733.61/64
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Under Secretary of State (Welles)
The Soviet Ambassador12 called to see me this afternoon at my request.
[Page 267]I told Mr. Litvinov that I had been requested by the Uruguayan Government, in an entirely unofficial and personal way, to sound out the Soviet Government as to whether the latter would be desirous of renewing diplomatic relations with the Government of Uruguay. I said that I had told the Uruguayan Government that I would be very glad to make this inquiry, and requested Mr. Litvinov to let me know what the feeling of his Government might be.
The Ambassador replied that, while in ordinary circumstances he was already authorized to agree with representatives of the other American Republics upon the establishment of diplomatic relations, he would in this particular case have to inquire of his Government. He reminded me of the ruptured relations between the Government of Uruguay and the Soviet Union in 1935, and said that his Government felt that it had been very badly treated in that instance. He went on immediately to state, however, that he himself felt that incidents of this kind should not be remembered and that diplomatic relations should be resumed. He expressed the highest regard for Dr. Guani, the Uruguayan Foreign Minister, whom he said he had seen much of in Geneva.
- Maxim Litvinov.↩