861.24/1535
The Assistant Secretary of State (Acheson) to the Lend-Lease Administrator (Stettinius)
My Dear Mr. Stettinius: Your letter of June 5, 19434 enclosing a revised draft of the proposed agreement concerning American engineers and technicians assigned to the installation of Lend-Lease products in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics has been received. I am glad to inform you that this draft is entirely acceptable to the State Department.
With respect to the point at issue over short wave radios for American engineers in the Soviet Union, the European Division does not feel that we should press the matter if the Soviet Union is reluctant to let them have such radios. The European Division points out the importance that the Soviet Union attaches to governmental censorship of news from the outside world. Private Soviet citizens are not allowed to own short wave radios, and if American engineers scattered throughout the country should have them, it would be impossible for measures to be taken to prevent Soviet citizens from listening to foreign broadcasts or to prevent those engineers from telling their Soviet friends what they had heard themselves. The possession by American engineers of short wave radios is almost certain to lead to charges of espionage or of the carrying on of propaganda adverse to Soviet interests. Therefore, the decision as to which, if any, American engineers are to be permitted to have short wave radios should, unless the Soviet Government is perfectly willing to have it otherwise, be left to the discretion of the Soviet authorities on the spot.
Sincerely yours,
- Not printed.↩