Editorial Note
On December 15, the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs called in the British and French Ambassadors and handed them similar notes protesting “violation” of the Soviet Union’s treaties with the United Kingdom and France, dated May 26, 1942 and December 10, 1944, respectively, by rearming Germany and entering into a coalition against the Soviet Union. For a translation of the note to the French, see Margaret Carlyle (ed.), Documents on International Affairs, 1949–1950 (London, Oxford University Press, 1953), pages 179–182; the Russian texts of both notes are printed in Veshniaia politika Sovetskogo Soiuza, dokumenty i materialy, 1950 god (Moscow, Gospolitizdat, 1953), pages 267–273 and in Izvestiia, #297, December 17, 1950. The British and French collaborated on the text of a reply to this note which was delivered on January 5, 1951. For its text and those of further exchanges with the Soviet Union on the same question during 1951, see Denise Folliot (ed.), Documents on International Affairs, 1951 (London, Oxford University Press, 1954), pages 321 ff. Documentation on these exchanges is in files 396.1, 740.5, and 741.00.