Office of the Historian

862.24/405: Telegram

The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Steinhardt) to the Secretary of State

Moscow, May 19, 1941—6 p.m.
[Received 9:10 p.m.]

1004. The Swedish Minister told me this morning that in a recent conversation with the Counselor of the German Embassy72 the latter, in referring to discussions taking place in Berlin with the object of increasing Soviet deliveries to Germany had stated that [Page 145] what Germany desired was a substantial increase in deliveries of grain, oils and what he described as “minerals”. He had also remarked that an exchange or barter basis between the Soviet Union and Germany was no longer possible and that the Soviet Government would now have to extend credit to Germany.73

Steinhardt
  1. Gustav Hilger.↩
  2. Further details on these economic relations are printed in Nazi-Soviet Relations, 1939–1941, pp. 318–346, passim.↩