Office of the Historian

740.00119 EW/4–1045: Telegram

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

Washington, April 10, 1945—7 p.m.

2795. We conveyed the contents of your Special German Series No. 2 to the President, who has made the following comment: “I think our attitude should be one of study and postponement of final decision.”38

The Department believes that this memorandum from the President will indicate the line you should follow in any discussions of the Committee on Dismemberment.

[Page 222]

We fully approve of the position you took as reported in your Special German Series No. 2 with respect to the substitute language you advanced for Strang’s draft.

Stettinius
  1. In his memorandum to the Secretary of State, April 6, 1945, from which the quotation is taken, President Roosevelt also stated: “My original thought, which I still maintain, is with the purpose of elimination of the word ‘Reich’. This question goes beyond payments which deeply affect the problem of what Germany will be ten or twenty years from now.” (740.00119 Control (Germany)/4–645).↩