861.24/571: Telegram
The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Steinhardt) to the Secretary of State
[Received August 27, 1941—10:25 a.m.]
1584. Today’s Moscow papers carry the following announcement from the People’s Commissariat for Foreign Affairs.
Begin translation. On August 25 Mr. Tatekawa,8 the Japanese Ambassador in Moscow, stated to V. M. Molotov, the People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs, that the dispatch by the United States to Vladivostok of materials purchased by the Soviet Union such as oil and gasoline creates a very delicate and difficult situation for Japan inasmuch as these goods pass near Japanese territory, in view of which the Japanese Government requests that the Soviet Government should devote serious attention to this matter and in particular to the question of routes and means of this transportation.
Comrade V. M. Molotov stated to Mr. Tatekawa, the Japanese Ambassador in Moscow, that inasmuch as Mr. Toyoda, the Japanese Foreign Minister,9 had on August 23 made a similar statement to K. Smetanin,10 the Soviet Ambassador to Japan, the Soviet Government had instructed the Soviet Ambassador in Tokyo to inform Mr. Toyoda, the Foreign Minister, as follows: The Soviet Government does not see the basis for any uneasiness by Japan in the fact that goods purchased by the U. S. S. R. in the United States of America [Page 646] such as oil and gasoline which you, Mr. Ambassador, mentioned will be sent to the U. S. S. R. by the usual trade routes including the routes through Soviet Far Eastern ports. Likewise the Soviet Government does not see any basis for uneasiness on its part in the fact that Japan transports from other States goods for Japan’s needs.
In this connection the Soviet Government deems it necessary to state that attempts to hinder the realization of normal trade relations between the Soviet Union and the United States of America through the Far Eastern Soviet ports could not be viewed by the Soviet Government otherwise than as an act unfriendly to the U. S. S. R.
Furthermore the Soviet Government affirms that the goods purchased by the Soviet Union in the United States of America are primarily intended for increased needs of the U. S. S. R. in connection with the defensive war which has been forced upon the Soviet Union as well as for current economic needs of the Soviet Far East.11 End translation.