800.51W89 U.S.S.R./116: Telegram
The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Bullitt) to the Secretary of State
[Received September 9—12:55 p.m.]
292. In the course of a long conversation last night Radek expressed the opinion that Litvinov had not informed Stalin accurately as to the points of difference between our agreements with regard to the settlement of debts and claims. He strongly advised me to have a talk with Stalin and said that he felt sure Stalin would not support Litvinov’s refusal to settle on the basis of participation by the Export-Import Bank in credits extended by American exporters.
Radek expressed the opinion that if we could find a formula to avoid explicit recognition of the debt the only real obstacles would be length of credits and height of interest rates. He added that he thought Litvinov’s objection to our suggested basis of negotiation was due to a desire to obtain a personal triumph as a bargainer.
Radek said that he would visit Stalin’s secretariat today and find out exactly what Litvinov had reported. He suggested that we should then have another conversation and that he should take up the entire matter in detail with Stalin whom he expects to visit in the Caucasus in about 2 weeks.
In the absence of Litvinov, Radek is likely to have considerable influence and if I should receive word from him that Stalin would like to talk the matter over personally it might be advisable for me to make an airplane tour of the Caucasus and drop in casually on the boss.
I believe there is sufficient possibility of obtaining results via Radek and Stalin to make it unwise for the moment to take any drastic action such as dissolving the Bank.