740.00119 European War 1939/2551: Telegram
The Chargé in the Soviet Union (Hamilton) to the Secretary of State
[Received April 30—5 p.m.]
1514. The Chief of the American Section of the Foreign Office55 asked me to call this evening. He asked me whether I could give him any information as to the reasons for the postponement of the tripartite declaration to the four satellite countries and how long the postponement would last. I told him that while the British Ambassador had informed me yesterday afternoon of his instructions to request postponement, I had received nothing from my Government. The Chief of the American Section said that the reasons for the postponement did not seem clear since apparently all three governments had reached complete agreement. He then repeated his query and added that he would appreciate any enlightenment I could give him. I remarked that the British, having requested the postponement, were of course in the best position to give reasons for this request; that the Embassy had received nothing new from the Department on the matter; but that I was confident my Government desired to go ahead with the declaration. In reply to my query he said that the Soviet Government was prepared also to go ahead. When I offered to telegraph and ask whether the Department could throw any light on the two questions he had asked, he side-stepped my offer and said that he had requested me to call just to ascertain whether I had any information on the matter.
Sent to Department, repeated to London.
- Semen Konstantinovich Tsarapkin.↩