761.62/469: Telegram
The Chargé in the Soviet Union (Kirk) to the Secretary of State
161. Several days ago an American press correspondent here was notified of a report emanating from an American correspondent in Praha to the effect that the German Government in the near future would approach the Soviet Government with a view to the improvement of Soviet German relations. Upon inquiry at the Foreign Office here in regard to the Soviet attitude towards this report he was permitted by the censor after a lapse of 2 days to send a story to the effect that any such initiative on the part of the German Government which would contribute to the cause of world peace would probably meet with success but that if not directed to this end would be considered by the Soviet Government as an attempt to break the democratic front. The correspondent has informed the Embassy that while he was not permitted to attribute the above views to the Foreign Office the wording was suggested by the censor himself and therefore may be taken as reflecting the considered opinion of the Soviet Foreign Office.
The foregoing was brought to the attention of an official of the German Embassy here who stated that his Embassy had no information in regard to the report referred to above. He added that in his opinion any such initiative on the part of the German Government was inconceivable in view of the deep seated personal antipathy of Hitler and other National Socialist leaders towards Communism and the Soviet Government which they are convinced still functioned as its aim the furtherance of world revolution.
In the course of the conversation the official of the German Embassy said that there had recently been an occasion to discuss German Soviet relations when the German Ambassador89 here conferred with the new Soviet Ambassador to Germany Merekalov who is expected to leave Moscow for Berlin today or tomorrow and although in the conversation Merekalov’s remarks were limited to diplomatic generalities [Page 585] he conveyed the impression that he was interested in the extension and development of commercial relations between the two countries. Potemkin, the Assistant Commissar for Foreign Affairs, had expressed the same interest in a conversation with the German Ambassador on a previous occasion and had said “that unfortunately the development of commercial relations was the only positive element in Soviet German relations at the present time”. The official of the German Embassy stated that about 2 months ago discussions were held with the head of the Soviet Trade Delegation in Berlin on the general subject of Soviet German trade relations and it had developed that the prime factors involved were the desire of the German Government on the one hand to obtain from the Soviet Union certain commodities such as manganese and on the other the requirement on the part of the Soviet Government that it receive promptly from Germany [apparent omission] in modern military equipment. In the matter of credits, he said, which had been the basis of the previous trade arrangement between the two countries, the impression had been gained in Berlin that the Soviets were less interested in obtaining credits from Germany than in eliciting some statement on German credit terms in order to use this information as a bargaining point in similar negotiations with other governments. The official added that no marked progress had recently been made in these matters.