861.24/738a: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Winant)
5390. For Harriman from Stettinius.
“Reference telephone conversation, the President has directed the Maritime Commission to provide ships to transport aid to Russia in accordance with protocol schedules subject only to insurmountable physical limitations. He has also authorized the War Department to establish necessary assembly facilities for airplanes at appropriate points. Preliminary arrangements are under way but there are obvious difficulties to be overcome before an adequate flow can be established. Burns following closely.”
[A statement on cooperation with the Soviet Union was released to the press on December 11, 1941, by the Secretary of State. Mr. Hull repeated assurances that “it is the firm intention of the Government of the United States to carry out its program of aid to the Soviet Union in the conduct of the struggle in which they are engaged.” The complete statement is in Department of State Bulletin, December 13, 1941, page 506.
During a conversation with the new Ambassador of the Soviet Union, Maxim Maximovich Litvinov, on December 11, Secretary Hull told him that this statement was issued “in an effort to allay” some of the criticism beginning to arise because of no signs of cooperation by the Soviet Union with the United States in the Far East, whereas the United States was already aiding the Soviet Union. For the memorandum of December 11, 1941, by the Secretary of State, see volume IV, page 742.
The first expression in the press of the Soviet Union of the attitude toward the war caused by the Japanese aggression against the United States, in which “Japan will incontestably be defeated,” was reported in telegram No. 2054, December 13, 1941, from the Chargé in the Soviet Union, volume IV, page 1027.
In a letter to Stalin, given by President Roosevelt to Ambassador Litvinov on December 14, 1941, the President suggested three preliminary conferences to prepare the way for common action “for the permanent defeat of hitlerism” and again wanted to tell Stalin “of the real enthusiasm throughout the United States for the progress your armies are making in the defense of your great nation.” The text of this letter is printed in volume IV, page 752.]