761.94/766: Telegram

The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Bullitt) to the Secretary of State

229. Continuing my No. 228 on the subject of the Far East, Litvinov said last night that he was no longer in the least worried with regard to the possibility of a Japanese attack and Radek stated that he was certain that there was no possibility of a Japanese attack either this year or next year.

Litvinov expressed the opinion that the change in England’s attitude toward the Soviet Union had eliminated all chances of attack and [Page 232] Radek more specifically said that the withdrawal of the possibility of British financial support for Japanese purchases of war supplies in his opinion made war in the Far East impossible. Litvinov added that he had private and authoritative information that the proposal of the Government of the United States to establish airplane bases on the Aleutian Islands had also had an immense deterrent effect on the Japanese; that the Japanese knew that they were and would remain feeble air men and were terrified of the possibility of air attacks in case they should start a war.

Litvinov said that he would be most delighted to see an American commercial aviation line established between Alaska and Siberia by way of the Aleutian Islands. I recalled our conversation on the subject (reported in my No. 102, July 2364) and said that such a line could not possibly be commercially self-supporting. He answered that almost no commercial air lines were self-supporting and that the political effect of such a line would be worth any expense involved.

I should be obliged if the Department would let me know if there is the slightest possibility of any such line being established.

Bullitt
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