740.00119 E.W./10–1244: Telegram
The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Harriman) to the Secretary of State
[Received 11:10 p.m.]
3911. A meeting was held this afternoon at the Foreign Office attended by Vyshinski, Gusev, Clark Kerr and myself at which armistice terms for Bulgaria were discussed. The purpose of the meeting was to take advantage of the presence in Moscow of Mr. Eden and other Foreign Office officials to reach agreement as far as possible between the British and Russians here on these terms with the understanding that the results of the discussions would be wired to their respective representatives on the EAC and that final agreement between the three countries would be arrived at there. I made it plain that I had no instructions to discuss these terms here and that I could therefore participate only as an observer.
The Russians submitted a revised draft of their proposals which was used as the basis for discussion. This draft together with the details of the discussions will be wired to London by the British Embassy here as soon as one or two questions have been cleared with Eden and the British have agreed to request Strang to make all this material available to Winant. I have therefore not undertaken to report it myself. The Department may wish however to know at once the outcome of the discussions with respect to the article pertaining to the Control Commission. The final wording of this article to which both Russians and British agreed provides that an Allied Control Commission shall be established in Bulgaria for the whole period of the armistice under the chairmanship of the Soviet representative with the participation of representatives of the United States and United Kingdom. It is further stipulated that the Commission is to regulate and supervise the execution of the terms under the general direction of the Soviet command. This final wording is the reflection of discussions yesterday between Eden and Molotov and I understand from [Page 450] Eden that in practice it will be so interpreted as long as hostilities with Germany continue [and that] the Control Commission will function more or less as in Rumania but that after that time each of the three countries will have an equal voice in its affairs.
The British wish to add to this article an additional phrase binding the Bulgarians to carry out any and all instructions of the Control Commission. The Russians oppose the inclusion of such a phrase. No agreement has been reached on this point which together with other unsettled points will presumably have to be thrashed out.
Repeated to London and Caserta for Kirk.