Moscow Conference (1941)
[1] The initial contact with the USSR came with Presidential Envoy and Director of the Lend-Lease programme Harry Hopkins with Soviet leader Joseph Stalin in Moscow.Hopkins added:[1] I have nothing to add to what I said the other day, other than that my short visit here has given me even more confidence that Hitler is going to lose.Hopkins concluded his business and flew back to London on Friday 1 August.[1] The Moscow conference was proposed following the meeting between British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and US President Franklin D. Roosevelt at Placentia Bay.An announcement on Radio Moscow said:[3] Comrade Stalin requested the American Ambassador (Laurence Steinhardt) and the British Ambassador (Sir Stafford Cripps) to convey to President Roosevelt and Mr. Churchill respectively the heartfelt thanks of the peoples of the Soviet Union and of the Soviet Government for their readiness to aid the U.S.S.R. in its war of liberation against Hitlerite Germany.The delegates flew into Moscow on 28 September.Following a closed session an official communique was released, prepared by Quentin Reynolds (of Collier's magazine) and Vernon Bartlett MP (News Chronicle and BBC).The closing paragraph stated:[1] In concluding its session the conference adheres to the resolution of the three governments that, after the final annihilation of Nazi tyranny, a peace will be established which will enable the world to live in security in its own territory in conditions free from fear or needThe delegates departed by Douglas passenger planes on 3 October where they boarded HMS Harrier in the White Sea.If to this is added the fact that a few days ago the United States of America decided to grant a loan of one billion dollars to the Soviet Union, one can say with assurance that the coalition of the United States of America, Great Britain and the U. S. S. R., is a reality (stormy applause) which is increasing and will increase for the good of our common cause.Aside from the main events of the conference there was an incident regarding the purchase of caviar for Prime Minister Churchill.