No. 609
Editorial Note
On September 11, Under Secretary Walter Bedell Smith called in Soviet Ambassador Zarubin and presented to him an aide-mémoire, dated September 11, on the question of the Soviet lend-lease settlement negotiations and particularly the failure of the Soviet Government to return lend-lease vessels to the United States. Under Secretary Smith urged a prompt reply. For a brief review of the substance of the meeting, see the statement issued to the press by [Page 1214] the Department of State on September 11, in Department of State Bulletin, September 21, 1953, page 391.
On October 20, Ambassador Zarubin addressed a note to Secretary Dulles expressing the willingness of the Soviet Government to discuss technical arrangements for the transfer of 186 naval craft obtained by the Soviet Union under the Lend-Lease Agreement of June 11, 1942. Further exchanges of notes on November 24 and December 3, 24, and 26, led to the holding on December 28 of the first of a resumed series of working group meetings on the United States-USSR lend-lease settlement negotiations. Regarding these working group meetings, see Document 614. For texts of the notes cited above, see Department of State Bulletin, January 11, 1954, pages 44–47. Documentation on the exchanges of notes described and related topics is primarily in file 761.56.