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

Truman Papers

Rapporteur’s Report¹

Potsdam, July 22, 1945, 11:10 a.m.

Report to the Plenary Meeting on the Meeting of Foreign Secretaries on the Morning of 22nd July by the Chairman (Mr. Eden)

The meeting took note that the following subjects were still on the Agenda of the Foreign Secretaries:

1. The admission of neutral states to the World Organisation, and the exclusion of the present Spanish Government.

2. The Council of Five Foreign Ministers.

3. Reparations from Italy and Austria.

4. European oil supplies.

5. Yalta Declaration on liberated Europe.

6. German economic questions.

7. The removal as booty of Allied industrial equipment especially in Roumania.

The meeting observed that questions 1–4 had been referred to various sub-committees or drafting committees and could not therefore be discussed at the meeting of Foreign Secretaries this morning. They therefore proceeded to a discussion of the three remaining questions.

yalta declaration on liberated europe

The meeting had before it a memorandum submitted by the United States delegation on July 21st.² This memorandum dealt with three questions:

1. The observation of elections in certain European countries.

2. Facilities for press representatives in liberated and former Axis satellite states.

3. Procedure of Control Commissions in Roumania, Bulgaria and Hungary.

The British delegation expressed agreement with the United States memorandum.

The Soviet delegation was unable to agree with the proposal in regard to the observation of elections. As regards the second and third questions it was agreed that these should be referred to a subcommittee for discussion. This committee consisted of:

United States	Mr. Cannon and Mr. Russell
Soviet Union	Mr. Sobolev
United Kingdom	Mr. Hayter

The Soviet delegation undertook to provide a memorandum showing recent improvements in the status of the British and American representatives on the Control Commissions in Roumania, Bulgaria and Hungary. The Soviet delegation also agreed to prepare a memorandum showing the changes which they felt desirable in regard to the procedure of the Allied Commission in Italy.

german economic questions

The Foreign Secretaries had before them a report by the Economic Sub-Committee. The United States Delegation asked for discussion on reparations to be postponed to a subsequent meeting and the Soviet Delegation asked that discussion should be confined to the economic principles which had been agreed by the Sub-Committee. The Foreign Secretaries therefore decided to discuss the agreed principles and not the principles in dispute or reparations questions. It was agreed that reparations should figure as the first item on the Agenda of the Foreign Secretaries for their meeting on July 23rd.³

Paragraphs 11, 12, 14, 15 and 17 of the principles were agreed, subject to agreement on the points remaining in dispute.

As regards the remainder:—

Paragraph 10. It was agreed to amend the last sentence to read as follows:—

“Productive capacity not needed for permitted production shall be removed in accordance with the reparations plan, recommended by the Allied Commission on Reparations and approved by the Governments concerned, or, if not removed, destroyed”.

Paragraph 13. The Soviet Delegation proposed the addition to the first sentence of wording to the following effect:—

“according to detailed instructions to be issued by the Control Council in accordance with the principles set out in this Agreement.”

The U. S. Delegation asked for time to consider this and the point was therefore reserved.

Paragraph 16.

It was pointed out that this paragraph referred to an annex dealing with reparations and was therefore reserved.

Paragraph 18.

The Soviet Delegation asked for the deletion of this paragraph. As, however, this paragraph was one of those in dispute, it was agreed that it must be reserved.

removal as booty of allied industrial equipment especially in roumania

A general discussion took place on this question on the basis of a memorandum submitted by the United Kingdom delegation on July 19th. No agreement was reached and the question was adjourned for further consideration.

agenda for the plenary meeting

The Foreign Secretaries agreed to recommend as the agenda for this afternoon’s meeting the following items:

1. The western frontier of Poland (resumption of discussion).

2. Trusteeship (adjourned from yesterday’s plenary meeting).

3. Turkey (adjourned from yesterday’s plenary meeting).

4. Partial change of the western frontier of the Soviet Union (proposal of the Soviet Delegation).

5. Persia (memorandum submitted by the United Kingdom delegation on July 21st).

Certain further topics were proposed for remission to the Foreign Secretaries’ meeting on July 22nd. These were as follows:

Co-operation in solving immediate European economic problems (proposal of U. S. delegation).

Directive from heads of Governments for the control of Germany in accordance with the principles heretofore agreed (proposal of U. S. delegation).

Tangier (proposal of Soviet delegation)[.]

Syria and Lebanon (proposal of Soviet delegation)[.]

It is hoped that it may be agreed to refer these at once to the Committee of Foreign Secretaries without discussion at this stage by the plenary meeting.

1. Eden acted as Rapporteur for this meeting. The source copy of this report was apparently before Truman during the afternoon meeting of the Heads of Government. A copy of this report, endorsed “Corrected copy” (file No. 740.00119 (Potsdam)/7–2245), bears manuscript changes and deletions which make it substantially identical with the report read by Eden at the Sixth Plenary Meeting, July 22. Cf. post, pp. 244–246.
2. For the documents mentioned in this report, see the footnotes to the Thompson minutes, ante, pp. 226–238.
3. Opposite this paragraph is the following marginal manuscript notation by Dunn: “Put off any discussion until more complete report can be made by Foreign Secretaries”.