340.1115A/342: Telegram
The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Steinhardt) to the Secretary of State
[Received December 31—10:50 a.m.]
1162. Following telegram has been sent to American Consul Ward at Lwow:
“The necessary confirmation having been received this morning from Bucharest, the Commissariat for Foreign Affairs is today instructing [Page 637] Volkov60 to start issuing exit visas. Apparently the Rumanian Government has made arrangements for the arrival at the frontier of only one group. It will therefore be necessary for you to assemble all of the evacuees and send them to the frontier in a single group, telegraphing the Embassy, for transmission to our Legation in Bucharest, the names, passport numbers, point of entry into Rumania and approximate date. Insofar as concerns individuals who cannot be included in this single group it will be necessary for them either to proceed to Moscow to obtain Rumanian visas or send their passports to the Embassy for that purpose. I suggest after the departure of the group you return to Moscow as soon as you have been able to obtain all available information with respect to any other American citizens within the occupied area and have taken such action with respect to Biddle’s property61 as the circumstances permit.[”]
- Vasily Alexeyevich Valkov, Head of American Section in the Soviet Foreign Office.↩
- On February 5, 1940, the Soviet Commissariat for Foreign Affairs notified the American Ambassador in the Soviet Union that he could take possession of Ambassador Biddle’s effects, but because of many delays by the Soviet Foreign Office they were not shipped from Moscow until June 24, 1940.↩