It is, of course, for President Roosevelt himself
or a competent Administration spokesman to say
just how much or how little justification Mr. Lit
vinov has for this charge. Seldom have such con
versations been surrounded with greater secrecy
than were Mr. Litvinov’s talks with Secretary Hull
and the President in 1933. There was so little leak
age that the press correspondence of the time re
flects nothing but confusing and often contradictory
speculation in the highest official circles. The most
persistent rumors were that the Government’s claim
for the so-called "Kerensky loans” and for war
supplies was to be offset by Soviet claims for dam
age done by the American expeditionary force in the
Archangel region, while private claims of private
bondholders, of banks and of firms once domiciled
in Russia would be met from a small tax on the
stupendous purchases of American wares that the
Soviet Government was going to import from this
country.
Conspicuously absent from all this gossip was
any suggestion of a loan other than the credits or
guaranties of credits that were going to prime an
export business of at least $500,000,000 a year. What
ever Mr. Litvinov's misunderstanding of the terms
offered him in 1933, the real obstacle to a settlement
is the Soviet Union's fear of establishing a precedent
for other nations. This is so plain and there was
so little contemporary suggestion of a loan that Mr.
i Litvinov's charge would seem to call for some proof.
SATURDAY
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SATURDAY I
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y
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