741.61/862: Telegram
The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Steinhardt) to the Secretary of State
[Received August 27—11:15 a.m.]
476. The Soviet press this morning carries on the front page an interview given by Voroshilov to a correspondent of Izvestiya on the military conversations with the British and French. In reply to questions Voroshilov stated that the military conversations had been broken off due to differences of opinion resulting from the refusal of Poland to permit Soviet armed forces under any conditions to enter its territory, a necessary prerequisite to Soviet military assistance to Britain, France and Poland. Voroshilov further stated that the question of supplying Poland with raw materials and military supplies did not arise in the military conversation since no pact of mutual assistance or even less of military intervention was required for this purpose and cited as an example the fact that the “United States and other countries” having no such pacts with Japan have nonetheless supplied Japan with raw materials and military supplies for the last 2 years. Voroshilov further denied as a “complete lie” a report in the London Daily Herald that the Soviet Union during the conversations had declared its intention to occupy certain portions of Poland in the event of a Polish-German war. In conclusion Voroshilov denied a Reuter’s report that he had told the French and British missions that further conversations were useless in view of the Soviet-German pact of non-aggression and stated that the talks with England and France were not broken off as a result of the [Page 312] agreement with Germany but, on the contrary, that the Soviet Union had concluded a pact with Germany because the military conversations had reached an impasse. The Soviet press likewise continues to publish selected comments from the foreign press justifying the Soviet conclusions of a pact with Germany and placing the blame therefor on the British and French Governments. In contrast to Voroshilov’s statement that the refusal of Poland to permit Soviet troops on its territory was the determining factor, a Tass despatch from Paris in today’s press commenting on a statement by de Kérillis55 that the Soviet-German pact means the end of the eastern front, charges that this statement reveals that the French dissatisfaction with the Soviet-German pact is due to the fact that it disrupted the plan to bring about a Soviet-German conflict.
- Henri de Kérillis, member of the French Chamber of Deputies, former editor of Époque.↩