761.56/11–350: Telegram
The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Kirk) to the Secretary of State
966. Spent twenty minutes with Gromyko after lunch today on question lend lease settlement (Deptel 270 October 24), first outlining our current note number 195 (Embtel 947, October 312) and then more [Page 1318] general comments. His opening reply was as usual that matter was under study and that various aspects (naval vessels, patent fees, overall settlement) would be combined in their reply. He remarked their chargé in Washington had recently presented information on ice breakers (which was news to me).3
We had a straight-forward unruffled talk with one or two exchanges such as his counter to my dwelling on three month marking time since our last talk on 4 August, by saying US Government once allowed nine months to pass without action, and I rejoined I hoped we were not embarked on a program of matching delays day for day. When I insisted it was high time we got on with the general settlement Gromyko remarked we had made no new offer and I said that when a debtor wanted his liability reduced it was his move to make the offer. But Gromyko replied “not always.”
Then I said we had already scaled down from 11 to 1 billions, which in fact was exactly the sum President Roosevelt had initially named to Mr. Stalin just prior to implementation of lend lease.4 Gromyko said that was not the whole story and we would receive a comprehensive reply in due course.
My endeavor to elicit something explicit on compensation to patent holders likewise met merely statement that all cases would be covered in Soviet Government reply.
On leaving I remarked that if any value placed upon creating favorable impression in this matter with American people something needed to be done and pretty soon. Gromyko smiled and said “All in good time.”
On departing, I left him the note.5
- A note on this telegram stated: “Message delayed in transmission.” It was received on November 5, 1950, at 10:43 a. m.↩
- In the reply made by Ambassador Kirk in this telegram, not printed, he stated that he would ask to see Gromyko later in the week in order to deliver the note, and he included a few minor changes of wording which he would make in the text. (761.56/10–3150)↩
- Note No. 162 of November 1 from Chargé Bazykin, supra. The Department of State advised the Embassy in the Soviet Union in telegram 321 sent on November 8 of the substance of this note and that the text of it would be forwarded to the Embassy. (761.56/11–850)↩
- Regarding the first loan of one billion dollars arranged between President Roosevelt and Iosif Vissarionovich Stalin, Chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars, in 1941, see Foreign Relations, 1941, vol. i, pp. 851–852, 855, 857, and also 654–655. For the second loan of one billion dollars in 1942, see ibid., 1942, vol. iii, pp. 690–694, 708. Also see the exchange of notes between Secretary of State Cordell Hull and the Ambassador of the Soviet Union Maxim Maximovich Litvinov on June 11, 1942, at the time of signing the Lend-Lease Agreement, whereby these two prior arrangements were considered as being replaced and rendered inoperative, together with a statement by the Department of State issued to the press on June 12; Department of State Bulletin, June 13, 1942, pp. 531–535.↩
- The verbatim text of this note No. 195 as delivered was sent to the Department of State in telegram 1488 from Moscow on February 9, 1951, not printed (761.56/2–951). For the press release of November 7, 1950 concerning Ambassador Kirk’s two meetings with Gromyko on August 4 and November 3, see Department of State Bulletin, November 20, 1950, pp. 817–818.↩