761.93/1666
The Chargé in the Soviet Union (Grummon) to the Secretary of State
[Received August 22.]
Sir: I have the honor to inform the Department that … here, called recently at the Embassy and furnished certain information in strict confidence relating to Soviet Policy in the Far East.
… asserted on the one hand that China is obliged because of its relative weakness to endeavor to obtain as much assistance as possible from the Soviet Union, and that China is grateful for the aid which has been rendered by that country. He declared on the other hand that responsible Chinese leaders entertain no illusions as to the real aims of the Soviet Union, namely, as he expressed it, “to render no more assistance to China than is sufficient to enable it to continue the war with Japan”. For instance, he said, when China requests a thousand Soviet airplanes for the purpose of striking a decisive blow in the air it receives a hundred.
In respect of assistance in the form of trucks, … asserted that two years ago the Soviet authorities informed China that the Soviet Union did not possess a sufficient number thereof for its own needs [Page 199] and that consequently no aid of this nature could be rendered. Since that time, he stated, no trucks have been delivered to China. It is not unlikely, he added, that the Soviet Union has been unwilling to deliver trucks because China has not been able to comply with the Soviet Union’s request for certain Chinese raw materials. China, he continued, is still able to pay, in part at least, for its purchases from the Soviet Union in the form of cotton and tea, but has not been able because of war conditions to furnish the Soviet Union, as requested by the latter, tungsten, antimony, and a number of other minerals found in China.
In reply to an inquiry as to whether he could give any figures regarding the number of airplanes which the Soviet Union has already furnished China, he replied that the various secret Chinese missions which have been sent to Moscow for the purpose of arranging such transactions have been requested by the highest Soviet authorities to hold such information in the strictest secrecy. He intimated that even he is not kept fully informed in respect of Soviet military assistance to China. Moreover, he complained that he had never visited a Soviet airplane factory, that he was not able to arrange meetings with the higher Soviet military officials for the purpose of discussing matters of importance, and that only members of the special Chinese missions were able to have any real contact with the highest Soviet officials.
In reply to a question as to whether he considered that the Soviet Union’s principal interests now lie in the Far East, he returned that such was his opinion. He noted in this connection that the Soviet Union is endeavoring not only to develop as rapidly as possible industrially and agriculturally its own territory in the Far East, but is also constantly strengthening its hold on Chinese territory such as Outer Mongolia and Sinkiang. In this connection he stated that the Soviet authorities had frankly admitted to the Chinese officials about two years ago that for twenty years at least China could rest assured that the Soviet Union would not undertake offensive action in the Far East and would not seize directly any Chinese territory, but that subsequently “China would have to look out for itself”.… then ventured the opinion that perhaps in the not too distant future the Soviet Union would replace Japan as “enemy No. 1” in the Far East largely as a result, as he pointed out, of “the growing military power of the Soviet Union and the latter’s increasing economic and military development both in Russian and non-Russian territory”.
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Respectfully yours,