I have the honour to report that during the course of a luncheon at the Russian Embassy today my hosts, two of the Counsellors of the Embassy, made it quite clear that the Soviet Government was prepared to accept the proposal, at present being canvassed by the Canadian Government, for the admission to the United Nations of eighteen of the countries now excluded. They refused, however, to comment on the probable Soviet attitude to the announcement made by Mr. Cabot Lodge in New York last night that the United States were prepared to agree to the admission of seventeen of the nations in question i.e., excluding Outer Mongolia. They take the position that Outer Mongolia is as much a sovereign independent state as any other and therefore as entitled as the rest of the eighteen to admission to the UN. They would not hazard a guess as to whether, in view of the American attitude, the Soviet Union would acquiesce in the exclusion of Outer Mongolia and the admission of other states.

A fuller report on this and other points which arose during the luncheon follows.¹