[Editor’s notes: The transcript of this document retains its original spellings, with corrections noted only where necessary for clarity.
[There is no date on this document, but there is a notation “that yesterday was the birthday of Cheddi Jagan.” The leader of Guyana’s opposition party was born on March 22, 1918, which sets the date of this note as March 23, 1978.
[This document was duplicated at G-1-h-16.]
G-1-g-16
3) Russian Embassy: Cde. Timofeyeve [Comrade Fedor Timofeyev], Visited by, Sharon A. [Amos] & Deb. T. [Touchette]
(ref. to our request about Lucinda) Tim [Timofeyev] said, “I cna’t take the decissions here in the Embassy, must consult with the homeland (USSR) The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the Council of the Chruches, and the orthodox church is not connected with the government. He said, “Just for reference, we cannot communicate through the church, we would communicate through Form Affairs. He suggested mabe we should address it to the church directly in Russia. Sharon explaind that this might defeat our purpose if the church had no connection… Tim said that yesterday was the birthday of Cheddi Jagan, and they had three big parties with them. (ref. to Lucinda) Tim said it was his own suggestion to contact the church direct. He said, “you may as the State Committe ve intermediate. The funds of the church do not belong to the soviet union. The USSR govt. supports the church with funds to reconstruct or repair, because the church’s are historical monuments. The people that make up this fund are not necessairly religious. “Is the paper you present still done in San Francisco?”, he asked. What is the carter approach to the settlement? Sharon told him she thought it was still being printed in SF, and that Mrs. Carter intervined when people try to stop our checques from comming to Guyana. She told him Jim met with Mrs. Carter and told her about Cuba. Also told of Mrs. Jones meeting Mr. Carter and his comment on all she could talk about is Jim Jones. I asked him what the present relations were with the Guyana and the USSR? He said relations with Guyana and Russia were very good culturally and politically. Tim said he noticed we have more people come in. He had not seen the people in the bank before. (Richard, Karne, Sharon & Deb met him at the bank) Sharon Richard was a bussiness person in the US and Karne did counseling. How do things going with Jim Jones case, Tim asked? Sharon told him Marceline Jones got congressmen to write letters of assurance that they would not interfer. She told of Philip Burton running to the govt. state dept. to say he would not take sides. “It looks like it’s a pretty good case for us,” she said. The mother abondond the child… we’ve been told just on merit we’be got a pretty good case. Sharon showed him an article given to us by [former Guyana Foreign Minister] Fred Wills, taken from The Advocate News, 27/2/78, Bridgetown Barbados. (Copy enclosed, see Sharon’s report) She said, “the article was not pro- Guynese”. Tim said, “Well…”. I asked him if he flet there would be a devaluation of the G$? He said in [Guyana Prime Minister Forbes] Burnham’s speech Burnham said, “No, You know, No! he would not devaluate.” But with a deflation fo 20% its possible”, he said. Tim asked if we had an external acct? Sharon asked why he wanted to know? He said we could keep our money elsewhere until the outcome was known. He said that one of the stipulations of the IMF was to devaluate the dollor. Sharon asked if
[Handwritten note at bottom of page: “cont. on next page Sorry lost my write up [illegible initials, could be TB]”