740.0011 European War 1939/17735: Telegram
The Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Winant) to the Secretary of State
[Received December 21—7:20 p.m.]
6166.
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During the early phase of the discussion, Stalin told Eden he had a message from President Roosevelt asking that Russia be represented [Page 760] by an observer at a conference to be called at Chungking the following day. He further asked Eden if he knew anything about the object of the conference. Eden said that a similar message had reached the British Foreign Office and gave him the gist of the telegram forwarded by the British Government in reply to the President. Stalin then told him that the Soviet Government was prepared to attend any number of conferences if it would be helpful but that they could do nothing about the conference at Chungking as they had had no information about its subject matter.
I was told that Stalin had been informed about the conference to be held in Washington but this information did not appear in any of Eden’s cables which were shown to me. I personally believe it is important in the days immediately ahead to keep Stalin sufficiently informed through Litvinov to give him a sense of being included in war and peace plans. You of course will have information on this phase of the Washington negotiations that I am not acquainted with here.
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