740.00119 EAC/118: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in the United Kingdom ( Winant )
2035. The first information which the Department had received respecting Russian reluctance to discuss eventually surrender terms for Bulgaria in the Commission was that set forth in your no. 2023 of March 13, Cornea 41. In as much as the terms of reference of the European Advisory Commission provide that the Commission is charged specifically with the duty of making detailed recommendations for the “terms of surrender to be imposed upon each of the European states with which any of the three Powers are at war, and upon the machinery required to ensure the fulfillment of those terms”, it appears that the question of surrender terms for Bulgaria is clearly a proper subject for discussion in the Commission.
However, as U.S.S.R. is not at war with Bulgaria, we can well understand that the Russian delegate might not desire to participate actively in any discussion on the proposed surrender terms, and for this reason the terms would, in effect, be drafted by the British and American members. This procedure would not, of course, exclude any observations which the Soviet representative might desire to make. The Department, therefore, suggests that at your discretion you recommend this method of procedure to the Commission with the intent of taking up the discussion of the terms for Bulgaria, as well as those for Hungary and Rumania, as soon as the question of the terms for Germany has been disposed of by the Commission.
We are instructing Harriman to lay this before the Soviet Government and ask to have the above suggested procedure adopted.44
- See telegram 619, infra. ↩