Office of the Historian

Moscow Embassy Files: 500 Conference of Foreign Ministers: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in France (Caffery)26

Moscow, December 22, 1945—6 p.m.

457. Please communicate immediately to (Paris use Bidault, Chungking use Wang) a note in the following sense:

Begin note

In our search for an acceptable formula whereunder work may be continued on the preparation of peace treaties with Italy, Rumania, Bulgaria, Hungary and Finland, the Foreign Secretaries of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, Great Britain, and the United States of America have reached the following understanding:

“Preparation of Peace Treaties with Italy, Rumania, Bulgaria, Hungary, and Finland.

  • “1. In the drawing up by the Council of Foreign Ministers of peace with Italy, Rumania, Bulgaria, Hungary, and Finland only members [Page 742] of the Council who are, or under the terms of the Agreement establishing the Council of Foreign Ministers adopted at the Berlin Conference are deemed to be, signatory of the Surrender Terms, will participate, unless and until the Council takes further action under the agreement to invite other members of the Council to participate on questions directly concerning them. That is to say:
    (a)
    the terms of the peace treaty with Italy will be drafted by the Foreign Ministers of the United Kingdom, the United States, the Soviet Union and France;
    (b)
    the terms of the peace treaties with Rumania, Bulgaria, and Hungary by the Foreign Ministers of the Soviet Union, the United States and the United Kingdom;
    (c)
    the terms of the peace treaty with Finland by the Foreign Ministers of the Soviet Union and the United Kingdom.
  • The Deputies of the Foreign Ministers will immediately resume their work in London (on the basis of the decisions agreed at the first plenary conference of the Council of Foreign Ministers27).
  • “2. When the preparation of all these drafts has been completed, the Council of Foreign Ministers will convoke a conference for the purpose of considering treaties of peace with Italy, Rumania, Bulgaria, Hungary, and Finland. The conference will consist of the five members of the Council of Foreign Ministers together with all members of the United Nations which actively waged war with substantial military force against European enemy states, namely: Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, United Kingdom, United States of America, China, France, Australia, Belgium, Belorussian Soviet Socialist Republic, Brazil, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Ethiopia, Greece, India, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Union of South Africa, Yugoslavia, Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. The conference will be held in blank not later than May 1, 1946.
  • “3. After the conclusion of the deliberations of the conference and upon consideration of its recommendations the states signatory to the terms of armistice with Italy, Rumania, Bulgaria, Hungary, and Finland or regarded as such (France—for the purposes of peace treaty with Italy) will draw up final texts of peace treaties.
  • “4. The final texts of the respective peace treaties as so drawn up will be signed on behalf of the states represented at the conference which are at war with the enemy states in question. The texts of the respective peace treaties will then be sent28 to the other United Nations which are at war with the enemy states in question.
  • “5. The peace treaties will come into force immediately after they have been ratified by the respective Allied states signatory to the respective armistices, France being regarded as such in the case of [Page 743] Italy. These treaties are subject to ratification by the enemy states in question.”

In my capacity as chairman of the meeting at which agreement was reached on the above, I have been directed by my Soviet and British colleagues to express our earnest hope that France and China will wish to associate themselves with this formula and that the preparation of the draft treaties in question may immediately proceed. I should add that the words in the first parentheses above—”on the basis of the decisions agreed at the first plenary conference of the Council of Foreign Ministers”—have not yet been finally agreed upon.

It is the thought of my colleagues and myself that should the French Government desire to act as host it would be appropriate that the conference which is to be convoked not later than May 1, 1946, as set forth above be held in Paris.

When the (Paris use French, Chungking use Chinese) Government has had the opportunity to study the proposal contained herein, I should be most grateful for an early indication of its views and whether it will associate itself therewith.

End note

I wish you to make every endeavor to persuade the (Paris use French, Chungking use Chinese) Government of the desirability of promptly joining us in the foregoing as the best possible arrangement acceptable to all three Governments. For your own information, it is not the intention, however, of the three Governments to make adoption of this formula contingent upon French and Chinese acceptance.

Telegraph (Paris use French, Chungking use Chinese) reaction as soon as possible.

Harriman
  1. Repeated to Chungking as telegram 249.↩
  2. Telegram 458, December 23, 1 p.m., from Moscow to Paris, repeated as telegram 250, from Moscow to Chungking, reported that the parenthetical passage had been revised to read as follows: “On the basis of understandings reached on the questions discussed at the first plenary session of the Council of Foreign Ministers in London.” (Moscow Embassy Files: 500 Conference of Foreign Ministers)↩
  3. Telegram 458 reported that the word “sent” had been changed to “submitted.”↩