740.00119 EW/8–2944: Telegram
The Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Winant) to the Secretary of State
London, August
29, 1944—8 p.m.
[Received August 29—6:13 p.m.]
[Received August 29—6:13 p.m.]
7040. Department’s 6866, August 26, midnight. Cairo’s Greek 267, August 28, 10 a.m. Today I discussed further with the British alternative wordings of clause 3 of armistice terms for Bulgaria stressing considerations advanced in Department’s 6866. British Chiefs of Staff feel strong preference for word “forthwith”. The British reasoning is as follows:
- (1)
- Supreme Allied Command may have a very small control body in Bulgaria, perhaps inadequate to lay down a detailed schedule or to gather all the necessary facts, especially as they relate to civil officials and nationals in the territory to be affected.
- (2)
- Awaiting instructions from the SAC would in effect establish a standstill until those instructions were issued.
- (3)
- The wording adopted should place basic responsibility on the Bulgarians for evacuation, not on the Allies.
- (4)
- It is in the Allied interest to get the Bulgars out of the occupied territory as quickly as possible.
The British Chiefs of Staff do not favor the time limit of 14 days, as suggested in Cairo’s Greek 267.
Winant