Office of the Historian

740.00119 (Potsdam)/7–3045

No. 1018
Proposal by the British Delegation1

secret

War Crimes

Memorandum by the British Delegation Dated 13th [sic] July, 1945

The British Delegation placed this matter on the Agenda of the Conference.2 They consider it most desirable, in view of the great public interest throughout the world in the major war criminals being brought to just and speedy punishment, that an agreement should be reached between the Three Governments to insert a paragraph on the lines suggested below in the Protocol and Communiqué.

“The Three Governments have taken note of the discussions which have been proceeding in recent weeks in London3 between British, United States, Soviet and French representatives with a view to reaching agreement on the methods of trial of those major war criminals whose crimes under the Moscow Declaration of October, 1943 have no particular geographical localisation. The Three Governments reaffirm their intention to bring these criminals to swift and sure justice. They hope that the negotiations in London will result in speedy agreement being reached for this purpose, and they regard it as a matter of great importance that the trial of these major criminals should begin at the earliest possible date.”4

Potsdam , 30th July, 1945.
  1. Attachment 13 to the summary of the Tenth Meeting of the Foreign Ministers, July 30. See ante, pp. 495, 498.↩
  2. See vol. i, document No. 176.↩
  3. For the London discussions referred to, for the text of the Agreement of August 8, 1945, signed at the conclusion of those discussions, and for the text of the Charter of the International Military Tribunal annexed to that Agreement, see Report of Robert H. Jackson, United States Representative to the International Conference on Military Trials, London, 1945.↩
  4. One copy of this paper bears the following manuscript notation: “Agreed”.↩