DEPARTMENT OF STATE Memorandum of Conversation
Date: March 9, 1949
Subject: Soviet Protest of the Arrest of Gubitchev
Participants: The Soviet Ambassador The Secretary Mr. Rusk, Assistant Secretary Mr. Thompson, Deputy Director for European Affairs
Copies to: S/S G L UNA-Mr. Henkin
The Ambassador read and had translated the attached note.
I informed the Ambassador that I had been promptly advised of his conversation with Mr. Webb. I said it was our view that such immunities as Mr. Gubitchev had pertained to his actions in the performance of his duties as a member of the United Nations Secretariat and not to those which had caused his arrest. I explained that in accordance with our legal procedures, Mr. Gubitchev had not been formally charged and that the decision on this point was a matter for the Grand Jury. I said our information was that the Grand Jury would probably conclude its consideration of the case within the next few days.
The Ambassador repeated several of the points made in the Soviet note, including the reference to the nature of the questioning. I said I was surprised to hear the statement that any such questions had been asked and that I would cause an immediate investigation to be made. I also passed on to the Ambassador, Rusk's statement that our preliminary investigation showed that the Ambassador had been misinformed and that no such questions were asked. I repeated, however, that I would obtain a thorough report.
The Ambassador again insisted on the diplomatic status of Gubitchev and asked when he might have a reply to his note.
I said while I could not make a definite promise I hoped we would be able to reply within the next few days.
The Ambassador asked that I examine the case objectively, which I undertook to do.
For the Secretary CHHumelsine
INFORMAL TRANSLATION
AIDE MEMOIRE
On March 4 a Soviet diplomat, an employee of the Secretariat of the United Nations, V. A. Gubitchev, was arrested by American authorities in New York. According to press reports, V. A. Gubitchev is charged with the commission of some crime in which connection his case has been transferred to judicial organs.
As a result of a meeting which representatives of the Embassy and of the Soviet Delegation to the United Nations, Soldatov and Tolokonnikov had on March 5 with V. A. Gubitchev, it appeared that V. A. Gubitchev was seized on a street at nine o'clock in the evening of March 4 by six unknown people and was forcibly taken in an automobile to the premises of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the city of New York. Here he was immediately subjected to an interrogation which lasted until eleven o'clock of the morning of March 5.
In the course of the investigation such questions were put to V. A. Gubitchev as, for example, where in the USSR he built military structures before the war and during the war, is he a member of the Communist Party; what does he know about concentration camps and "forced labor" in the USSR and such like.
The character of these questions shows, that the interrogation of V. A. Gubitchev evidently pursued the aim of acquiring information about the Soviet Union of interest to the American authorities.
The actions of the American authorities as evidenced in the arrest of V. A. Gubitchev are illegal and represent an arbitrary act inasmuch as the charges advanced against him are groundless.
The actions of the American authorities are also illegal because the elementary generally recognized norms of international law, which guarantee personal immunity of persons in diplomatic service were violated by the arrest of V. A. Gubitchev, who has the diplomatic rank of Third Secretary.
The State Department knows that V. A. Gubitchev entered the United States with a Soviet diplomatic passport on diplomatic visa no. 202 issued by the Embassy of the USA in Moscow on June 24, 1946. Having formally admitted V. A. Gubitchev into the United States on a diplomatic visa, the official organs of the USA thereby recognize his diplomatic status.
In view of the foregoing the Embassy insists on the immediate release of V. A. Gubitchev.
Washington, March 8, 1949 Translated: EUR:EE:VJohnson Checked:EUR:EE:WACrawford:JMMcSweeney:ba 3-9-49