740.0011 European War 1939/21461: Telegram
The Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Winant) to the Secretary of State
[Received May 7—6:05 p.m.]
2453. For the President. This afternoon Eden informed me that Molotov’s trip had been postponed. Eden told me that he felt that his insistence on the inclusion of the clause suggested by us to permit the evacuation of dissenting inhabitants, with other changes in the Russian text, was responsible for Molotov’s postponement. He felt that until some of the differences had been ironed out through a further exchange of communications, Molotov would in all probability continue to delay his visit to London.
The incident that occurred last week, the reason given some time ago that Molotov’s new duties connected with administration and related to Russian defence might prevent him from coming on here, and your personal intervention with Litvinov may all have been contributing factors.
If it is practical for Molotov to fly directly to the United States, you might want to urge him to go there at this time.