"People's Commissariat of Foreign Affairs
10th Department
Outgoing #4490
Received: 18:00 September 20th, 1942
Sent: 19:20 September 20th, 1942
Top Secret, copies forbidden
Specialist number: 896
To: London, Soviet envoy
Special
Top priority
To Mayskiy. You acted like a coward in your conversation with Eden about the Aerocobras.
This is unbecoming of a Soviet envoy. I consider the British behaviour regarding the Aerocobra issue the peak of insolence. The British have no right to claim deliveries for their own benefit without our consent. The claim of the British that the change was done according to American instructions is disingenuous. It is easy to see that the Americans were asked to do this by the British. Do not let the British think that we will allow repeated transgressions like these. The Soviet government demands that 154 Aerocobras captured by the British be immediately returned to the USSR. We authorize you to report this piracy to elements of British society that you are in contact with. I am saddened by Beaverbrook's departure. Britain kept their promises faithfully, but turned perfidious when he left.
This is unbecoming of a Soviet envoy. I consider the British behaviour regarding the Aerocobra issue the peak of insolence. The British have no right to claim deliveries for their own benefit without our consent. The claim of the British that the change was done according to American instructions is disingenuous. It is easy to see that the Americans were asked to do this by the British. Do not let the British think that we will allow repeated transgressions like these. The Soviet government demands that 154 Aerocobras captured by the British be immediately returned to the USSR. We authorize you to report this piracy to elements of British society that you are in contact with. I am saddened by Beaverbrook's departure. Britain kept their promises faithfully, but turned perfidious when he left.
Stalin"