Moscow, it is felt that he would quickly forget the subject matter of the statement, and it would have to be brought to his attention again after his arrival in Moscow. Moreover, there will be many cases in which persons are transferred to Moscow from other posts abroad, and the statement would in any case have to be obtained from them upon arrival.
Therefore, the situation should be explained and a signed statement required from every bachelor officer or employee of the permanent and auxiliary Foreign Service now at Moscow, or who arrives there in the future for service in the Soviet Union. The text of the statement should be substantially similar to Enclosure No. 2 to your Despatch No. 884 of September 1, 1944, except that the last paragraph might, in your discretion, be made stronger and amended to read:
“I realize that if during my period of assignment to the American Embassy at Moscow I contract marriage with a Soviet national I will be required to depart from the Soviet Union within a month after the date of such marriage. I further realize that since the American Embassy in Moscow has no grounds for insisting that the Soviet authorities grant permission for my wife to leave the Soviet Union it is probable that I will be forced to depart without her and that she may be required to remain in the Soviet Union indefinitely, regardless of my own movements”.
In the case of employees of agencies other than the Department of State, serving at Moscow now or in the future, the situation should also be explained to every individual by an officer of the Embassy and a similar signed statement required, the text being altered to meet the particular circumstances. You should consult with the chief representative of each agency in Moscow, with a view to incorporating any suggestions which may be made by him as regards employees of his agency. You should inform the Department in the unlikely event that the head of any other agency should not cooperate fully with you in this matter. Because a document signed in haste in the first days of arrival at a new post is apt in time to lose significance, you will know best whether, or how often, to remind persons who have signed such a statement of its content and significance.
Very truly yours,