740.00119 E.W. 1939/9–1844: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Harriman)
2232. The Department has received from the British Embassy in Washington a memorandum35 stating the British Government’s view [Page 239] that in connection with the signing of armistice terms by the Axis satellites the responsibility of the latter for the protection, within their jurisdiction, of refugees and displaced persons against violence and against removal by retreating enemy forces should be clearly fixed.
Specifically, the British memorandum suggests separate public declarations on the part of Rumania, Bulgaria and Hungary, which in the case of the two latter states could be signed simultaneously with the armistice and in the case of Rumania “in accordance with the armistice”. According to the text suggested by the British, the signatory government would undertake “to take all measures within its power to ensure that all displaced persons or refugees within its territory, including Jews and stateless persons, are accorded at least the same measure of protection and security as its own nationals.”
The Department is in full agreement with the purpose of the British proposal and has no objection to the suggested text of declaration. You are accordingly instructed to indicate this Government’s agreement if the question of such a public declaration by Rumania is raised by the British in Moscow.
Repeated to London.
- Not found in Department files.↩