740.00119 Control (Italy)/17: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Chargé at Algiers ( Chapin )

130. For Reinhardt. The Department’s 212, December 22, 10 p.m., and your 259, December 26, 6 p.m.6 Appropriate instructions from the Combined Chiefs of Staff to the Allied Commander-in-Chief approving the appointment of a Soviet representative to the Allied Control Commission has been delayed by action of the British Chiefs of Staff in refusing to approve the dispatch of such instructions without simultaneous approval of French representation on the Commission. The Soviet Ambassador has again raised the question here and pointed out that the appropriate authorities at Algiers have not yet been notified of General Solodovnic’s designation. You should inform your Russian colleague that the Secretary and the President have both agreed to the placing of a Soviet representative on the [Page 998] Allied Control Commission and that any delay in instructions to that effect to the Allied Commander-in-Chief has been occasioned by difficulties in reaching a decision with respect to French representation. You may say that it is hoped that appropriate instructions with respect to Soviet representation will go forward from the Combined Chiefs of Staff without further delay and without waiting for a decision with respect to French representation.

Your 131, January 12, midnight,7 just received. The present telegram and the Department’s 212 are your authorization to join in the Council’s recommendation that a Soviet representative be accepted on the Control Commission. You may say that you are still without instructions with respect to French representation on the Commission.

Hull
  1. Foreign Relations, 1943, vol. ii, pp. 442 and 443, respectively.
  2. Telegram not printed.