611.6131/327: Telegram

The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Bullitt) to the Secretary of State

279. Your 151, July 11, 5 p.m., just received. As Litvinov informed me yesterday that the Soviet Government would not consent to his letter to me being published or referred to until 48 hours following the announcement of the exchange of notes it would, I feel, be useless for me to approach him on this subject again unless I should be authorized to state that the American Government will reject the entire agreement unless the announcement of the letter and notes may be made simultaneously.

Your 151, July 11, 5 p.m., was presumably written before the receipt of my No. 276, July 11, 8 p.m. Please telegraph me this morning as early as possible whether the proposal contained in my No. 276, [Page 214] July 11, 8 p.m., is acceptable so that we can communicate with the Foreign Office today. In case you should approve the proposal in my No. 276, July 11, 8 p.m. I venture to suggest that in the announcement for the press the sentence beginning “you will note” might be replaced by the sentence composing the fifth paragraph of my No. 276 [275], July 11, 5 p.m.

Bullitt