548.G1/106: Telegram
The Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Winant) to the Secretary of State
[Received May 5—8:45 p.m.]
3134. With reference to Department’s 2631, April 26, 3 p.m. I have just received the following letter from the Foreign Office.
“Thank you for your letter of the 27th April enclosing copies of a proposed joint declaration by the Allied Governments, drawn up by the United States and British delegations at Bermuda, by which it is proposed to give certain guarantees in regard to maintenance and movement of refugees in neutral, enemy or enemy occupied territories, together with a copy of a telegram addressed to the United States delegation by the State Department embodying the Department’s comments.
I am in general agreement with the declaration as drafted and approved by the two delegations and have so informed Mr. Law, adding, however, that your Government are considering the advisability of introducing certain modifications which I am having examined.
I have given careful thought to the views of the State Department in this matter, particularly with reference to the possibility of the present wording of the declaration raising controversial issues with the Soviet Government. I fully agree that we should do all we can to avoid such a contingency, and I would therefore suggest that it might be advisable for us to follow the line which as you know has been taken on certain other occasions where multilateral agreements with the Soviet Government were concerned, and consult the latter before submitting the proposed draft instrument to the other prospective signatories. I shall therefore be grateful if you will communicate our view to the State Department, and inform me in due course of the result of any discussions which they may have had on the subject with the Soviet Government.
I assume that the United States Government would wish to make their approach to the Soviet Government through their representative in Washington, but if it is preferred that the matter should be taken up by His Majesty’s Government I shall, of course, be glad to approach Monsieur Maisky45 here.
As regards the general sense of the modifications proposed by the State Department in the last sentence of the draft declarations, it might be advisable to defer offering any further comments until the receipt of the views of our respective delegations, and also of the agreement in principle of your Government to the proposed approach to the Soviet Government.
[Page 176]Finally, as regards the communication which will ultimately have to be made to the Allied Governments I feel that it might be appropriate if this was done in London—since all the Allied Governments (except the Greek) are established in this country—through our duly accredited representatives.” (Signed Anthony Eden).
- I. M. Maisky, Soviet Ambassador in the United Kingdom.↩