740.00119 EW 1939/2036
The British Embassy to the Department of State1
Aide Mémoire
The Tehran Conference considered the question of a joint declaration to the German people on the basis of unconditional surrender. Marshal Stalin informed President Roosevelt on November 29th that he thought this would be bad tactics vis-à-vis of Germany and suggested [Page 855] instead that the Allied Governments concerned should work out terms together and make them generally known to the German people.2
Mr. Eden suggests that this matter should be dealt with as soon as possible by the European Advisory Commission. He hopes that, if the United States Government agree, they will send appropriate instructions in this sense to their representative on the Commission.
- The statements made in the first paragraph of this document were communicated by Hull to Roosevelt in a memorandum of December 22, 1943 (not printed herein.).↩
- According to the Bohlen minutes, the subject of unconditional surrender came up at the dinner meeting of November 28, 1943 (at which Churchill and Stalin continued to discuss Germany after Roosevelt had retired); see ante, p. 513. For the British record, indicating that the subject came up on November 29, 1943, see post, p. 863.↩