740.00119 EAC/2–2145: Telegram

The Ambassador in the United Kingdom ( Winant ) to the Secretary of State

1778. For Assistant Secretary Dunn. Yesterday Sobolev informed Mosely that Gousev is on his way back to London and is expected by February 23. Gousev has again become chairman of the EAC by rotation and will no doubt be equipped to proceed expeditiously on matters pending before the Commission including the various French proposals.

On the basis of Crimea Conference Communiqué58 and my conversations with the President,59 I assume that Department now wishes me to give effect to instruction contained in its 712, January 29, midnight, approving in principle the five French requests for equality in German affairs (my 1355, February 8, 1 p.m.). Unless otherwise instructed I assume that I should also accept the proposed French [Page 184] amendments to the instrument of surrender (my 227, January 6, 7 p.m.; full text by my despatch 20275 of January 960).

The French amendments to the agreement on control machinery (my 1618, February 15, 5 p.m.; full text by despatch 21116, of February 1961) also conform fully to Department’s desire to avoid changes of substance in the agreements already approved by the three governments. Unless otherwise instructed shall therefore assume that Department wishes me to concur in these amendments.

With respect to the delimitation of a French zone of occupation in Germany (my 1400, February 8, 9 p.m.) Strang expressed informally to Mosely his personal view that the United Kingdom Government would agree to transfer to French control part of its zone west of the River Rhine extending northwards from the French frontier to a point about midway between Koblenz and Cologne including Saar, Bavarian palatinate and part of Rhine province. Strang felt that the United Kingdom would not want French control extended as far north as Cologne because of the anxiety this would arouse in Belgium. He stated United Kingdom Government contemplates utilizing Belgian forces as an auxiliary contingent within the United Kingdom zone and under United Kingdom command in area adjacent to Belgian frontier. To Strang’s suggestion that it would be “reasonable” if Baden or Baden plus Hesse-Darmstadt were transferred from United States to the French zone Mosely made no comment.

Winant
  1. For text of the Communiqué issued at the end of the Crimea (Yalta) Conference, dated February 11, 1945, and released to the press on February 12, see Conferences at Malta and Yalta, 1945, p. 968
  2. Apparently, reference is to conversations held when Ambassador Winant traveled with President Roosevelt on board the U.S.S. Quincy from Alexandria to Algiers following the Yalta Conference
  3. Neither despatch 20275, January 9, from the Ambassador in the United Kingdom nor the enclosed memorandum by the French Representative on the European Advisory Commission, E.A.C.(45)2, January 6, 1945, printed
  4. Telegram 1618, February 15, from London (not printed), reported that the French Representative on the European Advisory Commission had presented two memoranda proposing specific amendments to the protocol on zones of occupation and to the agreement on control machinery. The French proposed that the protocol on zones be amended to provide a new mid-western zone for France and division of Berlin into four zones, but there was no specific proposal for delimitation of boundaries. All other amendments merely required insertion in appropriate places of such phrases as “France”, “French Republic”, “French language”, etc. (740.00119 EAC/2–1545). The two French memoranda, designated E.A.C. (45) 10 and E.A.C. (45) 11, both dated February 15, were transmitted to the Department as enclosures to despatch 21116, February 19 from London; none printed