861b.6363/196: Telegram
The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Harriman) to the Secretary of State
[Received April 1—1:20 p.m.]
1126. The text of the Sakhalin protocol contains an agreement of the Soviet Government to furnish the Japanese Government with 50,000 tons of oil annually “for a period of 5 subsequent years starting from the conclusion of the present war” whereas the Japanese note of March 30 states that all leased fishing areas on the east coast of Kamchatka and in the Olyutorsk area will not be exploited “until the termination of the war in the Pacific”.
The Times correspondent in Moscow has informed me that he requested the Foreign Office for a clarification of the first quoted phrase and was told that he could interpret it to mean “the conclusion of the war in the Pacific”, so long as he did not attribute this interpretation to the Foreign Office.