Office of the Historian

861.24/11–1747

Memorandum of Conversation, by the Assistant Secretary of State for Economic Affairs (Thorp)

[Washington,] November 17, 1947.

I said that I had asked Mr. Tarassenko1 to come in because of the long delay which had occurred in discussing the lend lease settlement with representatives of the Soviet Government. The last meeting of the working group took place on July 18, and tomorrow four months would have elapsed since that meeting. The aide-mémoire which I was handing him expressed the hope that the negotiations could be resumed without delay.2

I stated that while the Department had understood that in the absence of the Ambassador it might have been difficult for the Soviet delegation to continue the negotiations, it was hoped that with the appointment of a new Ambassador3 the discussions could be taken up again. Mr. Tarassenko said that the new Soviet Ambassador was authorized to continue the negotiations and that upon his arrival in the United States they would be resumed immediately.

I also explained to Mr. Tarassenko that I was handing him a note4 suggesting a settlement regarding certain items which had been ordered under the lend-lease program but which had not in effect been delivered. Mr. Tarassenko stated that this matter also would receive attention upon the arrival of the Ambassador.

Willard L. Thorp
  1. Vasily Akimovich Tarasenko, Counselor of Embassy of the Soviet Union.↩
  2. Infra.↩
  3. Alexander Semenovich Panyushkin, who presented his credentials on December 31.↩
  4. Post, p. 710.↩