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

800.01B11 Registration—Ovakimian, Gaik (Dr.)/15

The Ambassador of the Soviet Union (Umansky) to the Secretary of State

The Ambassador of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics presents his compliments to the Secretary of State and acknowledging receipt of the Secretary’s note of May 28, 1941 has the honor to renew his request to the Secretary that the appropriate authorities of the United States discontinue the prosecution now pending against Mr. Gaik Ovakimian, a Soviet government official charged with alleged failure to give prior notification to the Department of State of his status as a Soviet Government official.

The Ambassador has the honor to recall to the Secretary that as a result of the conferences and correspondence between the Ambassador and the Department of State it was arranged that the procedure of notification to the Department of State of the activities of government officials and employees of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was to be handled by the Embassy in behalf of Soviet nationals, acting in official capacity and temporarily residing in the United States, and that this arrangement was carried out by the Embassy. Therefore the Ambassador holds the view that any complaint which might be registered by the Department of State in connection with a possible neglect on the part of the Embassy in the case of any individual Soviet official or employee should have been brought to the Embassy’s attention through the usual diplomatic channels and not by way of criminal proceedings against the respective Soviet national. Furthermore in the case under discussion there was no neglect either on the part of this Embassy or on the part of the Soviet national concerned.

The official status and functions of Mr. Gaik Ovakimian were brought to the attention of and acknowledged by the Department of State from the very moment of Mr. Ovakimian’s application for a visa of entry into the United States in the fall of 1936. Mr. Ovakimian was and is the holder of Soviet service (special) passport number 12956 issued by the People’s Commissariat of Foreign Affairs on November 3, 1936, specifying that he is proceeding to the United States on behalf of the People’s Commissariat of Heavy Industry of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and that the People’s Commissariat of Foreign Affairs, as customary, requests the Governments of friendly powers and invites the authorities of the U. S. S. R. to let Mr. Ovakimian freely pass and to extend to him aid and protection. This service (special) passport was visaed by the American Consul at Moscow (Mr. Fred E. Waller, American Vice Consul; November 6, 1936, #183). This American visa, issued to Mr. Ovakimian as a temporary visitor to the United States, bore a stamp affixed by the American Vice Consul reading “Service #2068,” which stamp, to the Ambassador’s knowledge, has been added only to the visas of those persons who were holders of such service (special) passports. Thus the Department of State was apprised of the official status of Mr. Ovakimian even prior to his arrival in the United States and simultaneously took cognizance of this status.

Mr. Ovakimian sailed for the United States on the S. S. Queen Mary, arriving in the port of New York on November 17, 1936, (his name having appeared on the passenger list) and at his arrival complied in all respects with the formalities required by the United States Immigration Service. Thereafter and shortly before the six month period of permit to stay expired he applied for a further extension of six months to the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service. In applying for the extension he furnished on the usual forms a detailed and correct description of his status and occupation. These applications were renewed and granted from time to time, the latest application having been filed on November 20, 1940 and granted on December 26, 1940. Thus the appropriate authorities of the United States have again and repeatedly been apprised of the presence and the status of Mr. Ovakimian in the same manner as with regard to all other Soviet officials and employees on official duty in the United States.

Since his arrival in the United States Mr. Ovakimian has been in charge of consulting Soviet engineers, members of various Soviet technical commissions, which visited this country in accordance with contracts between Soviet industrial agencies and American corporations and more particularly concerning equipment for the chemical industry being purchased in this country. During the years 1936 to 1939 Mr. Ovakimian was assistant to the Chief of the Chemical Division of the Office of the People’s Commissariat of Heavy Industry with the Amtorg Trading Corporation. After an independent Commissariat of the Chemical Industry was formed in 1939, Mr. Ovakimian continued his activities as chemical consultant of members of various Soviet technical commissions which visited this country. He also consulted with inspectors of heavy chemical equipment purchased by the Amtorg Trading Corporation on behalf of the People’s Commissariat of the Chemical Industry of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. From 1937 to 1940 Mr. Ovakimian, along with carrying out his above-described duties, continued scientific research work in the chemical laboratory of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, New York City, under the direction of Professor A. P. Levene. During this period four scientific papers by Mr. Ovakimian were completed and published by the said Institute. Since 1934 and up to date Mr. Ovakimian has been a member of the American Chemical Society.

The Ambassador expresses his astonishment at the reference contained in the Secretary’s note, Title 22, Section 233 of the United States Code. The Department of State was fully aware of Mr. Ovakimian’s presence and activities. No Soviet government official or employee has ever, during the period in question given any separate and special notification to the Secretary of State nor were Soviet nationals or the Embassy given to understand that such special notification was required from foreigners having entered this country in official capacity. It was not until September 23, 1939 that the Department of State in a note⁶⁸ to the Chiefs of Missions made its first reference to the above-mentioned law, although since September 6, 1938 communications with regard to the requirement for registration had been exchanged between the Secretary and the Ambassador.

