861.34/112: Telegram
The Chargé in the Soviet Union (Kirk) to the Secretary of State
[Received July 3—1:40 p.m.]
175. The Moscow Pravda publishes today the text of a speech delivered by Kalinin on June 19th at a shipbuilding plant in Leningrad [Page 587] in which after referring to the progress made by the Soviet Union in aviation and motor industries and in the construction of land armaments he emphasizes the importance of developing to the greatest possible extent the Soviet shipbuilding industry which hitherto has been engaged in a small scale production of merchant ships only and states that the construction of a great fleet for national defense is being begun in the Union. Russia, he declares, which is the most powerful socialist country in the world is inferior from a technical standpoint to England which is one of the most powerful capitalist countries but must catch up with England although no other country has yet done so. As regards the United States he says “We learn much from American technical capacity. I think that we shall learn something from America in the realm of shipbuilding.” Kalinin concludes with the statement that the Soviet Union must build quickly, cheaply and well, for the task of creating a large navy cannot be delayed as no one knows when the country will need its fleet.