740.00119 European Advisory Commission/55: Telegram

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

528. Comea 15. I am informed that the British, since the receipt of my letter to Strang mentioned in my Comea 6 of January 15,41 have abandoned their intention of bringing the Anglo-Norwegian Agreement before the Commission and are approaching the Soviet Government through ordinary diplomatic channels to ascertain whether it has any observations to make with respect to the document.

With respect to the question of the liberated areas as a whole, the Foreign Office is not prepared to confirm that they do not wish to submit to the Commission their proposed declaration on liberated areas which the Department considered the principal basis for discussion under item 14 of the Moscow secret protocol (see Department’s 303, January 12, midnight). They may still bring the document before the Commission, with a view to inviting discussion there as to its applicability to the various areas to be liberated. In this case, they would probably not introduce the document as one to which the British Government was committed but simply one which the British representative on the Commission would put forward as a basis for discussion, in the hope that the Commission might arrive at some joint recommendation on this subject.

The Foreign Office is, of course, well aware of our position on this matter.

Winant
  1. Telegram 392, p. 18.