741.6111/21
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Secretary of State
Following the signing of the lease-lend agreement,64 the Soviet Ambassador and I had a few minutes of casual conversation. He indicated his usual apprehension and pessimism about the Russian military situation.
The Ambassador made some reference to the omission of the Baltic territorial question from the British-Russian Agreement, signed recently. I replied that, if I had been the chief adviser of Mr. Stalin, I would have most earnestly advised him, from the standpoint of Russia’s own interest, against inserting that territorial provision in their proposed treaty, adding that there would be an infinite number of questions coming up at the end of the war, some of which might render nugatory many matters of supposed importance and even urgency at this time, et cetera, et cetera.