800.51W89 U.S.S.R./123: Telegram
The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Bullitt) to the Secretary of State
[Received September 15—10:35 a.m.]
303. Rubinin yesterday reiterated Skvirsky’s statement to me that the essential difficulty for the Soviet Government in accepting our proposal with regard to settlement of debts and claims was the necessity of making an agreement which could not possibly serve as the basis for an agreement with England and France. He said that the French had recently attempted to revive discussion of their claims against the Soviet Union and that the Soviet Union had refused flatly to discuss the matter. He insisted that any agreement based solely on extra interest on commercial credits would be immediately used [Page 147] by the British and the French to demand settlement of their claims by similar mechanism. He said the Soviet Union would have to refuse to make such a settlement with the French and British as the sums involved were enormous and added that at a moment when the Soviet Government was working for a rapprochement with France and England it was impossible to risk creating bad blood by refusing them a basis of settlement accorded to us.