The Secretary will recall that after his note of September 6, 1938⁶⁸ the Ambassador expressed the opinion that Soviet citizens engaged in purely commercial activities in this country were not subject to the requirements of the 1938 Act relating to Registration of Agents of Foreign Principals, in view of the fact that this Act expressly exempts persons engaged in bona fide trade. In the course of further conversations and correspondence between the Embassy and the Department of State the Ambassador in a spirit of international comity and without having abandoned the basis of his contention as a matter of principle agreed upon a modus operandi with the Department of State concerning all then required methods of notification and registration. It is recalled with appreciation that in its turn the Department of State taking cognizance of the particular status of representatives and employees of Soviet institutions and economic agencies engaged in commercial activities, agreed to a simplified procedure of their notification to the Department of State, a procedure which has been most scrupulously observed by the Embassy. Upon the basis of this mutual understanding the Embassy began, in February 1940, to notify the Secretary of State in the above-mentioned simplified fashion with regard to the presence and status of various officials and employees of Soviet institutions and economic agencies in the United States.

After the case of Mr. Ovakimian was brought to the attention of the Ambassador, he caused an examination to be made of the records of the Embassy and of the Consulate General of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in New York, which examination disclosed that on May 8, 1940 this Embassy forwarded to the Department of State notifications on behalf of ninety-eight Soviet citizens, included among which was the notification on behalf of Mr. Ovakimian. A copy of this notification form dated May 1, 1940 and sent under cover of a note dated May 8, 1940⁷⁰ was furnished to the Department of State on May 22, 1941. This copy bears distinct filing marks establishing that the original was received by the Embassy from the Consulate General of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in New York on April 27, 1940 and was forwarded to the Department of State under cover of the above-mentioned note. The Department of State is aware that in a list of the employees of the Amtorg Trading Corporation forwarded under cover of the same note there appears the name of Mrs. Ovakimian who, as customary, was thus notified to the Department of State simultaneously with her husband. It is to be regretted that the Embassy and the Department of State, during the period in question, in respectively forwarding and acknowledging the notification forms concerning Soviet government officials, did not specify in the accompanying notes the names of the persons on behalf of whom the notifications forms were completed. The discrepancy between the files of the Department and those of the Embassy in regard to the fact of Mr. Ovakimian’s notification form, sent under cover of the note of May 8, is not understandable to the Ambassador.

The Ambassador regrets that the Department seems to have made this inexplicable discrepancy a ground for refusal to accede to his request to intervene on behalf of Mr. Ovakimian. Although fully satisfied that Mr. Ovakimian’s notification was forwarded to the Department on May 8, 1940, the Ambassador holds that this question is not of great material weight in view of the correspondence and negotiations between the Embassy and the Department commencing in 1938 and continuing through to 1940. In the course of this correspondence and conversations the Ambassador made it perfectly clear that his Government is not prepared to consider American registration laws, exempting persons engaged in bona fide trade, to be applicable to Soviet government officials and employees engaged in such trade activities. In its turn the Department of State took into account the impracticability of a full application to such Soviet government officials of the 1938 Act relating to Registration of Agents of Foreign Principals. The Ambassador recalls in this connection a memorandum transmitted to him by the Secretary under date of May 13, 1939⁷¹ with various suggestions for a simplified procedure of notification and in which reference is made to “those officers or employees of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics whose status is peculiar to the political and economic structure of the Soviet Union, including representatives of state, economic or commercial organizations such as Gostorg, State Trusts, etc., and who would not in other countries ordinarily be officers or employees of the Government, but rather commercial travellers, representatives of private interests, etc. …”⁷² The Embassy having acceded to certain requests of the Department of State as a matter of international courtesy, it would be indeed regrettable if this procedure of notification were now the source of criminal proceedings against a Soviet government official solely on the ground that the Department of State fails to find in its files the notification form of Mr. Ovakimian forwarded by the Embassy on May 8, 1940. At the same time the Ambassador infers from the Secretary’s note that had the Department of State been satisfied that Mr. Ovakimian’s notification form was received from the Embassy on May 8, 1940 the Secretary would intervene on his behalf. The Ambassador feels confident that the reference contained in the Secretary’s note of May 28, 1941 to Title 22, Section 233 of the United States Code is not intended to mean that all Soviet government officials and employees who have been in this country for commercial purposes since the passage of the above-referred to 1917 Act, and about whom notifications were not sent by the Embassy to the Department of State before 1940, would still be liable to criminal prosecution under that Act. The Ambassador hopes that the Secretary will therefore concur in his opinion that the invoking of the 1917 Act as a basis for criminal proceedings against a Soviet official engaged in commercial activities in the United States, is wholly unwarranted.

