840.50/2875
The British Embassy to the Department of State
Aide-Mémoire
His Majesty’s Embassy enclose the text of a draft declaration47 which His Majesty’s Government wish to propose under Items 3 and 11 of the British agenda for the Three-Power Meeting.48 Mr. Eden proposes to suggest that this declaration should be discussed with a view to publication if agreed upon at the meeting.
[An aide-mémoire from the British Embassy in Washington, October 5, 1943, enclosing a British note to the Soviet Chargé d’Affaires in London on the subject of the negotiation by either the United Kingdom or the Soviet Union of commitments or agreements with other European governments in respect to questions covering the peace settlement or the postwar period, is printed as Conference Document No. 23, page 724.
In a memorandum dated October 8, 1943, attached to the file copy of the British aide-mémoire, the Chief of the Division of European Affairs (Matthews) noted that on October 6 the Secretary of State had consulted President Roosevelt with regard to the aide-mémoire; Mr. Matthews’ memorandum continues, “The President said that he did not think much of the proposed British draft. He further said that it smacked too much [of] ‘spheres of influence’ policies, the very thing which it was supposedly designed to prevent. Mr. Dunn informed Sir Ronald Campbell that the President’s first reaction was unfavorable.” (741.61/10–543)]