EJ                                                GRAY
Dated January 31, 1942
Secretary of State
92, January 31, 5 p.m.
 
 
IZVESTIYA:, of January 30, which was not received
 
until after the dispatch of the Embassy's 88, January 31, 11 a.m., contains 
 
an editorial entitled "THE Sixteenth Birthday of Franklin Roosevelt" which is even more
 
complimentary in tone than that published in the local paper. It gives a brief review of his life life
 
the statement that he may well be proud to look back on his past years. It quotes Stalin's remarks
about him to H.G. Wells in 1934, emphasizing the President's outstanding personal qualities of
initiative, courage and determination and characterizing him as the preeminent leader of the
capitalist world. It desrcribes in some detail the ewarnings against aggression which were voiced
by the president prior to the outbreak of  "the Second Worlsd war" and mentions the assistance
which he has subsequently extended to Great Britain and the Soviet