760C.61/2255: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Harriman)
690. Please transmit to Marshal Stalin the following secret and personal message from the President:
“In accordance with your suggestion Dr. Lange and Father Orlemanski will be given passports in order to accept your invitation to proceed to the Soviet Union. Due, however, to military movements our transportation facilities are greatly overcrowded at the present time, and transportation, therefore, from the United States to the Soviet Union will have to be furnished by Soviet facilities. I know you will realize that Dr. Lange and Father Orlemanski are proceeding in their individual capacity as private citizens and this Government can assume no responsibility whatsoever for their activities or views, and should their trip become the subject of public comment it might be necessary for this Government to make this point clear.”