800.51W89 U.S.S.R./180: Telegram
The Chargé in the Soviet Union ( Wiley ) to the Secretary of State
[Received February 11—4:40 p.m.]
59. Radek, editor of Pravda, and Doletski, chief of Tass, in private conversation have stated to a member of staff that the Soviet press [Page 182] would refrain from engaging in attacks at this time on the American Government since Soviet leaders did not wish any action to be taken which might increase tension in Soviet-American relations.
Soviet press, however, is almost daily quoting American newspaper articles criticising American Government and officials.
Today’s Izvestiya, for instance, quotes New York Post as attributing failure of negotiations to anti-Soviet attitude of officers of the State Department and as suggesting that if Secretary of State does not publish the details the Senate should conduct an investigation for the purpose of ascertaining why anti-Soviet elements were entrusted with, the negotiations. It also quotes the Baltimore Sun as denouncing the Government for acting like a spoilt child in abolishing the Consulate General in Moscow after the break-off in the debt negotiations, and as pointing out that the impression might be created in Moscow that recognition of the Soviet Union was extended for the purpose of obtaining pecuniary profit rather than in the interests of elementary sound relations.