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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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to do but the Russians had to give him their pair of blue vases, and they were not the same. They were not the real thing. You know, they were modern imitations of the old thing. And he had to be very polite and receive them with great satisfaction and gratfification, but he knew all the time and the people at the American Embassy knew that they weren't the real stuff, and they were very distressed. “Keep still, keep still,” you know--“don't mention that. Don't look a gift horse in the mouth.”

He had to take them as if they were a rare prize, when really they were not.

I forget whether he afterwards got a good Persian jar or vase. It would be up at Hyde Park if he did, but I don't remember whether he did or not. But that was an episode of being amiable toward them.

Now, was it at Teheran or was it at Yalta that Churchill gave Stalin the sword of state from the British people? I think that was at Teheran. I'm pretty sure it was. No, that was at Yalta--I'm sure it was it was at Yalta--and there is a photograph of that in existence, with Stalin very deeply touched. He must have been an emotional fellow. Stalin was deeply touched as Churchill made one of his most elegant short addresses, and told him that this sword had been made by the great court sword-maker of England and was presented to him as a token of his great valor and strength and heroism, and the great gifts he had made to the world, and so on. It was on





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