340.1115A/10–344: Telegram
The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Harriman) to the Secretary of State
[Received October 3—9:45 p.m.]
3783. Reference Embassy’s telegram 3494, September 14, 11 p.m.
We are now receiving letters by mail from Lublin, and Moscow postal authorities state that postal communications have been established with all parts of liberated Poland, but that telegraph service is not yet available.
We have reiterated to the Foreign Office our hope that all possible assistance will be given claimants of American citizenship in communicating with the Embassy. The Foreign Office states it has asked the Soviet military authorities to advise and assist all such persons to communicate with us. Names of claimants will be reported periodically in accordance with Department’s 2285, September 25, 7 p.m.70
Soviet postal authorities say that parcels of food and clothing coming from abroad via Iran are deliverable in Baltic States and Polish and Rumanian territory occupied by Soviet armies. Weight limit five kilograms. It would be helpful to us in dealing with requests for assistance to know whether post offices in the United States accept such parcels for mailing.71
- Not printed.↩
- The Ambassador in the Soviet Union was informed in telegram 2401, October 10, 1944, and telegram 2459, October 18, 1944, that no mail was being accepted addressed to Baltic States or Soviet-occupied Polish and Rumanian territory and that no parcel post was being accepted for the Soviet Union because adequate facilities for its transportation to the Soviet Union were not available (340.1115A/10–344; /10–1344). Telegram 2610, November 4, 1944, to Moscow, concerned the readiness of the American Post Office Department to resume normal parcel post service immediately with all of the U.S.S.R. if the Soviet postal authorities were agreeable to resumption of such service. (340.1115A/10–2844)↩