Office of the Historian

740.00119 EAC/4–445: Telegram

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

London, April 4, 1945—noon.
[Received April 4—8:37 a.m.]

3405. For the Secretary, Assistant Secretary Dunn and Mr. Matthews. Document referred to in Department’s 2577, April 3, 8 p.m.,22 forwarded by my despatch No. 22112 of April 2 (EAC 54/28 of March 30).

[Page 217]

This document has simply been distributed and not placed before the European Advisory Commission. It was an effort on the part of Strang to prepare a proclamation which might be issued by all the Allied Commanders in Chief in the event that there was neither a German Government nor a German High Command available to sign the unconditional surrender. The omission of the words “unconditional surrender” and other modifications of the Surrender Instrument greatly disturbed Gousev as he assumed it was evidence of a change of policy. I made it clear to him last night that there was no change of policy whatsoever as far as we were concerned and that the agreed documents—unconditional surrender instrument, protocol on zones of occupation, agreement on control machinery—stood as binding on our Government.

I am sure there has been no intention of changing the policy as far as the British Government is concerned. I think myself that it was a mistake to circulate such a document at this time without a verbal explanation to the members of the Commission. The intention was to cover a contingency that might face the armed forces in the final stages of German disintegration.

I feel basically that Gousev and possibly his Government is disturbed because the American-British forces are rapidly penetrating the German defense while the Russians are meeting strong resistance in the east. They are therefore sensitive to any apparent change of policy at the moment. In this connection the introduction of the United States memorandum of March 2323 has not been an easy matter. I went over the document with Gousev personally before introducing it into the Commission in order to facilitate its early consideration.

Winant
  1. Not printed; in it the Department urgently requested a report on a British document presented to the European Advisory Commission (740.0019 EW/4–345). This document was the memorandum by the United Kingdom Representative on the European Advisory Commission, E.A.C. (45) 28, dated March 30, p. 208 ↩
  2. Post, p. 471 ↩