740.00119 EAC/12–2744: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Winant)
10731. Reurtel 11012, December 12, 6 p.m.17 Ambassador Harri-man sent a letter to Molotov on August 28, proposing that discussions be undertaken at a technical level, either through EAC or independently, as a first step toward arrival at an interim arrangement on reparation and restitution, such discussions to be followed by policy discussions in EAC. According to our most recent information, the Soviet Government has not replied to this letter, and Moscow Embassy has made no further approaches.
In Department’s 9052 to London of October 30, and 9325 to London of November 4 [7], both of which were repeated to Moscow, we indicated our desire to postpone tripartite discussions until clarification of American views regarding economic treatment of Germany had been obtained. We have made some progress in obtaining such clarification, and expect further progress in next few weeks. Meanwhile, however, no steps should be taken to expedite discussions on reparation and economic security.
- Not printed; it reported that the British Foreign Office informed the Ambassador that on November 10 the British Ambassador in the Soviet Union addressed a letter to the Soviet People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs urging early discussion in the EAC of problems of reparation and economic disarmament of Germany (740.00113 EW/12–1244).↩