352.00/2886: Telegram
The Chargé in the Soviet Union (Henderson) to the Secretary of State
[Received August 30—7:40 a.m.]
197. I assume that the American press has reported the exchange of notes between Litvinov and the French Chargé d’Affaires ad interim of August 23rd, in which the Soviet and French Governments agree (a) to prohibit exports to Spain or Spanish people of arms, ammunitions, war material, aircraft and warships; (b) to apply prohibitions to contracts already signed; (c) to inform other states participating in the agreement of the measures taken; (d) to put the above obligations into force when the German, Italian, Portuguese, French and British Governments join in the agreement.
- 2.
- A usually well-informed Soviet official told me yesterday
substantially as follows:
“The refusal of Portugal to adhere to such an agreement unless it should include the transmission of funds may delay for some time the agreement becoming effective. The Soviet authorities have taken the position that they would place an embargo upon the export of funds to Spain only on condition that the other countries named above would agree to do likewise. It will be difficult for countries like France and Germany without autocratic governments to apply such a measure to private persons or non-governmental organizations. The Soviet Government cannot admit that it is any more responsible to foreign countries for the actions of organizations or persons on its territories than countries like France and England for organizations or persons on their respective territories.”
- 3.
- The French Chargé d’Affaires has told me this morning in
strict confidence substantially as follows:
“It has been extremely difficult to persuade the Soviet authorities to agree to the exchange of notes. During the more than 20 hours of private and non-official discussions which preceded the exchange, officials of the Foreign Office showed even more diffidence and less willingness than usual to take responsibility. Litvinov himself found it necessary to refer the most insignificant points to his Government. I attribute this hesitation in part to (a) the feeling that the Kremlin might be criticized by the more militant world revolutionary forces for agreeing not to grant material support to a friendly leftist government [Page 516] facing a reactionary revolution, and (b) the fear that the Soviet Government might eventually be pushed into a position which would permit it to be said that it had assumed obligations on behalf certain organizations resident on its territory over which it has hitherto professed to have no control. I believe, however, that the next few days the Soviet Government, regardless of the attitude of Portugal, will issue an administrative order putting into immediate effect the provisions of the agreement since it will not want to be the last of the interested powers to take such a step. I feel sure that no war material has been despatched from the Soviet Union to Spain since the outbreak of hostilities.”
- 4.
- The Journal de Moscow, usually regarded
as the mouthpiece of the Foreign Office, of August 25, 1936, and
the Izvestiya August 26, 1936, carried
editorials indicating that the Soviet Government entered into
the exchange of notes with reluctance and did so only because it
did not desire the Fascist countries to use a refusal on its
part as an excuse for aggressive action in Spain. The Izvestiya said in part:
“It must be stated frankly that a declaration of neutrality in connection with events which are taking place in Spain is not our idea, but a special type of innovation in international theory and practice. Up to the present time there has been no precedent whereby the government of any country elected in accordance with its laws and recognized by all powers is put on a level both judicially and in practice with rebels fighting it. There has never been a case wherein the fulfillment of orders of such a government and the supplying of it has been considered as intervention in internal affairs.[”]