740.00119 Council/10–1145: Telegram
The Chargé in the United Kingdom (Gallman) to the Secretary of State
London, October 11,
1945—3 p.m.
[Received 3:40 p.m.]
[Received 3:40 p.m.]
10611. A high-ranking Foreign Office official who is concerned with Russian relations has just made the following remarks to us:
- 1.
- High Soviet officials must have reasoned that if Molotov stood out long enough at Conference of Foreign Ministers for the Russian plan on procedure, the other powers would eventually have been worn down to the point of acceptance. Failure of these tactics has clearly caused confusion in high circles in Moscow. First manifestation of this was press treatment of the Conference with Izvestia striking one note and Pravda another.8
- 2.
- It is to be anticipated that in the immediate future Soviets will “stall” on giving replies and taking action on any number of pending questions. This will no doubt be particularly in evidence on the various Control Councils and Commissions. The “stalling” it is believed can be attributed in part to resentment over the failure of the line taken at the Conference but also to the waiting by Soviet officials down the line for new directives from the top.9
Sent Department as 10611, repeated Moscow as 349.
Gallman
- Apparently references are to the front page Izvestiya editorial of October 5 and the front page Pravda editorial of October 6. The Izvestiya editorial stressed the failures of the Conference, while the Pravda editorial conceded that the Foreign Ministers had been in agreement on a substantial number of problems.↩
- For an appraisal by George F. Kennan, Chargé in the Soviet Union, of the effects of the Council of Foreign Ministers’ meeting on the general Communist Party line, on official Soviet ideology, on actual Soviet policy, and on the inner political situation in the Soviet leadership, see telegram 3454, October 4, from Moscow, vol. v, p. 888.↩