861.24/845
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Acting Secretary of State
The Soviet Ambassador called to see me this afternoon, at my request. I told the Ambassador that at my request the President had prepared a reply to the two messages from Stalin which the Ambassador had left with me last Saturday.64 I told the Ambassador that I believed this message would reach Stalin more promptly if the Ambassador were kind enough to transmit it since I feared that if it went by our Embassy in Kuibyshev three or four days would necessarily elapse before Stalin could receive it.
Mr. Litvinov said that that was quite true and that he would very gladly transmit it for this Government.
I told the Ambassador that I was very glad to emphasize the second paragraph in the President’s message in as much as I had signed with the British Ambassador65 this morning a temporary Lease-Lend Agreement between the United States and Great Britain.66 I said the text would be made public tomorrow morning. I also said that I wished to make it clear that in my judgment the terms of this temporary agreement between the British and ourselves were a matter of the utmost significance. I said that this agreement implied that when a suitable time arose the British Government and ourselves would be prepared to lay all of our cards face up on the table and reach a definite settlement which I believed held the promise for a better world economy and that, of course, in such an agreement we would welcome the participation of all other nations associated with us including the Soviet Union.
[Page 694]Mr. Litvinov appeared to be greatly interested and said that as I knew, he had for many years been hoping and working for such an ultimate objective.
The text of the President’s message is as follows:
“This will acknowledge your message of February 20.
“I want you to know that at the appropriate time we shall be glad to reconsider with you our agreement relative to the funds we are advancing under the Lend-Lease Act. At the moment the all important problem is to get the supplies to you.
“I am having canvassed at once your suggestion relative to centralizing control here of munitions being sent to Russia.
“The further news of the successes of your Army heartens us very much.
“I wish to send you my warm congratulations on the Twenty-fourth Anniversary of the founding of the Red Army.”67
Mr. Litvinov then said that he was somewhat surprised to have received an inquiry from Secretary Morgenthau68 as to why the Soviet Government had not today announced its new gains and victories against Germany. Mr. Litvinov said he did not know where this kind of idea had started but that it certainly had not emanated from Russia. He said there was no reason why the Soviet Government should not announce every day or every few days the gains and advances it had made, and that there was certainly no reason whatever for holding up information of this kind in order to make a spectacular announcement upon the anniversary of the founding of the Red Army.
The Ambassador then went on to say that they of course were making progress but that he did not believe that the Soviet Armies by themselves would be able to crush the German Armies. He said that in his judgment it was imperative that a new front be created. He felt that the British were wasting valuable time by refusing to consider the creation of a new front in western Europe.
I said I wondered whether the Soviet Government would not wish to consider at the same moment, if this matter were coming up again for discussion with the British and with ourselves, the creation of a new front in the Pacific. I said it was obvious that one of the chief problems at the present moment was the fact that Japan was able to concentrate all of her strength in one area in the Pacific and that on account of the tremendous distances involved a great percentage of available American shipping was required for transportation of matériel, et cetera. I said it seemed to me that if a new front were created in the Pacific against Japan, particularly that front which Japan dreaded most of all, namely, the possibility of air attacks from Siberia against her naval bases and her munitions factories, a very [Page 695] great deal of strain would be taken off the British and American forces in the Pacific and consequently make it far easier for them to consider favorably the undertaking of some other front in Europe.
The Ambassador said that he believed that the creation of a new front in Siberia would not prove of much value to the Americans and British against Japan. He said that he believed that Japan had at least one million men now fighting in southwestern Pacific regions, one million men between China and the Siberian front, and one million men mobilized in Japan.
I asked him if he believed that Japan actually had sufficient military matériel and equipment to keep so large a force actively engaged in hostilities.
He said he was not sure. But he added that when he came through Singapore the British Admiral, Admiral Layton, had given him figures as to the Japanese air strength which alleged that Japan had altogether not more than between 2000 and 3000 planes available for combat duty and he said it was very clear that Japan had had available an infinitely greater number than these. He said it was his belief that Japanese military equipment was far greater than that which the United States believed she had.
- February 21.↩
- Viscount Halifax.↩
- For text of the British Lend-Lease Agreement of February 23, 1942, see Department of State Executive Agreement Series No. 241, or 56 Stat. (pt. 2) 1433.↩
- The celebration of the anniversary of the creation of the Red Army in 1918 was held on February 23.↩
- Henry Morgenthau, Jr., Secretary of the Treasury.↩