740.00119 EAC/9–2944: Telegram
The Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Winant) to the Secretary of State
[Received September 29—2:41 p.m.]
8237. Comea 102. This is in answer to Department’s 7892, September 27, midnight.88 After the action of the President and the Prime Minister at Quebec and upon receipt of Department’s 7670 (September 20, 7 p.m. Eacom 32), I took up with Gousev and Strang question of amending the protocol as it relates to the allocation of the northwestern and southwestern zones in Germany. I explained to Gousev that in accepting the southwestern zone for occupation by United States troops, we had asked the British to make certain concessions in order to insure support of our troops from North Sea ports and that we had further simplified the line of division between the United States and British zones. I pointed out to him that these adjustments did not affect the Russian zone of occupation. We plan to discuss formal amendment of the protocol in the European Advisory Commission.
The British Government has drawn up and approved detailed amendments for insertion in the protocol. Strang has asked that I send these proposed amendments to you to get the approval of our Government before formally presenting them in the EAC. The proposed changes are as follows: Under paragraph 2, the Northwestern Zone would be described as follows:
“The territory of Germany situated to the west of the line defined above and bounded on the south by a line drawn from the point where the frontier between the Prussian Provinces of Hanover and Hessen Nassau meets the western frontier of the Prussian Province of Saxony; thence along the southern frontier of Hanover; thence along the northwestern, western and southern frontiers of Hessen Nassau to the point where the River Rhine leaves the latter; thence along the center of the navigable channel of the River Rhine to the point where it leaves Hessen Darmstadt; thence along the western frontier of Baden to the point where this frontier becomes the Franco German frontier will be occupied by armed forces of the United Kingdom”.
The Southwestern Zone would be described as follows:
“All the remaining territory of western Germany to the south of the lines defined in the descriptions of the Eastern and Northwestern Zones will be occupied by armed forces of the United States.”
The following paragraph would be inserted after the description of the Southwestern Zone:
“Nevertheless, for the purpose of facilitating communications between the Southwestern Zone and the sea, the Commander-in-Chief of the forces in the Southwestern zone will:
- (1)
- Control the ports of Bremen and Bremerhaven and the necessary staging areas in the immediate vicinity thereof;
- (2)
- Enjoy necessary transit facilities through the Northwestern zone”.
The names of the United Kingdom and United States would be inserted at the conclusion of the descriptions of the northwestern and southern parts of Berlin respectively.
- Not printed; it asked whether it was the intention of the European Advisory Commission to draw up a protocol embodying the alterations in the northwestern and southwestern zones of occupation in Germany agreed upon at the Second Quebec Conference (740.00119EAC/9–2744).↩