860F.24/10–445: Telegram
The Ambassador in Czechoslovakia (Steinhardt) to the Secretary of State
[Received October 5—8 a.m.]
442. Your 278, October 3. The Department may wish to consider the advisability of suggesting to Exim Bank that as a condition of financing one year’s supply of American cotton which may amount to as much as $44,000,000 the Czechoslovakian Government obtain a written assurance from the Soviet Government that no part of the cotton or the products derived therefrom will be requisitioned or seized by Soviet military forces in Czechoslovakia.
I am reasonably certain that the Czechoslovakian Government would welcome such a condition as it would hesitate to seek such an assurance from the Soviet Government unless obliged to do so as a condition of the loan although increasingly irritated at the extent of Soviet seizures.