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The German Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Schulenburg) to the State Secretary in the German Foreign Office (Weizsäcker)
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Moscow, August 16, 1939.

MY ESTEEMED STATE SECRETARY: With regard to my conversation of yesterday with Herr Molotov, I should like in all haste to stress especially the following:

Herr Molotov was quite unusually compliant and candid. I received the impression that the proposal of the visit of the Reich Minister was very flattering personally to Herr Molotov and that he considers it an actual proof of our good intentions. (I recall that-according to newspaper dispatches-Moscow requested that England and France send a Cabinet Minister here, and that, instead, only Herr Strang came, because London and Paris had been angry that Herr Voroshilov had not been permitted to accept the invitation to the British maneuvers, which is, in fact, quite another matter, since high Soviet Russians have heretofore never traveled abroad.)

In Herr Molotov's statements yesterday, the surprising moderation in his demands on us also seems to be worthy of note. He did not once use the words "Anti-Comintern Pact," and no longer demanded of us, as he did in the last conversation, "suppression" of support of Japanese aggression. He limited himself to the wish that we might bring about a Soviet-Japanese settlement.

More significant is his quite clearly expressed wish to conclude a non-aggression pact with us.

Despite all efforts, we did not succeed in ascertaining entirely clearly what Herr Molotov desired in the matter of the Baltic States. It appears that he mentioned the question of a joint guarantee of the Baltic States as only one point in Herr Rosso's report, but did not expressly make the demand that we give such a guarantee. Such a joint guarantee seems to me at variance with the behavior of the Soviet Government in the British-French negotiations.

It actually looks at the moment as if we would achieve the desired results in the negotiations here.

With cordial greetings and a Heil Hitler! I am, Herr State Secretary,

Your ever devoted

COUNT von der SCHULENBURG

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