Moscow Embassy Files—500 Berlin
Conference
No. 714
Text Approved by the Foreign
Ministers1
top secret
[Babelsberg,] July 22,
1945.
Draft Passage for Inclusion in the
Final Protocol and Published Report of the Conference
The Conference reached the following agreement for the establishment
of a Council of Foreign Ministers to do the necessary preparatory
work for the peace settlements:—
(Here insert final text.2)
It was agreed that the three Governments should each address an
identical invitation to the Governments of China and France to adopt
this text and to join in establishing the Council.
It was understood that the establishment of the Council of Foreign
Ministers for the specific purposes named in the text would be
without prejudice to the agreement of the Crimea Conference that
there should be periodical consultation between the Foreign
Secretaries of the United States, the Union of Soviet Socialist
Republics and the United Kingdom.
The Conference also considered the position of the European Advisory
Commission in the light of the agreement to establish the Council of
Foreign Ministers. It was noted with satisfaction that the
Commission had ably discharged its principal tasks by the
recommendations that it had furnished for the terms of surrender for
Germany, for the zones of occupation in Germany and Austria, and for
the inter-Allied control machinery in these countries. It was felt
that further work of a detailed character for the co-ordination of
Allied policy for the control of Germany and Austria would in future
fall within the competence of the Allied Control Commission at
Berlin and the Allied Commission at Vienna. Accordingly the
Conference agreed to recommend to the Member Governments of the
European Advisory Commission that the Commission might now be
dissolved.
[Page 615]
[Attachment]
top
secret
[Babelsberg,] July 22,
1945.
The Establishment of a Council
of Foreign Ministers
- (1)
- There shall be established a Council composed of the
Foreign Ministers of the United Kingdom, the Union of Soviet
Socialist Republics, China, France, and the United
States.
- (2)
- (i) The Council shall normally meet at London, which shall
be the permanent seat of the joint Secretariat which the
Council will form. Each of the Foreign Ministers will be
accompanied by a high-ranking Deputy, duly authorised to
carry on the work of the Council in the absence of his
Foreign Minister, and by a small staff of technical
advisers.
- (ii) The first meeting of the Council shall be held in
London not later than September 1st 1945. Meetings may be
held by common agreement in other capitals as may be agreed
from time to time.
- (3)
- (i) As its immediate important task, the Council shall be
authorised to draw up, with a view to their submission to
the United Nations, treaties of peace with Italy, Roumania,
Bulgaria, Hungary and Finland, and to propose settlements of
territorial questions outstanding on the termination of the
war in Europe. The
Council shall be utilised for the preparation of a peace
settlement for Germany to be accepted by the Government of
Germany when a government adequate for the purpose is
established.
- (ii) For the discharge of each of these tasks the Council
will be composed of the Members representing those States
which were signatory to the terms of surrender imposed upon
the enemy State concerned. For the purposes of the peace
settlement for Italy, France shall be regarded as a
signatory to the terms of surrender for Italy. Other Members
will be invited to participate when matters directly
concerning them are under discussion.
- (iii) Other matters may from time to time be referred to
the Council by agreement between the Member
Governments.
- (4)
- (i) Whenever the Council is considering a question of
direct interest to a State not represented thereon, such
State should be invited to send representatives to
participate in the discussion and study of that
question.
- (ii) The Council may adapt its procedure to the particular
problem under consideration. In some cases it may hold its
own preliminary discussions prior to the participation of
other interested States. In other cases, the Council may
convoke a formal conference of the States chiefly interested
in seeking a solution of the particular problem.
