740.00119 European War/2280b
The Secretary of State to Admiral William D. Leahy, Chief of Staff to the Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy
My Dear Admiral Leahy: At Wednesday’s meeting of the Department’s Policy Committee it was decided that the direct interest of Greece in the surrender of Bulgaria would suggest that the Greek Government be given an opportunity to participate in eventual peace talks with the Bulgarians.
[Page 314]The situation at the present moment is that if, as a result of the contact established by the Jadwin mission, the Bulgarian Government should decide to send a delegation to Cairo, the arrangements thus far made for hearing their proposals contemplate the participation only of representatives of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union, with a military representative of General Wilson also taking part. The Department understands that this is the plan as agreed to by the President and the Prime Minister, after consultation with Moscow. Mr. Churchill has also informed the President that he considers it most important that he and the President, in conjunction with Mr. Stalin,42 should watch this matter from day to day, for decision on the highest level.
Concurrently the American representative on the European Advisory Commission has been supplied with the documents which were recently cleared with the Joint Chiefs of Staff, for study in connection with the formulation of terms of surrender for Bulgaria. The British Foreign Office is anxious to have this matter brought before the European Advisory Commission and the Soviet Government has been so informed. The Department has not yet learned whether the Soviet Government is agreeable to this procedure.
Paragraph 4 of the terms of reference of the European Advisory Commission reads as follows:
“4. Representatives of the Governments of other United Nations will, at the discretion of the Commission, be invited to take part in meetings of the Commission when matters particularly affecting their interests are under discussion.”
The “other United Nations” which may be expected to express a direct interest in the Bulgarian surrender would be Greece, as mentioned above, and Yugoslavia. Although the agreement reached by the President and the Prime Minister did not contemplate Greek and Yugoslav representation in the initial meeting proposed for Cairo, which would be arranged only to hear what the Bulgarians have to say, the Department believes that attention should be given to the problem of establishing a procedure whereby the Greek and Yugoslav Governments might be represented in the discussions.
In making this suggestion the Department must, however, observe that the inclusion of Yugoslav representation in the peace talks may create certain complications by reason of the hostility which exists between the Yugoslav Government-in-exile, as now constituted, and that group of resistance forces within Yugoslavia (the “Tito” organization43) [Page 315] to which both the British and the Soviet Governments have given strong official encouragement in the political as well as the military sense. The broader question as to which authorities should be recognized as speaking for Yugoslavia might thus be injected into these Bulgarian discussions.
I should be grateful if you could let me know what action the President or the Joint Chiefs may wish to have taken, and at what stage, in order that the matter may be cleared with the British and Soviet Governments and the Greek and Yugoslav Governments so informed.
Sincerely yours,
- Marshal Iosif Vissarionovich Stalin, Chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars of the Soviet Union.↩
- Marshal Tito (Josip Broz) was military leader of the Partisan guerrilla forces in Yugoslavia and President of the National Liberation Movement in that country; for documentation concerning United States interest in Yugoslavia, see vol iv , section under Yugoslavia entitled “Concern of the United States with internal conditions …”↩