Foreign Relations of the United States Diplomatic Papers, 1941, General, The Soviet Union, Volume I

800.01B11 Registration—Ovakimian, Gaik (Dr.)/17

Memorandum of Conversation, by Mr. Edward Page, Jr., of the Division of European Affairs

[Washington,] May 20, 1941.

Participants:	Mr. C. A. Oumansky, Soviet Ambassador;
	Mr. Chuvakhin, First Secretary of the Soviet Embassy;
	Mr. Ray Atherton, Acting Chief, Division of European Affairs;
	Mr. Edward Page, Division of European Affairs.

Prosecution of Gaik Ovakimian

The Soviet Ambassador commented at length on the “inadmissible treatment” accorded to Mr. Ovakimian. He repeated many of the statements made on May 12 to Mr. Atherton and Mr. Henderson and stated that he wished to leave with the Department a copy of a report (attached hereto)⁶² which Mr. Ovakimian had submitted to the Soviet Consulate General in New York concerning his arrest and imprisonment. Mr. Atherton stated that there were certain discrepancies in the statements made by the Soviet Ambassador and in the official report⁶² submitted to the Department by the American authorities involved in the matter, that the Department would study with care Mr. Ovakimian’s report together with the report submitted to the Department and would endeavor to ascertain a true picture of the case.

The Soviet Ambassador stated that the prosecution of Ovakimian was being carried on with the direct cooperation of the Department of State since officers of the Department were present at the indictment. Mr. Atherton stated that an officer of the appropriate Division of the Department had merely stated at the indictment that according to the records of the Department, the registration form on Ovakimian had not been received by the Department prior to April 1, 1941. Mr. Oumansky stated that the Soviet Embassy had transmitted to the Department on May 8, 1940, ninety-eight registration forms including a form on Ovakimian. He added that he had carefully gone through the Embassy’s files and had found a most complete record on registration matters; that he had made a duplicate check in the files of the Soviet Consulate in New York; and that both files revealed that the Department was notified on May 8 of Ovakimian’s presence in this country. He stated that he had found a copy of the registration form in question and exhibited this copy⁶² to Mr. Atherton and Mr. Page. Mr. Page stated that he was surprised to see this form since Mr. Chuvakhin had informed him on May 6, 1941,⁶³ that the Soviet Embassy had not made copies for the Embassy’s files of the forms submitted to the Department and that he had merely made a notation on the covering note of May 8 to the effect that a notification form on Ovakimian was one of the 98 enclosures thereto. Mr. Chuvakhin denied making this statement and added that all he had said on that date was that he had not had time to go through the Embassy’s files.

Mr. Oumansky asked that the copy be returned to him and stated that he would send a photostatic copy thereof to the Department.

Mr. Oumansky stated that both the Embassy and the Department had made a mistake in not listing the names in the various covering notes transmitting to the Department the notification forms in order that the Embassy might have a record of the receipt by the Department of such forms, and that he would have requested such a list if he had realized at the time that a Soviet citizen would be imprisoned, beaten up, and liable to years in prison if the Department were unable to find a form which had been submitted by the Embassy. Mr. Page reiterated that a most careful search, made in the files of the Department, had failed to reveal the presence of a form on Ovakimian and added that the card index file showed the receipt of no form on him prior to April 2, 1941.

The Ambassador pointed out that Ovakimian had obtained an extension of his temporary visa on June 10, 1940 and November 20, 1940. He asked whether the Department of Justice would have extended Ovakimian’s visa without prior knowledge received from the Department that he was duly registered. He assumed that since Justice would not have extended Mr. Ovakimian’s visa until advised by the Department that he was registered, the two extensions of the visa were proof that the Department must have been in possession during 1940 of such a registration form. Mr. Page stated that he was glad that the Ambassador had brought up this point and added that he would look into the matter immediately.^*

The Ambassador commented at great length on the question of registration in connection with the Espionage Act of 1917 and stated that he was apprehensive lest many of the 500 Soviet citizens in the United States might be arrested in pursuance of that Act since there might have been a period after the entry of many of them into the United States during which they were not registered with the Department. Mr. Page referred to the informal agreements reached by the Soviet Embassy and the Department regarding the submission of registration forms⁶⁴ and added that he did not believe that any Soviet citizens who had been registered in conformity with these agreements would be subject to arrest for failure to register.

The Ambassador stated that Ovakimian had first submitted his registration form to the Embassy on January 25, 1941; that the form had been returned to him to be more fully executed, and that it had been reforwarded to the Embassy on February 18, 1941. He stated that the Embassy had not submitted this form until about April 1 since it desired to submit an accumulation of forms at the same time. He maintained that although Ovakimian had complied with the law, it was possible that the Embassy had not strictly done so. He stated that in substance, the Department was the prosecutor in the case and he requested formally and officially that the prosecution be stopped and that the bail be returned to Ovakimian. He added that if there were any complaints in regard to the submission of a registration form on Ovakimian, such complaint should be addressed to him and the matter should be settled through diplomatic discussions and not by “beating up” a Soviet citizen.

The Ambassador ended the conversation by declaring that the registration form in question must be in the files of the Department. He stated that even if it could not be found, he must formally and officially request the Department “to do everything in its power to bring about the discontinuance of the prosecution and to explain to the Department of Justice that the matter would be taken up and regulated through diplomatic channels.” He claimed that this would be the correct procedure since the Embassy was charged with the registration of Ovakimian and since any failure of the Embassy strictly to comply with the law should make the Embassy and not Ovakimian liable to complaint. He requested the Department immediately to look into this matter and give him an answer by the end of the week.

E. Page

62. Not printed.
62. Not printed.
62. Not printed.
63. Memorandum not printed.

64. Mr. Julian Harrington of the Visa Division informed Mr. Page that the Department of Justice only on rare occasions referred matters relative to the extension of visas to the Department and that this practice was not taken prior to the enactment of the Alien Registration Act of August 27, 1940. [The Smith Act, approved June 28, 1940; 54 Stat. 670]. He added that the fact that Ovakimian had received visa extensions on June 10 and November 20, 1940 could in no way be considered proof that the Department had received a registration form on him.

    Mr. Devaney of Dept. Justice, who has been consulted on this matter by FBI, stated to Mr. Page that Justice had not referred the matter of extending Mr. Ovakimian’s stay on June 10 or Nov. 20 to the Dept. [Footnote in the original. The second paragraph is in Mr. Page’s handwriting.]

64. For correspondence concerning earlier difficulties with the Soviet Government over the requirement for the registration of agents in the United States of foreign principals, see Foreign Relations, The Soviet Union, 1933–1939, pp. 926 ff.