661.11/38: Telegram
The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Steinhardt) to the Secretary of State
[Received 5:30 p.m.]
646. As I have observed several references in American publications dated late in February to alleged statements or “hints” by Oumansky that the inability of the Soviet Government to make the purchase which it desires in the United States will result in increased purchases by the Soviet Union from Germany, it may be of interest to the Department to contrast any such statements with the reported failure of Germany during the past year to make a substantial part of the deliveries to the Soviet Union agreed upon under the Soviet-German trade agreement of February 11, 1940,35 and with the information which has come to my attention that the Soviet Government has been dissatisfied with German deliveries which have admittedly been delinquent. As Germany was obviously either unable or unwilling to deliver a substantial part of the orders placed by the Soviet Union over a year ago, any such statement by Oumansky at the present time may be regarded as sheer bluff.
- For correspondence concerning this agreement and other illustrations of wartime cooperation between Germany and the Soviet Union, see Foreign Relations, 1940, vol. i, pp. 539 ff.↩