861.77/4362
Memorandum by the Minister in China (Johnson)40
In the course of conversation today with Mr. Bogomoloff, the Soviet Ambassador to China, the latter stated that there had been in the last two years a great deal of development in Siberia. He stated that on his return from his recent visit home he had stopped off at Khabarovsk for a visit as he had a number of friends there from former times and he had been astonished at the growth of that city. He remarked that Vladivostok and Khabarovsk had grown so that he hardly knew the places.
Mr. Bogomoloff stated that the double-tracking of the Trans-Siberian Railway had proceeded so far that it was expected that it would reach Khabarovsk this year. He said that the line would not be double-tracked beyond Khabarovsk as Khabarovsk was to become the center of Russian effort in Eastern Siberia. He said that these developments in Eastern Siberia were absorbing most of the resources now available and this accounted partly for the fact that Soviet Russia had little to offer in trade between Soviet Russia and China. He commented upon the rapid development of the resources along the Angara River which flows north from Lake Baikal and stated that the project of a railway north of Baikal from the station on the Trans-Siberian somewhere near Verkneudinsk to a point near where the Railway meets the upper bend of the Amur, northeast of Chita, for the purpose of shortening the distance between Moscow and Khabarovsk, was still under way although it would take considerable time to complete this railway in view of the difficulties of the terrain. Mr. Bogomoloff also stated that a road was being constructed northward from Khabarovsk to a new port on the Amur named Komsomolsk, a place accessible to deep-sea vessels for about six months of the year according to Mr. Bogomoloff. Mr. Bogomoloff did not say so but I inferred that the Soviet Government will attempt to develop the mouth of the Amur as a port of entry for Eastern Siberia rather than Vladivostok.
Mr. Bogomoloff referred to the Japanese desire to purchase Northern Sakhalin and stated that Soviet Russia was not interested in disposing of Northern Sakhalin or of the oil resources there. He stated that a [Page 159] very large refinery had been built at Khabarovsk and that the output of petroleum from Northern Sakhalin was barely adequate to meet the current needs in Eastern Siberia which had to be supplemented by importations from the fields at Baku. Mr. Bogomoloff remarked in this connection that Soviet Russia did not feel that its relations with Japan had yet improved to a point where they could feel secure.
- Copy transmitted to the Department by the Minister in China in his unnumbered despatch of May 15 from Nanking; received June 15.↩