740.00119 Potsdam/7–2345

Rapporteur’s Report 1

[Translation]

V. M. Molotov Report on the Meeting of Foreign Ministers on July 23d 1945 to the Heads of the Three Governments

Agenda of the meeting of the three Ministers was as following:

1. reparations from germany, austria and italy

V. M. Molotov handed to Secretary of State Byrnes and Minister for Foreign Affairs Eden the draft proposals of the Soviet Delegation on reparations from Germany and on advance deliveries from Germany in [on] account of reparations.2

[Page 290]

It was decided to charge the Economic Commission [Subcommittee] with preliminary examination of the both drafts and to discuss them at the next meeting of the three Ministers.

2. economic principles in regard to germany

Paragraphs 13 and 18 were discussed same [as well] as paragraph 19. proposed by the Soviet Delegation. V. M. Molotov said he withdrew the proposed by him amendment to paragraph 13 and proposed to exclude paragraph 18, questions related to this paragraph to be examined by the Allied organs in Germany with subsequent solution in the Control Council; in case no agreement is reached in the Control Council the questions are to be agreed upon by the Governments. On this point there was no agreement reached and it was decided to submit the question of paragraph 18 to the meeting of the Heads of Three Governments to be decided upon.

V. M. Molotov submitted to Mr. Eden and Mr. Byrnes the draft of new paragraph 19 proposed by the Soviet Delegation. Mr. Byrnes stated this draft cannot be accepted by the United States Delegation. V. M. Molotov proposed an alternate draft of paragraph 19 according to which the approved by the Control Council export from Germany to cover the import is realized prior to all other deliveries. In all other cases priority is given to reparations. The agreement was not reached and it was decided to submit this question to the meeting of the Heads of Three Governments to be decided upon.

3. on the council of foreign ministers

Presented by the Drafting Committee draft was approved without amendments.

4. on trust territories

The draft of the Soviet Delegation was discussed. Mr. Eden stated that first of all should be solved the question of whether the Italian colonies should be detached from Italy and if so, which ones specifically. This question should be solved simultaneously with the drafting of the peace agreement with Italy. The question of who should be given the trusteeship over all former Italian colonies to be detached from Italy, must be solved by the International Organization of United Nations. Mr. Byrnes proposed to postpone the decision on this question until the signing of the peace agreement with Italy, when all territorial problems concerning Italy would be solved.

V. M. Molotov proposed to refer the Soviet Memorandum to the first meeting of the Council of the Foreign Ministers that will take place in London next September. Mr. Eden said that he thought [Page 291] that there was no necessity to refer the Soviet Memorandum to the Council of the Foreign Ministers because in working out the Peace Treaty with Italy question of the Italian colonies will be automatically brought up.

V. M. Molotov asked to take into account that the questions Soviet Memorandum is dealing with will be put by the Soviet Government before the September meeting of the Council of the Foreign Ministers in London.

5. on directives to allied commanders-in-chief in germany
(proposal of the us delegation)

It was decided to inform all Commanders in Chief of the Allied occupational forces in Germany of all concerning them decisions of the Conference upon securing confirmation of the Provisional Government of the French Republic on these decisions.

For this objective [it] was decided to organize a Committee composed of:

United States Murphy and Riddleberger,
Great Britain Strang and Harrison,
Soviet Union Goussev and Sobolev.

6. on cooperation in solving immediate european economic problems

For preliminary examination of the memorandum submitted by the United States Delegation to organize a Committee composed of:

United States Clayton and Pauley
Great Britain Brand and Coulson
Soviet Union Arutiunian and Geraschenko.

7. on tangier

The Soviet draft was discussed.

Resolved:

1.
To approve the first paragraph of the Soviet Delegation’s draft which reads as the following:

“International Zone of Tangier.

Having considered the question of the zone of Tangier we agreed that this zone which includes the town of Tangier and the area adjoined to it shall owing to it[s] special strategic importance remain international”.

2.
It was decided to discuss in immediate future the whole question on [of?] Tangier at the meeting in Paris of the representatives of the Four Governments—USSR, USA, Great Britain, and France.

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8. approval of the text of address to governments of china and france

Text of address proposed by the Committee is approved without amendments.

It is decided to send the address forty eight hours before communiqué on the results of the Conference is published.

9. on agenda of the meeting of the heads of the three governments on july 23d, 1945

It was agreed to recommend to the Heads of the Three Governments the following agenda:

1.
On Turkey;
2.
On Koenigsberg region;
3.
On Syria and Lebanon;
4.
On Iran[.]

  1. Molotov acted as Rapporteur for this meeting. The typed notation “Informal translation from Russian” appears in the upper right-hand corner of page 1. A somewhat different version of the report is included in the minutes of the afternoon meeting of Heads of Government; cf. post, p. 300.
  2. For the documents referred to in this report, see the footnotes to the minutes, ante, pp. 276287.