761.93 Outer Mongolia/10: Telegram
The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Bullitt) to the Secretary of State
[Received 8 p.m.]
103. Soviet press this morning publishes a note of the Chinese Minister for Foreign Affairs to Bogomolov, Soviet Ambassador in China, dated April 7, 1936, asserting that the protocol between the Soviet Government and Outer Mongolia forms “undoubtedly a violation of the sovereignty of China and the terms of the Chinese-Soviet Agreement of 1924.” The note goes on to state: “It is therefore my duty to declare a strong protest to your Excellency and to state that the conclusion of the above mentioned protocol with Outer Mongolia by the Government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is illegal and the Chinese Government cannot under any circumstances recognize such a protocol and is in no way bound by it.”
Litvinov’s reply to the Chinese Chargé d’Affaires in Moscow rejecting the protest, dated April 8, is also published. It contains the following statement: “Neither the fact of the signing of the protocol nor its separate articles violate to the slightest degree the sovereignty of China.”
Litvinov then asserts: “that the Soviet-Chinese Agreement of 1924 concluded in Peiping did not suffer any harm and retains its force.”
I have discussed the situation in the Far East with both Litvinov and Stomoniakoff during the past 2 days. They are exceedingly optimistic. They believe that the Japanese have alienated completely all sympathy among the Mongols not only of Outer Mongolia but also Inner Mongolia and Manchuria and are convinced that Japan’s political position in North China, Manchuria and Inner Mongolia is becoming weaker.
[Page 108]A large Mongolian delegation reached Moscow last night for the purpose of arranging further integration between the military and economic systems of the Soviet Union and Outer Mongolia.