-2- #12, December 20, 9 p.m. (SECTION ONE) from Moscow. for an agreement on frontiers at this time not only on the general inadvisability and impropriety of such action by Great Britain independantly of its commonwealth associates but also on his intention to be guided by the message transmitted to Churchill by the President through Hopkins some months ago in which the hope was expressed that no commitments regarding post war settlements should be reached without consultation with the United States. He said he had every intention of holding to this course. Stalin's position was, Eden said, that the Soviet Government would be quite prepared to acquiesce in and support any plans the British Government might with respect to post war rearrangements such as, for example, the establishment of British bases in Holland or elsewhere on the Atlantic Coast of Europe but that for its part it expects full recognition of its own frontiers and security problems. With respect to the "Pact of Mutual Assistance," Eden stated that the arrangement contemplated is merely the implrmentation of the existing war cooperation and that the scope of any agreement of this nature would be confined to the war against Germany - and would not envisage any eventual hostilities elsewhere |