DEPARTMENT OF STATE              
 
                               THE SECRETARY                
 
                                           January 2, 1943  
 
                                  MEMORANDUM FOR THE PRESIDE
 
                                                            
 
 
   Myron Taylor' s suggestion about                                                             
                       further utterances on the part of the                                                                
                       Soviets in favor of religious freedom  
                       is herewith returned. The chances of  
                       making any further progress at this stage  
                       are probably limited. I say this for tile                                                            
                       reason that, frankly, at the instance of  
                       the Government in Russia, a book was pub-  
                       lished in which the church authorities  
                       in the Soviet Union asserted that religion  
                       has always been free in the Soviet Union.                                                            
                       It is not likely that the Soviet Government                                                          
                       would even by inference be quick to con-                                                             
                       tradict this thesis by issuing a declara-                                                            
                        tion such as Myron Taylor suggests. 
 
                                                            
 
 
  The matter could, however, well be                                   
                        tried out after first feeling out a way  
                        of approach calculated to be the most ef-  
                    fective without causing unintended frict