-2- #2897, May 24, Midnight, from London.
 
with the British in which the latter were to promise
 
to support claims relating to the Finnish and
 
Rumanian frontiers.
 
     Up to noon yesterday both parties to the
 
negotiations had apparently come to the conclusion
 
that agreemement was improbable.
 
     The Russians had explalned that even if a treaty was not arrived at,
 
good had come of the negotiations, and eden had
 
suggested a substitute trraty which made no reference to
 
however the frontiers. Late yesterday afternoon,
 
Russians began to recede from their
 
original position, and Eden called me at six o,clock
 
tonight to say that the negotiations had gone so far that he would have a proposal to make to the 
 
Cabinet tomorrow afternoon. He went on to say that:
 
     (0ne) The Russians had withdrawn their demands
 
affecting Poland.
 
     (Two) They had compromised on the protactive
 
clause but only to the extznt of allowing minorities
 
to withdraw, i.e. Poles from Lithuania. This, Eden
 
acknowldged, did not help much.
 
     (Three) The idea of a secret agreement was
 
abandoned but they asked that a clause be
 
inserted which the British would recognize that
 
had spscial