861.24/903
Memorandum by the Acting Chief of the Division of European Affairs (Atherton) to the Acting Chief of the Division of Exports and Defense Aid (Bunn)
Mr. Bunn: I fully agree with you.85
In any event I do not believe it would be practicable at the present time to obligate the Russians to make purchases from us during the post war period. We cannot know now what we shall be in a position to buy or sell during the post war period and the Russians are in precisely the same position. Any commitments, therefore, which we might be able to give or accept would be of no real value. It seems to me that, therefore, if we should follow the suggestions advanced in Mr. Hazard’s letter we would be demanding from the Russians certain concessions which we have not demanded from the British with little prospect of obtaining any practical value from such concessions if made.
- Charles Bunn had referred Mr. Hazard’s letter, supra, to Loy W. Henderson, Assistant Chief of the Division of European Affairs, who wrote this memorandum which Ray Atherton initialled. Mr. Bunn had declared in his covering memorandum: “This is not a new proposal. So far I have been inclined to resist it, on the ground that we should not put special & onerous terms on Lend-Lease aid to the Soviet Union. Perhaps I have been wrong. What do you think?”↩