Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers, 1944, General, Volume I

740.00119 EW/2238

The Acting President of the Inter-Allied Committee of Foreign Affairs (Bech)⁵ to the Chargé to the Polish Government in Exile (Schoenfeld)⁶

London, February 23, 1944.

Mr. Chargé d’Affaires: Following the interview which Mr. van Langenhove,⁷ President of the Inter-Allied Armistice Study Committee, and I had with you yesterday, I have the honor, as Acting President of the Inter-Allied Committee of Foreign Affairs, to send you the documents enumerated below:

1. Program of work in connection with disarmament, drawn up by the Inter-Allied Armistice Study Committee and approved by the Inter-Allied Committee of Foreign Affairs.

2. Extract from the discussions of the Inter-Allied Armistice Study Committee at their session on February 1, 1944, relating to question (1).

3. List of States which are members of the Inter-Allied Committee of Foreign Affairs and of the Armistice Study Committee, together with their representatives on these Committees.⁸

In accordance with the attached extract from the discussions of the Inter-Allied Committee of Foreign Affairs, the latter has directed its Acting President and the President of the Armistice Study Committee to consult the American, British and Soviet Governments on the program of work in connection with disarmament which it has drawn up.

To this end I should therefore be obliged, Mr. Chargé d’Affaires, if you would submit this program to your Government with the request that it be examined. The Committee of Foreign Affairs would be grateful if your Government would communicate to it any observations which it may consider appropriate.

Accept [etc.]

J. Bech

[Enclosure 1—Translation]

Note by the President of the Inter-Allied Armistice Study Committee (van Langenhove)

Document No. 207

January 19, 1944.

Terms Relating to the Disarmament of the Enemy

At the session of November 10 I made known the decision of the Inter-Allied Committee of Foreign Affairs inviting the Inter-Allied Armistice Study Committee to undertake a study of the Armistice terms which would ensure the military, naval and air disarmament of the enemy, and also prevent his secret rearmament, by means of appropriate provisions of an economic, financial and budgetary nature.

The Inter-Allied Committee of Foreign Affairs further decided to request the Acting President to consult the American, British and Soviet Governments regarding the most suitable method of carrying out the work of the Inter-Allied Armistice Study Committee in this sphere, when the aforesaid Committee has drawn up the general outline of the program for this work.

No proposal of this nature has so far been presented to the Inter-Allied Armistice Study Committee. Since I am anxious that there should be no further delay in carrying out the request addressed to us, I have the honor to submit to the Committee the attached plan of work, with a view to its serving as a basis for discussion in the course of our next session.

[File copy not signed]

[Subenclosure—Translation]

Program of Work Drawn Up by the Inter-Allied Armistice Study Committee

Document No. 208

January 19, 1944.

I. Clauses regarding military, naval and air disarmament

a) List of equipment to be handed over,

b) Demobilisation.

1) Effective forces, officers, etc.

2) Arms, munitions, war material.

3) Fortifications.

4) Recruiting, etc.

II. Clauses regarding economic, budgetary and financial disarmament

a) List of works and factories contributing directly or indirectly to the construction, preparation, warehousing or study of arms, munitions and equipment of every kind which might be utilised in the conduct of the war;

b) Decisions regarding enterprises whose activities should be terminated, and the conditions under which such termination should be effected;

c) Control of enterprises contributing to the construction, preparation, warehousing and study of arms, munitions and equipment of every kind which might be utilised in the conduct of the war, whose activities should not be prohibited;

d) Regulations regarding the import and export of arms, munitions and equipment of every kind which might be utilised in the conduct of the war.

III. Methods of Control.

a) Control of enterprises contributing directly or indirectly to the construction, preparation, warehousing or study of arms, munitions and equipment of every kind which might be utilised in the conduct of the war;

1) The taking over of enterprises by competent Allied authorities;

2) The appointment of managers or commission agents, or controllers of any description;

b) Control of trade and particularly of imports of raw materials;

c) Control of rail, road, sea, river and air transport and of electric power transport;

d) Budgetary, financial and currency control.

IV. Inter-Allied regulations concerning the redistribution of the equipment and stores of enterprises whose activities are to be forbidden or limited.

[Enclosure 2—Translation]

Excerpt of the Minutes of the Meeting of the Inter-Allied Committee of Foreign Affairs

The Inter-Allied Committee of Foreign Affairs, at its 14th session held on February 1, 1944, discussed the following question: Program of work in connection with disarmament, drawn up by the Inter-Allied Armistice Study Committee.

The Committee approved the program without modification and requested the Inter-Allied Armistice Study Committee to start work immediately in order to put this program into effect. The Inter-Allied Armistice Study Committee is charged with making a thorough study of the problem of the economic disarmament of Germany, even if its studies have to go beyond the scope of an armistice. It is understood that the study of economic disarmament and that of military, naval and air disarmament will be carried out simultaneously; the first question will be submitted to direct study by the Inter-Allied Armistice Study Committee in plenary session, while the second question will be studied, in the first instance, by the Sub-Committee of Military, Naval and Air Experts.

H. E. the Acting President of the Inter-Allied Committee of Foreign Affairs is directed to consult the American, British and Soviet Governments on the program of work on disarmament. The President of the Inter-Allied Armistice Study Committee is requested to accompany H. E. the Acting President of the Inter-Allied Committee of Foreign Affairs on these visits. The results of these consultations will be communicated to the Inter-Allied Committee of Foreign Affairs which in consequence may modify the program of work in connection with disarmament, taking into consideration the observations of the three Governments.

5. Joseph Bech was Luxembourg Minister for Foreign Affairs. The Committee of which he was Acting President was sometimes referred to as the Inter-Allied Committee of Foreign Ministers.
6. Copy transmitted to the Department by the Chargé to the Polish Government in Exile in his despatch 538, March 1, 1944; received March 8. Rudolf Schoenfeld was simultaneously Chargé to the Governments in Exile at London of Belgium, Czechoslovakia, the Netherlands, Norway, and Poland. In March 1944, he also became Chargé to the Luxembourg Government in Exile. In his despatch, the Chargé reported that this communication was also being sent to the Governments of the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union; Foreign Minister Bech expressed the hope to the Chargé that the matter be brought informally to the attention of Ambassador Winant in connection with his work as United States Representative to the European Advisory Commission.
7. Fernand van Langenhove, Secretary General of the Belgian Ministry for Foreign Affairs.
8. These lists not printed. The members of the Inter-Allied Committee of Foreign Affairs were as follows: Belgium—Foreign Minister Paul-Henri Spaak; France—Minister Plenipotentiary of the French Committee of National Liberation Maurice Dejean; Greece—Ambassador in the United Kingdom Thanassis Aghnides; Luxembourg—Foreign Minister Joseph Bech; Norway—Foreign Minister Trygve Lie; Netherlands—Foreign Minister Eelco van Kleffens; Poland—Foreign Minister Tadeusz Romer; Czechoslovakia—Foreign Minister Jan Masaryk; Yugoslavia—Ambassador in the United Kingdom Bogoljub Jevtić.