Office of the Historian

800.0146/161a: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Winant)

Washington, September 4, 1943—midnight.

5417. For Ambassador Biddle. It is evident that some uneasiness exists in the minds of the refugee governments and authorities and their respective countries over the question of the possible establishment of military government in those countries. As there is every intention of having those governments and constituted authorities participate to the extent practicable in the function of maintaining law and order and in the administration of the liberated areas it has seemed desirable to make a public statement to that effect. This Government proposes therefore to issue an identic statement on liberated areas with the British Government on September 15. The British Foreign Office plans to communicate the text of this statement to the exiled governments in London on September 13 and you are requested to concert with the Foreign Office and arrange for a simultaneous approach. The text of the statement reads as follows:27

  • “1. The Governments of the United States and United Kingdom, necessarily by reason of their military operations in enemy territory, must assume the major responsibility for the administration of enemy territories conquered by their forces in pursuance of the war against the Axis.
  • “2. The Governments of the United States and the United Kingdom, while continuing to exercise supreme military authority in liberated areas pending the defeat of the enemy, will be agreeable to the policy of the governments and constituted authorities of the United Nations in their respective liberated countries proceeding with the function of maintaining law and order with such assistance by the Allied authorities as may be necessary, subject always to military requirements.

“Conversations and arrangements with the government of those countries have already been in progress for some time on these aspects of the mutual interests involved.”

Hull
  1. This text was agreed upon at a meeting of the First Quebec Conference on August 22, 1943; it was decided that the statement should be conveyed to the Soviet Government and China and the refugee governments directly concerned, and then released for publication. Later, however, it was decided to postpone publication of the statement. For additional details, see Foreign Relations, The Conferences at Cairo and Tehran, 1943, p. 382, footnote 4. The records of the First Quebec Conference are scheduled for publication in a subsequent volume of Foreign Relations. ↩