861.51/2932: Telegram
The Chargé in the Soviet Union (Thurston) to the Secretary of State
[Received 5:40 p.m.]
153. The Moscow press of February 19 published without comment a Tass63 despatch from Washington dated February 17 and reporting [Page 693] the remarks made by the President at a press conference concerning the extension of a further loan to the Soviet Union. The President is quoted as having stated that a second loan is necessary in order to ensure an uninterrupted flow of war materials to Russia, insomuch as the first loan has been entirely allocated; that delivery of war materials from the United States to the Soviet Union lagged behind plan in December and January but will be on schedule by the first of March; and that after March 1 the Soviet Union will receive regularly many materials in accordance with the first agreement based upon the Lease-Lend across the Atlantic.
- Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union, official communications agency of the Soviet Government.↩