Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers, The Conference of Berlin (The Potsdam Conference), 1945, Volume I

740.00119 (Potsdam)/5–2446

No. 436
Briefing Book Paper

top secret

Czechoslovakia

Expulsion of Minority Groups

The United States has been officially informed by the Czechoslovak Republic that it desires to expel immediately the Sudeten German and Hungarian minorities.¹ Although the Government of the United States has expressed its sympathy with the concern of the Czechoslovak Government over its minority problems, it opposes any unilateral action to transfer these minorities until a satisfactory agreement is reached with the powers responsible for the maintenance of order and military security in Germany.

The transfer of the Sudeten German minority is part of the large problem of the transfer of German minorities from Poland and other states. The heads of the Allied governments may wish to discuss this question in its larger context in order to provide for an orderly solution of the whole problem of German minorities. Unless an agreement is reached, the Czechoslovak Government may attempt unilateral action, since the continued presence of the Sudeten German minority is the most pressing and important political question in Czechoslovakia.

[ Washington ,] June 23, 1945.

1. See document No. 439.