661.6231/210: Telegram
The Chargé in the Soviet Union (Grummon) to the Secretary of State
[Received June 29—10:55 a.m.]
351. My 324, June 19, 4 p.m. The German Ambassador returned from Berlin on June 26. The following information in regard to his conversations in Berlin and the instructions which he received there has been conveyed in the strictest confidence.
The Ambassador had several conversations with Ribbentrop while he was in Berlin but was unsuccessful in obtaining from him any precise instructions in regard to any approach to the Soviet Government at the present time. Ribbentrop told the Ambassador that although it was expected in Berlin that the Soviet negotiations with Great Britain and France would probably be successful in the end, the German Government was not greatly concerned at the prospect, and added that the question of a definite approach along political lines to the Soviet Government should in any event await the outcome of the present negotiations. Ribbentrop, however, did inform the Ambassador that Germany had no aggressive intentions in regard to the Soviet Union but without specifying that the Ambassador on his return to Moscow should convey this intimation to the Soviet Government. The Ambassador had a long and satisfactory conversation with Astakhov, the Soviet Chargé d’Affaires in Berlin, during which the latter expressed his hope for an improvement in Soviet-German relations and stated that up to the present no progress had been made in this direction due to uncertainty as to the real intentions of the German Government which had not been made clear in either the Ambassador’s conversation with Molotov (see my telegram No. 300, June 9) or Astakhov’s conversations with officials of the German Foreign Office. The Ambassador on his own initiative told Astakhov that Germany had no intention of attacking the Soviet Union and that consequently it would be a pity were the Soviet Union to become involved in the “encirclement” policy of other states.
[Page 327]I was informed that the Ambassador had discussed in Berlin the matter of German-Soviet commercial relations only in very general terms but that the German Commercial Counselor here had again seen Mikoyan and that the latter had stated that the Soviet Government was willing to renew discussions on this subject but only on the basis of the Soviet proposals made last February and that he had conveyed the impression that the arrival of Schnurre or any German official from Berlin for that purpose was not desired at the present time. I was given to understand that this impression has been conveyed to Berlin with the explanation that the Soviet Government apparently feels that the presence of a German official in Moscow might be embarrassing while the negotiations with Great Britain and France are in progress.
It was stated in the strictest confidence that it was apparent from the Ambassador’s conversations in Berlin that Ribbentrop is unable to make up his mind in regard to German relations with the Soviet Union and consequently that future developments in these relations were uncertain; that, however, the Ambassador would shortly see Molotov for a general discussion of Soviet-German relations and would probably on his own initiative repeat the assurance given to Astakhov in regard to the absence of any aggressive designs on the part of the German Government towards the Soviet Union.