Office of the Historian

740.0011 PW (Peace)/4–1948

Memorandum by Mr. Philander P. Claxton, Jr., Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of State for Occupied Areas (Saltzman), to Brigadier General Saltzman

[Washington,] April 19, 1948.

With the thought that it may have some significance with regard to Soviet thinking, I should like to bring to your attention some questions asked me by Mr. Korobochkin, Counselor of the Soviet Embassy, at General McCoy’s garden party on Thursday, April 15th.

I had never met Mr. Korobochkin and was introduced as a member of your staff. In the course of the usual polite conversation he asked when I thought the work of the FEC would be completed. After a non-committal answer, he pressed the question once or twice in different ways, explaining as he went along, that he was anxious to return to his own country.

A few moments later, Mr. Korobochkin introduced the question of the Japanese peace treaty, asking whether the United States had prepared a draft of a treaty. I replied that during the period when we were discussing a treaty conference with FEC countries, we had of course considered what form we should like to see the eventual treaty take. He then asked politely but quite directly, “Pardon me, but could we see such a draft?” When I replied that these were of course only our internal working papers, he said even though they were only tentative, [Page 740] could they perhaps see them. This question was repeated in one form or another three times before we were joined by other people and the conversation directed into other channels.1

  1. In response to a query from the Director of the Office of Far Eastern Affairs (Butterworth), the Deputy Director of the Office of European Affairs (Thompson) on April 23 wrote: “I think the Russians would be interested in a treaty if they thought they could get one at all to their liking. It was probably light on this point that Korobochkin was seeking. I also suspect however that in view of the firm line we are taking in Europe they are endeavoring to reappraise our aims and probable actions in the Far East and thought that the tenor of our draft of the Japanese Peace Treaty would contain some clues on this subject.” (740.0011 PW (Peace)/4–1948)↩