861.24/1080: Telegram
The Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Winant) to the Secretary of State
[Received September 26—10:11 a.m.]
5363. To the Secretary and the Under Secretary. I received your message 4665, September 25, 1 p.m.26 last evening. I was not able to reach Eden until after midnight. I saw him again at 1:00 o’clock today. He still wants to stand on the message which was despatched from the Foreign Office to the British Embassy in Washington at 9:30 last night and which crossed your message to me.
Eden is very much opposed to making any promises to the Russians that the British cannot fulfill. Maisky is constantly pressing here on supply quotas and on second front action. I am sure Eden feels that Russian pressure to force a signature on Second Soviet Protocol is related to the Russian convoy situation of which Harry Hopkins has full knowledge.
- Not printed; this telegram informed Ambassador Winant that Ambassador Litvinov had been pressing the Department very strongly for formal signature of the Second Soviet Protocol, and instructed Winant to communicate immediately with Foreign Secretary Eden to urge him to make available as soon as possible the accepted British draft of articles of the Protocol still under consideration (816.24/1079b).↩