Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers, 1942, Europe, Volume III

861.014/242: Telegram

The Second Secretary of Embassy in the Soviet Union (Thompson) to the Secretary of State

Moscow, March 26, 1942—4 p.m.
[Received 5:10 p.m.]

88. [From Thurston.] The British Ambassador⁷² has permitted me to read a telegram from his Foreign Office in further reference to the efforts of the Soviet Government to obtain recognition at this time of its 1941 boundaries and especially of its sovereignty over the Baltic States.⁷³ With reference to the President’s statements to Litvinov on March 12⁷⁴ (about which Kerr had informed me in Kuibyshev) Eden stated that Maisky had informed him that Litvinov had delivered to the President the reply that “the Soviet Government had taken note”.⁷⁵ Maisky expressed the opinion that this rejoinder was made because the Soviet Government had not addressed itself to the Government of the United States on the subject nor requested an expression of opinion from the Government of the United States, adding that he had urged upon Ambassador Winant that the United States Government should not intervene in the question. This, of course, is at variance with my understanding of Maisky’s earlier action in pressing Eden for submittal of the question to our Government.

Maisky has now suggested that the matter be dealt with solely by the British and Soviet Governments and that a treaty between them be concluded. The Ambassador stated that such a treaty would primarily involve recognition of Soviet sovereignty over the Baltic States, the question of the Polish, Bessarabian and Bukovinian areas evidently having been dropped. Thurston.

Thompson

72. Sir Archibald Clark Kerr, successor to Sir Stafford Cripps.
73. The Chargé, Walter Thurston, sent from Kuibyshev in despatch No. 1496, April 2, 1942, a number of extracts from the Soviet press indicative of the emphasis placed by the Soviet Government upon the formal recognition of its 1941 frontiers. (861.014/249)
74. See footnote 64, p. 533.
75. The reply delivered by Litvinov has not been found either in Department files or at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, N. Y. In telegram No. 149 of April 2, 1942, the Department informed Ambassador Standley that Stalin had merely replied: “The Soviet Government has taken note of the President’s views.”