Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers, 1944, Europe, Volume IV

711.94114 Supplies/8–2644: Telegram

The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Harriman) to the Secretary of State

Moscow, August 26, 1944.
[Received August 26—12:55 p.m.]

3174. A note dated August 26th has been received from the Foreign Office which reads in translation as follows:

[“] With reference to the Embassy’s note No. 310 of July 18,⁹⁸ the People’s Commissariat for Foreign Affairs has the honor to say that on August 25 the Soviet Government sent the Japanese Embassy in Moscow an aide-mémoire with regard to the shipment of supplies and mail to American and Allied prisoners of war and interned civilians in Japan and in Japanese controlled areas. In this aide-mémoire, the Soviet Government confirmed its willingness to permit a single entry into the port of Nakhodka of a Japanese vessel for the purpose of loading and carrying away approximately 1500 metric tons total weight of the above mentioned supplies, in accordance with the Japanese memorandum to the Government of the United States of America. The course to be followed by the Japanese ship from the point of approach (42 degrees 24.6 minutes north latitude and 132 degrees 24.6 east longitude) to Nakhodka and back to this point was described in the aide-mémoire, as well as arrangements for transshipping the supplies from the Soviet vessel to the Japanese vessel.

The security measures to be taken by the Japanese vessel during the remainder of the voyage, from the Japanese port to the approach point mentioned above and return, were stated in the aide-mémoire to be a matter to be determined and agreed upon by the Japanese Government with the Governments of Great Britain and the United States of America.

The Soviet Government proposed in the aide-mémoire that since the Japanese Government had been unable to agree to take over subsequent shipments of supplies and correspondence at Petropavlovsk, the station Manchuriya be used in the future as a transfer point.”⁹⁹

Harriman

98. This note carried out the instruction contained in Department’s telegram 1709, July 15, p. 1180.
99. Following repeated inquiries, Ambassador Harriman stated in telegram 3977, October 18, 1944, that the Soviet Government did not object to the communication of the full text of this note to the Japanese Government by the United States (711.94114 Supplies/10–1844).