840.70/5–545: Telegram
The Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Winant) to the Secretary of State
London, May 5,
1945—noon.
[Received 1:18 p.m.]
[Received 1:18 p.m.]
4542. I. We have discussed with British and French the question of informing (1) the Soviet Government (2) the delegations participating in the ECITO41 Conference and (3) the press concerning signing of provisional agreement and have agreed to recommend following procedure:
- 1.
- Communication to Soviets. Immediately upon signature, United States, British and French Embassies in Moscow would be instructed to make a concerted approach to the Soviet Government in accordance with the draft telegram below. In London immediately after signature the chairman of the Conference would call a meeting of the United States, United Kingdom, French and Soviet delegations at which the Soviet delegation would be informed of the step taken.
- 2.
- Communication to delegations participating in Conference. On May 10, the provisional agreement with annexed draft ECITO agreement would be circulated as a Conference document with a covering note the proposed text of which is in immediately following telegram.40
- 3.
- Press release. See Embassy’s 4544 of May 540 for text which it is proposed to release on May 11,42 thus allowing time for Soviet Government and other delegations to have received the information in advance of publication.
- 4.
- Publication of text of agreement. In making public the information that a provisional agreement had been signed it seemed to the three delegations that it would be necessary in order to avert suspicions of the nature of the agreement to publish as soon as possible the text of the provisional agreement with the annexed draft agreement [Page 1403] and inland waterway protocol. British Government is prepared to publish text as a white paper.
Does Department approve the procedure outlined above and the texts of the proposed communications?
II. Following is text of telegram which it is proposed be sent to the United States, United Kingdom, and French Embassies in Moscow immediately upon signature of provisional agreement:
- 1.
- My immediately following telegram contains text of an agreement concerning a provisional organization for European inland transport which was signed here today (May 8) by the representatives of the Governments of the United Kingdom, United States, Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands and Norway and of the French Provisional Government. You will observe that the signatory governments have agreed to bring the draft agreement concerning the establishment of an European central inland transport organization provisionally into force between them in respect of the territories in continental Europe under their authority.
- 2.
- I shall therefore be glad if in concert with your British and
French colleagues you will inform the Soviet Governments that the
United States, United Kingdom, and French Provisional Governments
are unable to agree that a delegation appointed by the Lublin
Government could properly represent Poland at the ECITO Conference
and that since Soviet Government were unwilling to dispense with all
Polish representation until the matter could be settled the three
governments and the other signatory governments have been
reluctantly obliged to proceed having regard to military
developments in Europe (or having regard to the cessation of
hostilities in Europe as the case may be) with the limited plan of
establishing a provisional organization. You should invite the
Soviet Government to associate themselves with the provisional
organization in whatever way they consider most appropriate. In so
doing you should make the following points:
- (a)
- We do not regard European inland transport conference as having been dissolved;
- (b)
- We very much hope that Soviet Government will cooperate, as soon as circumstances allow, in the completion of the draft agreement.
- 3.
- In any case we believe that all the signatory governments would welcome arrangements for keeping the Soviet Government informed of the work of the provisional organization, e.g. by having a Soviet representative present as observer at meetings of the provisional council and for maintaining liaison with provisional executive.
- 4.
- Statement regarding signature of the provisional organization agreement will be issued to the press for publication on morning of May 11. Soviet delegation to ECITO Conference are being informed today.
Winant