740.00119 European Advisory Commission/62
The Deputy Director of the Office of European Affairs ( Matthews )40 to the First Secretary of the British Embassy ( Hayter )
Dear Mr. Hayter: There is one point in your letter dated January 10, 1944 which I do not believe we have covered in our conversations regarding the scope of the European Advisory Commission with particular reference to the Norwegian Civil Affairs Agreement.
On page 3 of your letter you say that the Foreign Office does not feel that these Civil Affairs Agreements are operational in character. In our opinion, although these agreements obviously have a political flavor, they are essentially military in character since they are intended to control not only the question of the jurisdiction of the Allied Commander in Chief over, for example, the Norwegian civil population but also go into considerable detail with respect to jurisdiction over and the responsibility for the discipline of Allied military forces. Accordingly, we feel that the agreements are essentially military and therefore operational in character.
As you know, your Foreign Office has already communicated its views on the European Advisory Commission directly to Ambassador [Page 21] Winant. In order to avoid crossing wires, therefore, we are communicating our views to the British Government through the same channels.
Sincerely yours,
- Mr. Matthews assumed this post on January 15.↩