861.24/6–1349
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Acting Secretary of State
| Participants: | The Soviet Ambassador, Mr. Panyushkin |
| The Acting Secretary, Mr. Webb | |
| Mr. Llewellyn Thompson, Deputy Director for European Affairs |
The Ambassador referred to our last conversation at which I had handed him a note on the subject of Lend Lease and said he had now been instructed to inform me that his Government was awaiting a reply to its note of December 9, 1948. The Ambassador pointed out that this note covered a number of subjects, including the Soviet offer of $200,000,000 as a lend lease settlement and a number of other phases of the question, whereas our note dealt only with the question of ships.
I said I had not recently gone over these papers, but my impression was that we had raised the question of ships, since the Soviet obligation to return these vessels was clear and specific.
The Ambassador then referred to Article 6 of the basic lend lease agreement and said that his Government did not agree with our interpretation of this Article. He said that it was necessary to consider this Article in relation to the whole lend lease agreement, and the view of the Soviet Government was that the Article should be interpreted without prejudice or discrimination.
I asked the Ambassador if I was to understand from his remarks that the Soviet Government rejected our note requesting the return of the naval vessels. The Ambassador hastened to point out that he had not yet received his Government’s reply to this note, but had merely been instructed to say that the Government was awaiting its reply to its note of December 9, 1948.
I suggested that the best procedure would be to arrange for a meeting at which Mr. Thorp could be present in order that we might discuss some of the points raised by the Ambassador. I stressed, however, that we were awaiting a reply from the Soviet Government to [Page 699] our note of May 25, that we considered the Soviet obligation to return these vessels as clear and definite and that we would take a most serious view of their failure to do so. It was left that we would advise the Ambassador when a meeting with Mr. Thorp could be set up.