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

Editor’s Note

—No official record of this conversation has been found. The following subjects were discussed: the use of British vessels in the Pacific for Coronet;² United States agreement not to request the conversion of 18 British cargo vessels to troopships, subject to the allocation of the Milwaukee to the United States; the allocation of captured German passenger vessels to the United States;³ the question whether the Milwaukee should be converted in the United States or the United Kingdom and whether this vessel should be manned by American or British crews;⁴ the inability of the United Kingdom to supply France with coal during the coming winter and the allocation of American shipping for this purpose; United States support of British coal requirements for bunkering, either on a lend-lease or a pay basis; possible British payment of charter hire for Italian vessels; possible Italian membership in the United Maritime Authority;⁵ shipping aspects of a possible revision of the Italian armistice terms and of a peace treaty for Italy; disposition of captured German vessels, the use of the Soviet share in the war against Japan, and the possibility that the Soviet Union might wish to man these vessels; possible Soviet membership in the United Maritime Authority; the relationship of the new Polish Provisional Government of National Unity to the United Maritime Authority;⁶ British consent to United States participation in the work of the Capcraft commission⁷ in the light of needs of the United States Navy for sea-going tugs for use in Coronet; the mechanism in London to be used for the division of captured German vessels as between the United States and the United Kingdom; and a draft British paper⁸ on shipping programs intended for submission to the August meeting of the Council of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration.

2. See document No. 1287, post.
3. See documents Nos. 1195 and 1196, post.
4. See document No. 1193, post.
5. See document No. 1110, post.
6. See documents Nos. 1132 and 1134, post.
7. See documents Nos. 1006 and 1010, post.
8. Not found.