800.01B11 Registration/12–3049

The Secretary of State to the Attorney General ( McGrath )

My Dear Mr. Attorney General: Reference is made to the request of the Department of Justice for a statement from the Department of State at this time concerning the status in this country of Mr. Valentin A. Gubitchev, now under indictment in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Mr. Gubitchev came to the United States in 1946 as a member of the Soviet Delegation to the United Nations. He had been granted a diplomatic visa, because at that time he was coming to the United States as Third Secretary in that Delegation. Mr. Gubitchev’s visa was valid for a period of one year. After coming to the United States, Mr. Gubitchev did not seek or obtain an extension of his visa. Shortly [Page 803] after his arrival in the United States, Mr. Gubitchev became a member of the Secretariat of the United Nations, serving as an architectural engineer with the United Nations Headquarters Staff. Mr. Gubitchev has never been accepted by the Department of State as a diplomatic representative of the Soviet Government.

When Mr. Gubitchev became an official of the United Nations by becoming a member of its Secretariat, he ceased to be a member of the Soviet Delegation to the United Nations. As an official of the United Nations, Mr. Gubitchev did not on March 4, 1949 or at any time after that date enjoy status as a diplomatic representative of a foreign government accepted as such by the Department of State.

I am enclosing with this letter certified copies of communications received by the Department of State from the Soviet Embassy concerning the Gubitchev case and of the Department’s replies, in which the claim of diplomatic immunity for Mr. Gubitchev was rejected.

Sincerely yours,

Dean Acheson