761.6211/268: Telegram
The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Steinhardt) to the Secretary of State
[Received October 23—2:15 p.m.]
787. My 706, October 9, 1 p.m. In connection with the departure yesterday of Ritter, the German special agent for economic matters, [Page 491] a Tass announcement in today’s press states that the German-Soviet economic negotiations in Moscow “as was to be expected are proceeding entirely satisfactorily” and referring to the return of Hitter, “after the successful clarification of questions in principle,” the announcement states that the economic delegation headed by Schnurre will remain and that in the near future an important Soviet economic commission headed by the People’s Commissar Tevosyan58 will proceed to Germany for the discussion of questions connected with Soviet orders in Germany and German exports to the Soviet Union. Tevosyan is All Union Commissar for the Shipbuilding Industry.
The German Embassy in private conversation has expressed great satisfaction with the progress in the economic discussions in Moscow and has stated that the Soviet Government has shown itself disposed to make greater efforts to supply Germany with raw materials than had been anticipated. At the same time it is admitted that the internal economic requirements of the Soviet Union impose definite limitations on the character and amount of raw materials which can be supplied to Germany in the immediate future.
In respect to the present discussions it was stated in confidence that the present discussions have not attempted to establish definitely the total amount of raw materials of various kinds that the Soviet Government can or will in the future supply in return for German machinery, but have been confined to a general agreement in principle and to the practical discussion of the type of material separately. Arrangements are now being made for the exchange of such materials as are immediately available. My informant stated that discussions up to the present have dealt solely with the matter of trade between the two countries.
It has been left entirely to the Soviet authorities to decide what type of, and in what quantities, raw materials can be made available for export to Germany. The question of the despatch of German specialists to the Soviet Union has not been even discussed but it was indicated that German oil specialists might be sent to the Galician oil fields in Soviet occupied Poland. My informant expressed the opinion that due to the intention of the Soviet Government to import certain machinery from Germany, previously manufactured in the Soviet Union, raw materials previously utilized for that purpose would be made available for export to Germany and additional Soviet capital and labor would be released for increasing the production of raw materials. Although my informant was rather vague about details I believe that the present discussions in respect of raw materials have dealt with timber, cotton, cereals, certain mineral ores and oil.
- Ivan Tevodrosovich Tevosyan.↩