Office of the Historian

740.00119 Control (Germany)/5–1245

Memorandum of Telephone Conversation, by the Director of the Office of European Affairs (Matthews)

[Washington,] May 12, 1945.

Mr. McCloy telephoned me this morning and said that he was both much embarrassed and much annoyed to find on his return from San [Page 290] Francisco48 that the instrument of surrender which had been signed both at Rheims and at Berlin was a brand new document and not the one so carefully and painstakingly negotiated over a period of eight months in the European Advisory Commission. He said it was simply incredible to him that this document, which had the formal approval of the four governments and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had been simply forgotten and ignored. He read me a telegram from General Eisenhower which indicated that instead of consulting the G–549 people at SHAEF, they had put the matter in the hands of G–350 and G–151 and people like General Spaatz52 who knew none of the background. Mr. McCloy said he still could not understand how General Bedell Smith could have overlooked the document because he was familiar with it, nor did he understand why Bob Murphy had not been consulted. Mr. McCloy said that in any event he wished to apologize for this serious oversight and promised to send a telegram to General Eisenhower to make sure that no other documents are signed or proclamations issued which may run counter to the governmental agreements negotiated in the European Advisory Commission. He also said that he thought we should examine carefully to see whether we should still force a German signature of the agreed surrender document or whether the proposed proclamation to be issued by the four governments based on those terms may be adequate for the purpose and for the setting up of the control machinery. I told him that Winant was negotiating in the EAC on the latter basis and that he would look into it carefully as soon as the completed text has been agreed upon.

  1. Assistant Secretary of War John J. McCloy served as an adviser to the United States Delegation to the United Nations Conference at San Francisco. For documentation regarding this Conference, see vol. i, pp. 1 ff.↩
  2. Civil Affairs Division of SHAEF.↩
  3. Operations Division of SHAEF.↩
  4. Personnel Division of SHAEF.↩
  5. Gen. Carl Spaatz, Commanding United States Strategic Air Forces.↩