When he was grooming for the Presidency, sagacious Governor Roosevelt called to Albany's Executive Mansion a small, calm, wooden-legged Englishman from Moscow. For hours they talked about Russia. "I turned the tables on Walter Duranty!" laughed Candidate Roosevelt afterward. "I asked all the questions. It was fascinating!''
When Foreign Minister Litvinoff was grooming Soviet Russia for recognition, New York Times Correspondent Duranty crossed the Atlantic at his side. Instead of returning to Moscow via Rome with Comrade Litvinoff, Mr. Duranty sailed back with the new U. S. Ambassador to Russia. One day last week Dictator Stalin sent for Walter Duranty and, through him, gave the Times one of his very rare press interviews in which he handed bouquets to the President and Ambassador William Christian Bullitt.
Of Mr. Roosevelt, Comrade Stalin said: "By all appearances he is a decided and courageous statesman."
Of Ambassador Bullitt, whose meeting with Stalin in Moscow fortnight ago was kept secret until after Mr. Bullitt left Russia, Stalin said: "I and my comrades liked Ambassador Bullitt very much. . . . What I like is that he does not talk like the average diplomat. ... He made a very good impression here."
As if to make a good impression on U. S. bankers and thus foster a new deal in Soviet-U. S. trade, the Dictator continued: "I know it is not customary to pay debts nowadays, but we do it. Other nations 'renig' on their debts, but the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics does not renig. . . . Confidence, as every one knows, is the basis of credit. . . . What I mean is that the volume of our trade with America for the time being must be measured by the degree of confidence America puts in us—and this by the volume of credit."
In genial mood. Dictator Stalin then predicted for Capitalist nations not the World Revolution of the Proletariat but fresh Prosperity after the present Depression.
War with Japan? Getting down to business, Russia's Dictator spoke of the nation every Russian hates & fears, Japan. Putting his finger squarely on what is both the weak and the strong point of Japanese militarism Stalin said: "It seems to me that Japan would be unwise to attack us. Her economic position is not too sound. . . . But good soldiers are not always good economists and do not always appreciate the difference between the force of arms and the force of economic laws. I repeat there is grave danger [of war between Japan and Russia] and we cannot but prepare to meet it."
Striking a new note for a country traditionally hostile to the League of Nations, Stalin declared: "We do not always and in all conditions take a negative attitude toward the League. Despite the German and Japanese exit from the League— or, perhaps, because of it—the League may well become a brake to retard or hamper military action. ... I would say that if historical events were such that the League became a brake upon or an obstacle to war. it is not excluded that we should support the League despite its colossal deficiencies."