800.51W89 U.S.S.R./151: Telegram
The Chargé in the Soviet Union (Wiley) to the Secretary of State
[Received 10:55 a.m.]
389. In telegram No. 368, October 20, 8 p.m., I reported. Troyanovsky’s concern that Mr. Bullitt would not be in Washington when he returned and that he clearly considered the first part of December the critical period in his negotiations with the Department. In my telegram 380, November 10, 10 a.m., I reported that Troyanovsky had postponed his departure and planned to sail from Cherbourg on the 21st. In my 382, November 13, 1 p.m.,76 I reported that Troyanovsky planned again to postpone his departure.
The inference has been that Troyanovsky desired further opportunity’ to confer with Kremlin leaders, the atmosphere for his activities here having perhaps been improved by Litvinov’s departure on the [Page 163] 15th for Geneva, It has been an open secret that Troyanovsky and Litvinov have long been working at cross purposes.
Today at a small lunch at the French Embassy Troyanovsky casually told me that he would not leave Moscow until about the 22nd. Instead of proceeding direct to the United States he intended to visit the Far East. He was eagerly desirous of seeing Honolulu where he planned to have his wife meet him. As I did not appear impressed by this explanation of his change of plans he remarked “While I was stationed in Tokyo I was never wrong in my diagnosis of things”.
Litvinov has unquestionably been under fire centered chiefly on the results, so far largely negative, of his policy of rapprochement with France and the sale, practically consummated, of the Chinese Eastern Railway. Troyanovsky is understood to be an outspoken opponent of Litvinov’s American and Far Eastern policies. In view of the prestige gained by Troyanovsky when in Tokyo it is not impossible that the Kremlin wishes, at the expense of several weeks’ delay in resuming the debt negotiations, to have the benefit of his views with regard to the effect in the Far East of the Chinese Eastern Railway negotiations.
However, French diplomacy continues to be most active in respect of the Soviet Union. The French are insisting that their domestic political difficulties do not constitute an impediment to the development of French policy towards the Soviet Union; that Marchandeau, the Minister of Commerce, will shortly proceed to Moscow to fulfill the mission which was to have been undertaken by his predecessor Lamoureux, It may therefore be more likely that before renewing negotiations in Washington the Kremlin wishes to see what concrete offers if any the French Government is prepared to make.
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