740.0011 European War 1939/601: Telegram
The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Steinhardt) to the Secretary of State
[Received September 28—2:40 p.m.]
640. I am informed that conversations between Stalin and Ribbentrop were resumed at 2 p.m. and will be followed at 5 p.m. by a banquet in the Kremlin for the Germans in honor of Ribbentrop. No indication is yet available as to the subjects under discussion other [Page 481] than that contained in my 632, September 27, 11 p.m. [9 p.m.]. Insofar as concerns the Far East it is significant that according to reliable information party propagandists in Moscow have been recently informing meetings that at the present time there are two principal Imperialist powers in the Orient, Great Britain and the United States, who are endeavoring to foment a Soviet-Japanese war but whose efforts have been foiled by the wise diplomacy of Stalin.32 It will be noted that this propaganda closely resembles that which was used in explanation of the signature of the Soviet-German pact last August.
- A truce to terminate the fighting on the Mongolian-Manchurian frontier had been signed in Moscow between Japan and the Soviet Union on September 15, 1939. For correspondence on negotiations between Japan and the Soviet Union, see vol. iii, pp. 62–71.↩