740.00119 EW 1939/8–2744: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Harriman)
2073. Your 3181 (August 27).91 Department’s 2060 (August 28). The British have proposed the following changes in the armistice terms for Rumania agreed upon by the three principal Allies last April. The text of those terms was sent to you in the Department’s telegram no. 878 (April 11).92
Begin British proposals: Reference point 2 (a) of April terms, Rumania should be required to break relations with every state with which any of the United Nations is at war; enemy property should be placed under control; enemy nationals should be interned.
Reference point 2 (c) of April terms, “reparation for war damage and restoration of Allied property” should be substituted for clause in its present form.
Following four additions to April terms proposed:
- (a)
- Allies should have the right to station troops and agencies in Rumanian territory; Rumania should be required to pay the costs of occupation and also to provide such Rumanian currency as may be required by the Allies from time to time. (However, since the Soviet Government, judging from discussions of August 25 in the European Advisory Commission, apparently does not desire to claim more than the right of Allied troops to full freedom of movement across Rumanian territory as the military situation demands, the British Government does not desire to press this provision).
- (b)
- Rumania should comply with instructions given by the Allies concerning control of transport systems and of Danube River.
- (c)
- The armistice should provide for the appointment of an Allied Control Commission.
- (d)
- Rumania should carry out unconditionally such further requirements as the Allies will present (however, the British Government does not insist that the word “unconditionally” be retained). End British proposals.
The British memorandum mentioned the British desire for political representation in Rumania, to which the Soviet Government agreed in April. It stated also that the British Ambassador in Moscow would remind the Soviet Government that the British consider the amount of Rumanian reparations to be a matter for discussion at the general peace settlement.
The Department’s reply to the British memorandum agrees to the proposed changes in the April terms, provided those changes are acceptable to the Soviet Government. Only in regard to point (d) of the additional terms proposed by the British did the Department recommend a different wording, namely that the word “unconditionally” be deleted and that the phrase “may jointly present” be substituted for the phrase “will present”.
With respect to article 4 of the April terms which deals with Transylvania (Department’s 878, April 11), the Department’s reply to the British recalled to the attention of the British Government the known American desire to postpone final decisions on territorial questions until the general peace settlement, and recommended that the phrase “deferring the definitive disposition of this territory to the general settlement” be employed in the article in question in the final terms to be signed by Rumania. During the negotiations at Cairo in April Ambassador MacVeagh mentioned to Novikov this Government’s general policy with respect to territorial questions and expressed our preference for the inclusion in article 4 of the phrase quoted above although we were willing, in order not to delay the negotiations, to accept the British phrase “subject to confirmation at the peace settlement” which was accepted by the Russians, and added to article 4 as it appears in Department’s 878. When an appropriate occasion arises, you should recall to the attention of the Soviet Government our general policy as stated above and also make known our specific recommendation respecting Transylvania.
For your own confidential information, the Department would have preferred to see this same principle, namely the deferment of final decision on territorial disputes until after the end of the war in Europe, applied also to Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina. However, the Soviet Government has taken the firm position that these provinces lie within the “Soviet state frontier established in 1940 by a treaty between the Soviet Union and Rumania”, and there seems to be a disposition on the part of the Rumanians to regard loss of these provinces as inevitable. Since the three Allies have already agreed to accept point 2 (b) of the April terms, the Department does not desire that you should interject this issue into the present armistice discussions.
[Page 201]The United States Government, like the British Government, expects to have political representation in Rumania in the period following signature of the armistice, as agreed to by Molotov last April.
Sent to Moscow; repeated to London.93