Office of the Historian

740.00119 Control (Germany)/5–245: Telegram

The Ambassador in France (Caffery) to the Secretary of State

Paris, May 2, 1945—8 p.m.
[Received May 2—6:17 p.m.]

2290. Department’s 1799, May 1.1 I flew to SHAEF Forward2 this afternoon to discuss the question of the French zone with General [Page 261] Eisenhower. He said to me that since the first SHAEF proposal was submitted to the Joint Chiefs of Staff indicating there was no great objection to ceding Baden, Württemburg, and Sigmaringen to the French, a further and more complete study had been made from which it appeared that to cede all this area might create considerable complications with the supply and communications lines of the American forces in the southern US zone of occupation. He is studying the matter further and will let me have his final views on the matter tomorrow and I will, of course, cable them as soon as I receive them.

Caffery
  1. Not printed; it directed that a full explanation of General Eisenhower’s reasons for favoring the alteration of the proposed French zone of occupation be obtained and telegraphed to the Department urgently (740.00119 Control (Germany)/5–145).↩
  2. SHAEF Forward Headquarters at Keims, France.↩