740.00113 European War 1939/584: Telegram
The Ambassador in the United Kingdom ( Winant ) to the Secretary of State
[Received December 15—9:27 p.m.]
7121. Embassy’s 6797, December 1, 8 p.m. [midnight]. The Soviet Ambassador has informed the Foreign Office that his Government prefers that words indicating that “war” means a state of war de jure or de facto should be omitted from the draft declaration. In accordance with the decision reached at the meeting on November 27 the words “de jure or de facto”, contained in the second and third paragraphs of the draft declaration cabled in Embassy’s 6797 of December 1, should therefore be omitted.
The Soviet Government also proposes the insertion of the words “including juridical persons” after the word “persons” in the first sentence of the penultimate paragraph of the draft declaration. The purpose of this proposal is to make it clear that artificial as well as natural persons are covered. The Foreign Office assumes that this was undoubtedly the intention of all the countries concerned and requests therefore that the draft text should be amended accordingly.