During his stay in the United States, including the period since May 8, 1940 Mr. Ovakimian secured regular renewals of his temporary visitor’s permit, filling out the required forms and furnishing all desired information. The latest applications for these renewals were made respectively in June and November 1940 subsequent to the notification of his status by the Embassy on May 8, 1940. When thereafter the Immigration and Naturalization Service was transferred to the jurisdiction of the Department of Justice, the latter was therefore automatically notified by Mr. Ovakimian of his desire for an extension of his temporary admission and was granted such extension. As a result of recent conversations with officials of the Department of State the Ambassador assumes that in conformity with an established procedure inquiries must have been made by the Department of Justice at the Department of State prior to the granting of the last two extensions to Mr. Ovakimian to ascertain whether or not he was properly notified to the Department by the Soviet Embassy, and that the Department of Justice would not have granted those extensions had it not been satisfied that the Embassy notified the Secretary in May 1940 of Mr. Ovakimian’s status.⁷³

The Ambassador further recalls that after the enactment of the Alien Registration Act in 1940, the Secretary’s note of December 16, 1940⁷⁴ to the Chiefs of Missions introduced a new form of notification on behalf of officials of foreign governments, explicitly designed to super-cede all previous forms and such notifications were accordingly completed by the Embassy and sent to the Department. Included among a portion of such forms forwarded under cover of the note of March 31, 1941 was a notification in behalf of Mr. Ovakimian, executed by him and forwarded to this Embassy on February 16, 1941. On April 14, 1941 the Embassy received from the Department of State the receipt card made out in Mr. Ovakimian’s name and signed by Mr. Summerlin,⁷⁵ under date of April 3, 1941. Thus and prior to any prosecution of Mr. Ovakimian the Department of State acknowledged his status as a foreign government official. No complaint was made by the Department of State to the Embassy that Mr. Ovakimian should have given any prior notification or that this superseding and final form of registration was not satisfactory, although examination of the copy of his notification form shows that he had assumed his duties in the United States on November 17, 1936.

The Ambassador notes that the second ground given for the refusal of the Department of State to intervene on behalf of Mr. Ovakimian is that the decision as to whether he has been engaged in activities in the United States as an agent of a foreign government without prior notification to the Secretary of State is now a matter for the determination of the appropriate courts of the United States. The Ambassador understands that the question of notification of such agents is entirely within the province of the Department of State and the Department has so recognized in its communications to the Embassy and in the regulations which it has promulgated under the various registration laws. It would be a matter of surprise to the Ambassador if in view of the acknowledgment given by the Department of State to Mr. Ovakimian’s second and superceding form of notification, the Department of State should not now take steps to discontinue an action which it did not deem warranted during the previous years of the sojourn of Mr. Ovakimian in the United States.

After the apprehension of Mr. Ovakimian the prosecuting authorities pointed out to him what they considered to be a belated registration under the provisions of the 1940 Alien Registration Act. The Ambassador recalls to the Secretary of State that on no occasion during the correspondence or the conversations between the Embassy and the Department has there been suggested or requested any time limit for the completion of the procedure of the complying by the Embassy and forwarding to the Department, of the numerous forms for the Soviet government officials and employees in this country. The procedure of the registration undertaken after the enactment of the Alien Registration Act of 1940 was the same for Mr. Ovakimian as in the case of numerous Soviet citizens having similar official positions in this country and was as expeditious as was possible for the Embassy.

The Ambassador expects that the Secretary of State will cause a thorough investigation of those particular circumstances of the apprehension of Mr. Ovakimian on May 5, 1941 and the treatment which he was given after his arrest, which the Ambassador brought to the attention of Mr. Atherton on May 12 and May 20, 1941, transmitting on the latter date a detailed written description of the facts. The Ambassador more particularly expects an investigation of the brutalities and humiliations inflicted upon Mr, Ovakimian both at the moment of his arrest and during his detention, in disregard of his status of a Soviet government official as notified to and acknowledged by the Department of State.

The Ambassador has the honor further to recall to the Secretary of State that he had the opportunity to indicate to him personally on May 14, 1941⁷⁶ that instances of such discriminatory treatment of a Soviet citizen and government official by United States authorities can not be overlooked by his Government.

The Ambassador trusts that upon the basis of the additional information transmitted in this note the Secretary of State will concur in his opinion that the matter in question should be disposed of through the normal diplomatic channels and not by criminal proceedings. The Ambassador renews his insistent request that the Secretary of State cause the discontinuance of those proceedings so as to permit the delayed return of Mr. Ovakimian to his country.

In view of the fact that court hearing has been scheduled for June 6, 1941, the Ambassador will appreciate the taking of appropriate action by the Secretary at an early date.

Washington , May 31, 1941.

68. Not printed.
68. Not printed.
70. Not printed. The name of Gaik Ovakimian does not appear in the lists furnished, although that of Vera Ovakimian does on page 6, with the notation that she departed in August 1940.
71. No copy found in Department files.
72. Omission indicated in the original.
73. See the first footnote on p. 964.
74. Not printed.
75. George T. Summerlin, Chief of the Division of Protocol, Department of State.
76. See memorandum by the Secretary of State, May 14, p. 745.