812 FOREIGN RELATIONS, 1946, VOLUME VI

Altho no final decision among them they considering urging reprisals
against all Russian correspondents in US. View this agitation and
requests for guidance from Dept part networks, please report urgently :

1. Results Emb’s inquiries as to reasons lying behind action Sov
Govt (Dept’s 1972, Nov 8).

2. What steps, formal or informal, taken by Emb effort to lift
ban (other than that reported Embtel 4172).

8. Emb’s opinion of what further steps can now be taken.

4. Emb’s suggestions for interim Dept statement to press re matter
as now stands.

ACHESON

 

125.0061/11-2146 : Telegram

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

SECRET Moscow, November 21, 1946—6 p. m.
[ Received November 21—12: 53 p. m.]

4202. In a conversation on various subjects I spoke to Dekanozov
on 18 November regarding our requests for establishment of a Con-
sulate at Leningrad and quoted to him statement made by Zhdanov
before Supreme Soviet of USSR in 1938 to general effect that it was
conceivable that a great state like Soviet Union should not have as
many Consulates in foreign countries as Soviet FonOff allowed in
Soviet Union. I informed him US Govt took same point of view
regarding establishment of US Consulates in Soviet Union. His reply
that Soviet Govt had no inclination whatever to limit number of
Consulates of US in USSR except as this limit was enforced by lack
of facilities and housing. I mentioned fact that Soviet Union had
three consular establishments in US,”° whereas, we had only the small
one at Vladivostok.

I subsequently had phone call from his secretary and interpreter
asking for exact wording of quotation from Zhdanov’s speech which
I supplied. I do not expect anything definite on the matter until
Molotov returns. However, I wish to be absolutely certain that if
this matter comes to a definite issue Dept is prepared to ask Soviet
Union to close one or more of its own establishments in US in case
we are refused permission to establish a Consulate at Leningrad.”

SMITH

” These were located at New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.

7 The Department replied in its telegram 2061, December 2, 1946, 7 p. m., to
Moscow, that it was prepared to close a Soviet Consulate in the United States if
there was persistent refusal to grant permission to establish an additional
American Consulate in the Soviet Union (125.0061/11-2146).