740.0011 European War 1939/17698½: Telegram
The Second Secretary of Embassy in the Soviet Union (Thompson)91 to the Secretary of State
[Received 11:29 p.m.]
10. [From Thurston.] Department’s 1289, December 15, 6 p.m. After I had presented Colonel Faymonville92 to Molotov this afternoon, I stated that I had also been instructed by my Government to report with respect to the conversations now in progress between the Soviet authorities and Eden and that I would be grateful for such information as Mr. Molotov might feel free to give me regarding their purpose and the progress thus far made.
In reply, Molotov stated that two major points are under discussion: first, the Soviet-British war effort; and second, the postwar reconstruction of Europe. With respect to the first point, a pact of mutual assistance has been proposed; with respect to the second, both Governments have accepted as the basis of their negotiations the 8-point joint declaration made by the President and Churchill following their meeting last August.
Molotov added that while the Soviet Government is prepared to recognize the objectives of the British Government, it must also obtain recognition of its own rights and problems. The Soviet Government, he said, as a victim of aggression, is especially concerned with the problem of its frontiers in the defense of which it has already shed much blood and which it considers must be reconstituted as they existed before the German invasion.
I did not consider it expedient at this interview to request Molotov to give me further particulars, especially in regard to the “pact of mutual assistance”. I have an appointment with Eden and Cripps tomorrow (Eden has been absent today visiting the front) and I shall thereafter report their version of the negotiations. In this connection, [Page 199] Thompson states that Eden has informed him that he has directed the Foreign Office to repeat all his cables from Moscow to the British Embassy in Washington for your information. Thurston.
- Llewellyn E. Thompson, Jr., Second Secretary of Embassy and Consul in the Soviet Union, who was in charge of the group remaining in Moscow after the removal of the Embassy to Kuibyshev.↩
- Col. Philip R. Faymonville, formerly American Military Attaché in the Soviet Union, 1934–39; in office of Defense Aid Reports, 1941; member of the Harriman special mission to Moscow, where he remained to participate in possible conversations on the general war effort.↩