Attached are copies of the letters which I delivered to Mr. Vyshinski . .
. .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
As suggested in my telegram under reference, I believe that it may be
advisable to publish this correspondence if no satisfactory results are
obtained from our efforts. It is, of course, too early to tell what the
results will be. Mr. Vyshinski was pleasant but relatively noncommittal.
I will make definite recommendations on this in about thirty days, by
which time the decisions of the Soviet Government should be
apparent.
The American Ambassador in the Soviet Union
(Smith)
to the Deputy Minister for Foreign
Affairs (Vyshinsky)
[Enclosure 1]
Dear Mr. Vyshinski: I have taken note of
the statements contained in your letter of May 24 that:
“The appropriate Soviet authorities made a careful investigation
into the whereabouts and citizenship status of the Americans
mentioned in the Embassy’s previous notes regarding these
persons. As a result of the investigation it appeared, as the
Embassy has already been informed in each individual case, that
those persons whose presence on Soviet territory has been
established were either citizens of the U.S.S.R. or citizens of
a third state.
[Page 736]
“It is therefore fully obvious that the procedure for protecting
citizens provided in the exchange of letters between the
U.S.S.R. and the U.S.A. of November 16, 1933, to which the
Ambassador refers in his letters, is not applicable to the
persons under reference.”
In connection with these statements, I must reemphasize that the
United States Government alone is competent to determine who is and
who is not an American citizen. It is impossible that the Soviet
authorities can be competent to determine that an individual is not
an American citizen, as is the inference of your statements quoted
above, but is actually a citizen of some state other than the Soviet
Union. It is, of course, possible that an individual in addition to
his claim to American citizenship may also have a claim to the
citizenship of a third state. However, neither this Embassy nor the
Government it represents would presume to adjudicate such a claim,
and neither are the Soviet authorities competent to determine the
validity of a claim to United States citizenship or that the
individual making such a claim is in fact a citizen of a third
state.
In this connection I must inform you that contrary to the statements
contained in the Ministry’s Note No. 35, dated January 17, 1947, to
the effect that Margaret Fischer and John Steigerwald are not
American citizens but are Rumanian citizens, the Embassy has been
advised by the American Mission in Bucharest that both Margaret
Fischer and John Steigerwald, according to the competent Rumanian
authorities, are not Rumanian citizens, and on the basis of evidence
available to the Embassy both these persons have valid claims to
American citizenship only.
I, therefore, must renew my request that Miss Fischer, Mr.
Steigerwald, and other similar claimants be allowed access to or a
visit by an American Consular Officer in accordance with the
principles of international law, the usual and long-standing
established custom between countries, and the procedure specifically
agreed upon in the previously referred to exchange of letters, dated
November 16, 1933, between the President of the United States and
the representative of the Soviet Government.
Among the similar cases referred to in the preceding paragraph are
those of Louise Wolfart, Hilda Wagner, Anna Klein, Mildred Schuller,
Anna Steingasser, Maria Kramer, Anna Gilde (nee Schussler), Ottilia
Herbst Gross, Helen Magdalena Zultner, Frank and Joseph Gebe.
I wish to bring these cases particularly to your attention at this
time. The claim of each of the above-named individuals to American
citizenship has been verified as valid. Whether they may also have a
claim to the citizenship of a third state is not pertinent. The
Soviet authorities, nevertheless, refuse these persons the right to
visit an American
[Page 737]
Consular
Officer to apply for an American passport in order to return to the
United States, not on any contention that they are Soviet citizens
but on the claim that they are citizens of some state other than the
Soviet Union, a consideration which is not germane to the issue.
Your letter of May 24 made no reference to those claimants to
American citizenship who our records show to have been seized by the
Soviet authorities in Eastern and Southern Europe and sent to the
Soviet Union but whose presence in the Soviet Union the Ministry has
informed me has not thus far been confirmed by investigation.
Apparently the investigations of these cases have not been
exhaustive. I cite the case of Susanna Hertl. The Embassy in its
Note No. C–261 of July 27, 1946, reported her detention at Donbass,
Enakievo, Fabrika No. 23, Lager 1. In reply, the Ministry stated in
its Note No. 223 of October 29, 1946, that no information regarding
Mrs. Hertl was available and her whereabouts were unknown. However,
the Embassy has recently been furnished with a receipt signed by
Mrs. Hertl on March 28, 1947, for funds which she received at
Enakievo, Stalinsk, Fabrika No. 23, Lager 1, from the Bank for
Foreign Trade, U.S.S.R.
Evidence in possession of the Embassy is to the effect that the
individuals on the attached list1
actually were seized by the Soviet authorities and the dates and
places of their seizure have, in some instances, been given to the
Ministry in the Embassy’s previous notes. Therefore, I must
reiterate my request for a report on the disposition of these
claimants to American citizenship after their seizure by the Soviet
authorities, indicating whether they have died or whether they have
been released and, if neither, their present whereabouts. These
questions are of the utmost interest to the United States Government
and to the relatives in the United States of the persons
detained.
With reference to the question of American citizens and claimants to
American citizenship who are asserted by the Soviet authorities to
be Soviet citizens, I wish to refer first to the matter of Alf
Varjas.2 As the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
was informed in Note Nos. C–405, dated April 26, and C–520, dated
May 28, 1947, the Ministry is not apparently in possession of all
the facts relating to this case. The Ministry is, it seems, not
aware of the circumstances that Mr. Varjas, when residing in Estonia
as a child, bore identification documents annoted by the Estonian
authorities to show that he was considered by them to be a foreigner
living in Estonia, and also that he was issued an American passport
at Tallinn on June 18, 1936, that he was registered as an American
citizen by the American Legation at Tallinn on July 2, 1940, and
that his name was included in American Passport No. 124 issued June
10, 1941, by this Embassy
[Page 738]
to his father, Mihkel Varjas. Accordingly, in view of the foregoing,
I request that Mr. Varjas be granted permission to leave the Soviet
Union.
While the case of Vaiki Aipuk is similar to that of Alf Varjas, the
Embassy is not in possession of sufficient evidence to ascertain
whether she was actually residing in Estonia as an American citizen
as was the case with Varjas and therefore it is possible that she
was considered to be also an Estonian citizen.
You have stated with regard to the cases of Alf Varjas and Vaiki
Aipuk that these persons cannot be divested of Soviet citizenship
merely by force of the fact of their birth on American territory. I
wish to remind you that by the same token a person cannot be
deprived of American citizenship merely by the assertion that he is
considered a Soviet citizen. The fact that an individual may have
claim to some citizenship other than that of the United States does
not of itself deprive him of the protection and interest of this
Embassy to which he is entitled by virtue of his American
citizenship and international comity.
I must renew my request that Mr. Varjas and Miss Aipuk, as well as
the other American citizens who desire to proceed to the United
States, be now permitted to depart from the Soviet Union at will.
Many of these persons have been endeavoring to return to the United
States for several years. I cite, for instance, the case of Eleonora
Carneckis who was the subject of no less than five communications to
the Ministry, the latest being Note No. C–721 of July 23, 1947. No
replies have been received to these communications.
The cases mentioned above and other pending cases, of which these are
typical, are of sufficient importance from a legal as well as a
humanitarian point of view to justify my request that you give them
your personal attention and that the Embassy be favored with the
earliest possible reply in order that I may report to my Government,
which is deeply concerned that persons with valid claims to American
citizenship be allowed to return to the United States when they so
desire and not be detained by the Soviet authorities against their
will.
Please accept, Mr. Vyshinski, the assurances of my highest
consideration.
