740.00119 Control (Germany)/10–2845: Telegram
The United States Political Adviser for Germany (Murphy) to the Secretary of State
[Received October 29—10:55 a.m.]
869. The sixteenth meeting of the Coordinating Committee took place on Oct 26 with the French member64 presiding.
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The Prisoners of War and Displaced Persons Directorate submitted a plan for population transfers. The plan sets forth priorities in movements as follows: (1) displaced persons, (2) persons in all categories whom the Four Powers have agreed to transfer on a head for head basis, (3) others. Category (2), under present arrangements, includes German refugees in Austria but not in Czecho. However, the paper provides for the maximum use of transport facilities, and an understanding has been reached with the American delegation on the Prisoners of War and Displaced Persons Directorate that transport used to take Polish DP’s (Displaced Persons) to Poland will be routed back through Czecho so as to pick up Reichs Deutsche refugees there. The paper makes the rough estimate that the total German population to be transferred is about 12 million. The Russian member called attention to the urgency of this problem and the British member referred to the fact that a large scale movement of population is already going on during the discussions on an unofficial basis. This should be taken into account.
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- Gen. Louis Marie Koeltz, French Deputy Military Governor in Germany.↩