740.0011 European War 1939/726: Telegram
The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Steinhardt) to the Secretary of State
702. During the course of a long conversation yesterday evening with the German Ambassador44 he made the following observations of interest.
1. Estonia and Latvia will occupy the same status vis-à-vis the Soviet Union as Egypt occupies with Great Britain. Lithuania will conclude an agreement with the Soviet Union giving the latter special transit facilities and perhaps the right to maintain certain military air bases in Lithuania. The question of Finland was not discussed in the Soviet-German negotiations but it was the Ambassador’s belief that the Soviet Government would be more careful in dealing with Finland and would probably confine its demands to the return of the Finnish Islands in the region of Cronstadt, as the Finns, for whom the Russians have a wholesome respect, would probably resist any attempt to establish a Soviet foothold on the Finnish mainland.
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In respect of Soviet-German relations in general, and particularly Soviet penetration in the Baltic, the Ambassador stated that at the present time, in view of their involvement in the west, Germany is in no position to oppose legitimate Soviet interests in those regions. I also received the impression that the Soviet Government is not fully consulting with Germany in respect of action in areas which do not fall within the character of mutual interest concerning which consultation was provided for in the Soviet-German treaty of nonaggression. The Ambassador expressed the greatest admiration for Stalin who, he said, had shown himself to be well-informed, astute and fully capable of taking advantage of the present situation for the benefit of the Soviet Union. In general, however, I gained the impression that [Page 963] there has up to the present been no serious friction between the German and Soviet Governments, due primarily to the fact that the Russians have not yet encroached upon any areas which are of primary interest to Germany, or which had not been recognized as of greater interest to the Soviet Union at the time of the original agreement in August.