860C.01/4–1745: Telegram
The Chargé in the Soviet Union (Kennan) to the Secretary of State
[Received April 17—8:42 a.m.]
1205. Joint message from the President and Prime Minister to Marshal Stalin referred to in the Department’s 882, April 16, 4 p.m., was not received here until after Ambassador Harriman’s early morning departure. Accordingly I am preparing together with my British colleague to transmit the message jointly to Marshal Stalin through the Foreign Office. We propose to delete the reference to Ambassador Harriman’s alleged statement. Molotov’s plane was warming up at the airfield when Ambassador Harriman’s plane departed this morning, and I believe that Molotov took off shortly thereafter. As the Department is aware, he will not be arriving in Washington for some days. In view of this fact, and of the fact that the two Ambassadors have now departed, the British Chargé48 and I assume that the delivery [Page 227] of the message to Stalin is no longer of the same extreme urgency.
It has occurred to me furthermore that the Department might wish—before delivery of the message is finally effected—to give consideration to the possible implications of this morning’s announcement (reported in an en clair press message49) of the continued firm insistence of the Soviet Government, despite our opposition, on the representation of the Warsaw Government at San Francisco, and likewise to the communication made to Ambassador Harriman by Vyshinski yesterday (see Embassy’s 1198, April 16, 7 p.m.) concerning the forthcoming conclusion of a Soviet-Polish pact.
In the light of the above, the British Chargé and I have agreed that in the absence of further instructions we will submit the message to the Foreign Office for transmission tomorrow morning, April 18. This will give our respective Governments time to inform us should there be any necessity for a revision of our instructions. I am sure this will occasion little if any real delay in the treatment of the message in the Soviet Government. There are several indications that intense activity went on all night in the Kremlin and Foreign Office, prior to Molotov’s departure; and it is not likely that any of the leading people will be on hand again before late this afternoon or this evening.50
- Frank Roberts.↩
- Telegram 1203, April 17, from Moscow, not printed.↩
- Telegram 892, April 17, 2 p.m. to Moscow, stated that the Department felt it of the utmost urgency that the joint message from President Truman and Prime Minister Churchill be delivered to Marshal Stalin (860C.01/4–1745). In his telegram 1229, April 18, 10 a.m., the Chargé” reported that the joint message had been delivered to the Soviet Foreign Ministry for transmission to Marshal Stalin (860C.01/4–1845). The message as delivered omitted the sentence referring to alleged statements by Ambassador Harriman; see footnote 30, p. 221.↩