701.6111/1053: Telegram
The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Steinhardt) to the Secretary of State
[Received November 1—12:41 a.m.]
1847. For the President, the Secretary and Under Secretary. Vyshinski asked me to call at the Foreign Office today and requested me to inform the Department of the desire of the Soviet Government to appoint Maxim Litvinov as Soviet Ambassador to Washington to replace Oumansky21 and to request our agrément. He said he would appreciate a very early reply.
I asked Vyshinski whether the Soviet Chargé in Washington22 had been instructed to seek an agrément. Vyshinski replied that his instructions from Molotov were to take the matter up with me and not to communicate with the Soviet Embassy in Washington, and that consequently the Embassy would not be informed until after the Department had replied through me. He also requested that the matter be held in the strictest confidence.
I then asked Vyshinski whether it was permissible for me to inquire as to Oumansky’s future assignment, to which he replied that he was to become the director of the Tass agency23 in the Soviet Union.
I have reason to believe that since Litvinov’s [resurrection?] to participate in the conversations during the Three Power Conference, Stalin has turned more and more to him for advice in matters affecting [Page 653] relations between the Soviet Union, Great Britain and the United States. I have little doubt that the principal purpose of Litvinov’s mission would be to endeavor to persuade the President to speed and enlarge the program of American aid to the Soviet Union agreed upon at the Three Power Conference, as the Soviets regard Litvinov as having greater international stature than Oumansky.