Office of the Historian

740.0011 Moscow/34b: Telegram

The Acting Secretary of State to the American Delegation to the Moscow Conference of Foreign Ministers62

Washington, October 11, 1943.

Amdel63 5. An aide-mémoire from the British Embassy today64 states that under Item 8 of the British Agenda the following represents the British proposal: The present policy of the British Government is [Page 552] to support all resistance elements in Yugoslavia provided they fight against the Axis and not amongst themselves.

The British Government considers that in the future the principal Allied effort should be directed toward trying to bring about some sort of modus vivendi between the Partisans65 and Mihailović66 in order that their military efforts can be effectively coordinated to serve the interests of the Allies.

The second aide-mémoire also received today67 puts forth the following British views with respect to Item 13 of their Agenda: The British Government is desirous of obtaining any views about the type of goods which the Soviet Government is likely to need after the war and also the type of goods that the Soviet Government will be able to export. This information is desired so that the British Government may be able to put into more precise form the proposals which they hope to discuss subsequently with the Soviet Government.

[Stettinius]
  1. Transmitted to the U.S.S. Phoenix, at sea. The Secretary of State and part of the American delegation flew from Washington to San Juan, Puerto Rico, on October 7 and 8, 1943; there they boarded the cruiser Phoenix to make the Atlantic crossing, and disembarked at Casablanca on October 15; from Casablanca they flew by stages to Moscow, arriving there on October 18.↩
  2. “Amdel” was the designation assigned to a series of telegrams from the Department of State to the American delegation; “Delam” was the designation assigned to telegrams from the American delegation to the Department.↩
  3. Dated October 9, 1943; not printed.↩
  4. The Yugoslav Communist guerrilla forces, led by Marshal Tito (Josip Broz).↩
  5. Gen. Draža Mihailović, leader of the Yugoslav Nationalist guerrilla forces.↩
  6. No record of this document found in Department files.↩