741.61/428: Telegram
The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Bullitt) to the Secretary of State
[Received July 30—12:45 p.m.]
228. Continuing my 227,59 the complete reversal of British policy with regard to the Soviet Union referred to in my 22059 continues to manifest itself daily.
Litvinov said to me last night that Simon had recently made the following declaration to the Soviet Ambassador in London:
“Your Government is under the illusion that the British Government has desired and does desire war between the Soviet Union and Japan. We are absolutely opposed to a war between the Soviet Union and Japan and will do everything we can to prevent it. We shall give no support whatever to Japan in case an attack on the Soviet Union by Japan should be contemplated.”
In commenting on this declaration of Simon, Litvinov said:
“For the first time since recognition by Great Britain we now have actual diplomatic relations. Until the present time neither myself nor Tchitcherin60 has ever discussed any diplomatic question of any importance with the British. British Embassy here61 and our Ambassador in London has in reality been nothing more than a consul and has never discussed major questions with the British Secretaries for Foreign Affairs. Both in London and in Moscow we are now discussing all the problems of the world freely and in the most friendly manner.”
Litvinov added that he attributed the reversal in British policy to fear of German aviation. He said that the German general in chargé of aviation had recently expressed the opinion to a Soviet agent that German aviation was now stronger than the French. He added that he believed that in view of the development of aviation the British had definitely decided that Great Britain must be defended on the continent and that it was entirely possible that Great Britain would [Page 231] make or was attempting to make a sort of a deal with both Belgium and Holland for the use of their territory for advanced airplane defense in case of a German attack. Developing this idea Radek62 said that he believed that the British Government was attempting to persuade both Holland and Belgium to take the status of permanently neutralized states so that Britain might in that form guarantee the inviolability of their frontiers and behind the screen of such a guarantee enter into military conversations with them similar to the conversations between the British, French and the Belgians before 1914. Both Litvinov and Radek said that they believed that Great Britain had offered to guarantee the Dutch East Indies against a Japanese attack.
Radek commenting on the reversal in Simon’s foreign policy said that in his opinion Simon had desired to establish close cooperation with Germany and Japan; that the development of German aviation and the horror in England at Hitler’s murders had made cooperation with Germany impossible; that the Japanese threat to British interests in North China and Japanese dumping in British markets had made cooperation with Japan impossible. He then made a most important statement; that the next step of Soviet diplomacy would be to sign a non-aggression pact with Great Britain which would include a guarantee of the frontiers of India.
The delight of the Soviet Government in the reversal of the policy which Great Britain has followed since the revolution is universal and profound and I am deeply impressed (as reported in my No. 22163) by the possibility that the major constellation in international affairs in the near future may be another entente cordiale between France and the Soviet Union.
- Not printed.↩
- Not printed.↩
- Former Soviet Commissar for Foreign Affairs.↩
- Text apparently garbled in transmission. It seems probable that this sentence should be combined with previous one and that phrase should read: “with the British Embassy here.”↩
- Editorial writer on the Moscow Pravda.↩
- Dated July 27, 5 p.m., printed in Foreign Relations, The Soviet Union, 1933–1939, section on 1934.↩