500.C001/895: Telegram
The Chargé in France (Marriner) to the Acting Secretary of State
[Received December 25—12:25 p.m.]
576. For the President, the Acting Secretary and Assistant Secretary Moore from Bullitt.
Owing to lack of codes in Moscow and the undesirability of sending this message from Berlin I have felt obliged to delay transmission until today.
Litvinov on Thursday, December 21, asked me to convey to you in strictest confidence the following information.
He said that his Government was “under great pressure” from France to join the League of Nations and asked me if the Government of the United States would have any objection. I replied that as I had no codes I could not consult my Government in regard to this matter but that I had no hesitation in saying on my own behalf that I believed the Government of the United States would have no objection.
[Page 831]I then asked Litvinov to tell me the reason for this possible reversal of Soviet policy. He replied that the French had asked the Soviet Government to make a “regional agreement” for defense against attack by Germany, each party to declare war on Germany if Germany should declare war upon the other. He said that the Soviet Union considered an attack by Japan this spring so probable that it felt it must secure its western frontier in every way; that he did not fear an immediate attack by either Poland or Germany but that if the probable war with Japan should drag on for two years he anticipated a joint attack by Poland and Germany, acting in concert with Japan. He added that he knew preliminary conversations looking forward [to] this eventuality had already taken place between Japan, Germany and Poland. Therefore the Soviet Government, although still wishing to keep its hands free and not to join the League of Nations, felt that it must pay this price if necessary to obtain the agreement from France.
I asked Litvinov why the French insisted on the Soviet Government’s joining the League of Nations as a part of this particular agreement. He replied that the French insisted in order to evade the difficulty created by the Locarno agreements.59 He said that the agreement between France and the Russian Soviet Government would be introduced to the League as a “regional understanding.” I told him that there seemed to me to be a considerable region between France and the Soviet Union. He replied that the proximity of both to Germany was sufficient excuse. Litvinov insisted that this agreement with France had not yet been signed and that the conversations thus far were merely preliminary but he left me under the impression that a definite binding contract might be expected shortly. Litvinov added that the entire agreement might fall through as Daladier60 was opposed to it and the British were opposed but that Herriot61 and the majority of the French Government were in favor of it.
Attack by Japan upon the Soviet Union is regarded as certain by all members of the Government and Communist Party with whom I talked with [sic] in Moscow. Stalin introduced the Chief of Staff Egorov62 to me as “the man who will lead our army victoriously against the Japanese when they attack us” and asked me to try to see to it that the Soviet Union should obtain in the immediate future 250,000 tons of old rectified rails from the American railroads which are engaged in carrying out re-equipment programs, the rails to be delivered at Vladivostok to complete the double tracking of the Trans-Siberian Railway. He [Page 832] added: “Without the rails we shall win that war but it will be easier with them.”
I repeatedly emphasized to all with whom I talked that the United States had no intention whatsoever of getting into war with Japan but that our participation in any Far Eastern difficulties would be confined to the use of our moral influence to maintain peace. Nevertheless the Soviet Union is so anxious to have peace that it is obvious that even our moral influence is valued very highly by the Soviet Government. It is difficult to exaggerate the cordiality with which I was received by all members of the Government including Kalinin, Molotov,63 Voroshilov64 and Stalin. Especially noteworthy is the fact that Stalin, who until my arrival had never received any ambassador, said to me “at any moment, day or night, if you wish to see me you have only to ask and I will see you at once.”
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
- [Bullitt]
- Marriner
- Treaties of October 16, 1925, League of Nations Treaty Series, vol. liv, pp. 289–363; for collective note to Germany of December 1, see ibid., p. 299.↩
- Edouard Daladier, President of the French Council of Ministers (Premier), January–October 1933.↩
- Edouard Herriot, former President of the French Council of Ministers.↩
- A. I. Egorov (Yegorov), Red Army Chief of Staff.↩
- Viacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov, President of the Soviet Council of People’s Commissars.↩
- Klimenti Efremovich Voroshilov, Soviet Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs.↩