Treasury Files
Memorandum by the Assistant to the Secretary of the Treasury (White)1
Memorandum for the Secretary’s Files:
Conference at Sir [Mr.] Anthony Eden’s home, Sunday, 3 p.m., August 13, 1944. Participating in the discussion were Sir Anthony Eden, Secretary Morgenthau, Ambassador Winant, H. D. White. Robert Sherwood joined the group later.
(Sitting on the lawn near by were Mrs. Eden, a Major in the United States Army and some young lady relative of the Eden family, all of whom could have overheard parts of the conversation).
Secretary Morgenthau spoke of his concern over the trend in thinking with respect to plans for civil control by military forces of Germany immediately after occupation …
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Eden replied that he had been waiting for the European Advisory Committee [Commission] to prepare, in accordance with the decision made at the Teheran conference, a program for reparations and other controls over postwar Germany. He said time was short and asked Winant when the E. A. C. was coming out with a report.
Ambassador Winant explained that the E. A. C. had worked out what they regarded as the most urgent part of their assignment, namely, to formulate the terms of surrender and the allocation of areas of control by the British, American and Russian military authorities. He added that to his knowledge the final decision had not yet been made with respect to allocation of the area of control as between the British and American military authorities.
With respect to the report of which Eden was inquiring, he said they had not yet begun working on it. He went on to explain that he was waiting to receive from Washington memoranda or decisions of policy with respect to reparations and other postwar measures regarding Germany.…
[Page 882]Eden said that he was a little surprised that the general policy with respect to the treatment of Germany after victory wasn’t known. He said that at the Teheran conference it had been agreed that E. A. C. should be instructed to work out plans for the dismemberment of Germany. Eden said that Russia was determined on one thing above all others, namely, that Germany would not again disturb the peace of Europe; that “Uncle Joe” Stalin was determined to smash Germany so that it would never again be able to make war. At the Teheran conference “Uncle Joe” had insisted that Germany be dismembered to the end that she would be unable to make war again. Eden said Roosevelt had agreed with Stalin, but Churchill was at first reluctant to accede. He (Churchill) was willing to make Austria independent and to take East Prussia away, but was doubtful about going beyond that. After conversing with him, Eden, Churchill decided, in view of the attitude of Roosevelt and Stalin, to go along with them on that program and so it was definitely decided that the E. A. C. was to prepare a program for the dismemberment of Germany. Eden said that he assumed that their people (the British technicians) were working along the lines necessary to carry out the decision at Teheran. He had assumed he said that the E. A. C. was going ahead on that basis.
Eden said that much of that was in the reported minutes of the meeting at Teheran which possibly the Secretary had seen. The Secretary replied that he had not seen them and inquired whether or not it would be possible. Mr. Eden said that of course, that he had them in his office and he would arrange to have the Secretary see them there.
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I mentioned that I understood that some of the thinking among the British, particularly among the British Treasury technicians, was that a restoration of the Germany [German?] economy was desirable because prior to the war Germany had been the most important customer of Great Britain and that Great Britain could not afford to lose so excellent a market for her goods. Eden appeared shocked that such views should be held in the British Treasury and said that they were not in accord with the decisions arrived at at Teheran.
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- For an account of the discussions covered in this document and in the one immediately following, see the article by Fred Smith, formerly Assistant to the Secretary of the Treasury, reprinted in Interlocking Subversion in Government Departments (The Harry Dexter White Papers), Hearings Before the Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, 84th Congress, 1st session, part 30, pp. 2640–2641.↩