741.6111/27: Telegram
The Minister Counselor of Embassy in the Soviet Union (Thurston) to the Secretary of State
[Received 11:20 p.m.]
548. The local paper70 of today’s date publishes an announcement of the ratification yesterday by the Supreme Soviet of the Anglo-Soviet Treaty of Collaboration and Mutual Assistance which was signed in London on May 26 (see Embassy’s telegram 521, June 1371). The paper also carries the full text of a speech delivered by Molotov proposing the treaty for ratification, the main points of which were as follows:
Molotov traced Anglo-Soviet relations during the past year and in this connection made the first public reference which has come to the notice of the Embassy to the sinkings of vessels bringing supplies to the Soviet Union by the northern route, although stating that these had not caused deliveries to decline. He stated that he had been invited by the British and American Governments in April of this year to visit them, in the former instance to negotiate a draft treaty and in the latter to undertake important and urgent military and political discussions.
After describing the Anglo-Soviet treaty at some length he proceeded to a further exposition of the results of his trip to England and the United States. In the course of this he remarked that no secret agreements had been entered into with either country; He also referred to the statement appearing in the communiqués published in conjunction with the signing of the Anglo-Soviet treaty and of the [Page 596] new Soviet-American Lend-Lease Agreement to the effect that complete accord had been reached with respect to urgent questions concerning the formation of a second front in Europe in 1942, commenting in this connection that the creation of that front will cause insurmountable difficulties to the Hitlerite armies on the Soviet front. “Let us hope that our common enemy will soon feel the weight of the ever increasing military cooperation of the three great powers”.
Molotov also said it had been agreed that in the second half of 1942 deliveries to the Soviet Union from Great Britain “and particularly from the United States” would increase. In referring specifically to the new Soviet-American Lend-Lease Agreement he stated that it not only implied recognition of the present military collaboration between the two countries but also established community of action in the postwar period.