Office of the Historian

740.0011 European War 1939/17503: Telegram

The Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Winant) to the Secretary of State

London, December 14, 1941—6 p.m.
[Received December 14—2:15 p.m.]

6046. For the Secretary and Under Secretary only. The assumption in your 5868, December 1359 that I expected Eden to act for us in place of United States Embassy to Soviet Union is incorrect.

Eden and Maisky60 will both be in Moscow in direct contact with Stalin and I have known Maisky intimately for 3 years. He is friendly with the United States and in no way friendly with Japan. I wanted to see us take advantage of their presence in Moscow in urging British support of an invitation to make use of Russian maritime province airports from which to bomb Japanese industry and to support a declaration of war by Russia against Japan if that was what was wanted. This would necessitate intervention by the President with the Former Naval Person.61

If such intervention were wanted it would in my opinion help to have it pressed by Eden in person. Knowing the time tables, it would probably be necessary for me to ask Eden to prolong his stay in Moscow. My messages 5986, December 10 and 6006, December 1162 give you background.

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The last sentence of Department’s 5868 of December 13 states: “You will realize, however, that air bases in the Far East are of urgent importance to us.” My 4977, October 18,63 contains the following: “Holding of Russian forces in Siberia would protect their airfields which might be of great strategic importance to us if there was trouble with Japan.”64

Winant
  1. Not printed.↩
  2. Soviet Ambassador in the United Kingdom.↩
  3. Winston Churchill, British Prime Minister.↩
  4. Latter not printed.↩
  5. Not printed.↩
  6. Ambassador Winant (telegram No. 6147, December 19, 1941, 11 p.m., filed under 740.0011 European War 1939/17699), in reporting a four-hour conversation between Mr. Eden and Premier Stalin, said: “As regards the Far East, Stalin said he was sorry that in the present circumstances he was not now in a position to help us there.” Mr. Winant added that he had received on December 19 “an additional special note” from Mr. Eden as follows: “Stalin’s attitude about the Far East is perfectly loyal and in fact he stated that he would be in a position to help us there in the spring. He is, however, clearly determined not to provoke Japan at present and considers that he is not in a position to do so. In these circumstances I felt that it would not only be useless but also unwise to speak to him about the United States use of air bases in Siberia.” Mr. Eden expressed regret that he had not been “able to do more.”↩