840.4016/9–2045: Telegram
The Ambassador in Czechoslovakia (Steinhardt) to the Secretary of State
[Received September 23—1:55 p.m.]
368. In accordance with your request we have discussed subject of your 35 of Sept 114 with Czech authorities who advise as follows:
There are two groups of Germans they desire to expel from Czechoslovakia, (a) Approximately 1,000,000 German refugees who entered Czechoslovakia in flight before advancing Soviet armies and who constitute a continuing burden on the limited food supplies of a country with a population of 14,000,000. Of this million it is estimated only 200,000 or 300,000 have been repatriated to Germany. The Czech authorities state that it has not been possible to repatriate the balance due to the failure thus far of American, British and Soviet authorities to cooperate, (b) Approximately 2,500,000 Sudeten Germans who were residents of Czechoslovakia before outbreak of war or since then. Of these 2,500,000 Czech authorities state that not more than 200,000 have left Czechoslovakia voluntarily or been expelled. Adding to this 200,000 approximately 800,000 who will [Page 1278] be permitted to remain because of their loyalty to Czechoslovakia state approximately 1,500,000 are to be expelled under Potsdam Agreement.
As large number of Czechs and Slovaks have returned to Czechoslovakia who are without houses or means of earning a livelihood Czech authorities are insistent that Potsdam Agreement be implemented as soon as possible. They take the position that they reluctantly agreed to suspend expulsions pending arrangements for an “orderly and humane” procedure but cannot agree to further delay. They point out that the entire administrative, political, economic, financial and social rehabilitation of Czechoslovakia is being blocked by the failure of Allied Control Commission to approve a schedule of orderly and humane expulsions. They emphasize that they offered over a month ago to send a delegation to Berlin to agree with Allied Control Commission on a schedule of orderly and humane expulsions and apparently regard Allied Control Commission’s failure to take correct [corrective?] action as dilatory. They refer to statistics made public by American military authorities of millions of non-Germans who have been repatriated from Germany to their respective countries as evidence that there is room in Germany to take back its own refugees and to absorb the Sudeten Germans, particularly if a weekly schedule of absorption is agreed upon. They also point out that a large Russian army continues to consume Czechoslovakia’s limited food supply, that they have had to appeal to UNRRA5 for assistance and that food shipped into Czechoslovakia requires longer transportation than if the supplies are made available in Germany to Germans expelled from Czechoslovakia. Finally they urge that as the political stability of Czechoslovakia which the US and Great Britain desire to maintain and strengthen is dependent on earliest possible agreement on a schedule of expulsions that the matter be given immediate attention.
Sent USPolAd Berlin as 19, repeated Dept.