800.51W89 U.S.S.R./173: Telegram
The Chargé in the Soviet Union (Wiley) to the Secretary of State
[Received February 4—12:43 p.m.]
48. Soviet press of February 4 printed excerpts from American newspapers particularly Scripps-Howard (Simms)9a in criticism of action of the United States Government in precipitating rupture of debt negotiations. Washington Daily News was quoted on brevity of visit of Soviet Ambassador as action unprecedented in the history of the State Department. No Soviet press editorial comment on break-down of negotiations or on statements of Secretary of State and Litvinov with the exception of an editorial in Za Industrializatsiyu February 4 on Soviet successes in foreign trade which stated, inter alia, that among governments not according the necessary conditions for trade with the Soviet Union is the United States which unjustifiably applied the Johnson bill10 to the U. S. S. R. “It is obviously impossible to accuse the Soviet Government of not having fulfilled any of its undertakings to the United States.”