Office of the Historian

611.6131/515: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Chargé in the Soviet Union (Kirk)

Washington, July 30, 1938—2 p.m.

118. Your 209, July 30, 10 a.m., and Department’s 116, July 28, 7 p.m. The present agreement will lapse if no agreement is signed and takes effect by August 5. A lapse of the present agreement would automatically result in the consequences discussed in the last paragraph of the Department’s 116, as distinguished from the agreement of 1936 between the two countries.

Any coal from the Soviet Union imported into the United States during the period of lapse would be subject to the import tax to which reference is made in the agreement itself.

Hull