740.00119 EAC/5–1945: Telegram
The Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Winant) to the Secretary of State
[Received May 19—9:30 a.m.]
5015. Comea 258. For Mr. Matthews. The Soviet representative on the European Advisory Commission has just proposed the following procedure regarding consultation with Allied Governments which have taken an active part in the defeat of Germany. He proposes that the full text of the declaration regarding the defeat of Germany and the assumption of supreme authority with respect to Germany by the four governments be communicated as follows: (1) by the European Advisory Commission to the European Allied Governments [Page 299] previously consulted, that is, Norway, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, and Greece; (2) by the UK Government to the Governments of the British Dominions and India; (3) by the US Government to the Brazilian Government; (4) by the Soviet Government to the Provisional Government of Poland. This proposal has been communicated to the other three delegations on the EAC as a matter of urgency.
This proposed procedure was first advanced by me as a suggestion not as a proposal in the EAC as reported in my 4709, May 10, 10 p.m. Strang and Massigli gave personal not official approval to this suggestion. Gousev who expressed objection to it then has now put it forward as a formal proposal. As stated in my 4709 I believe this is a practical solution to the question of consultation.
I trust the Dept will inform me as a matter of urgency regarding its attitude toward this Soviet proposal.71
- Telegram 4055, May 22, to London, stated that the Department accepted the procedure set forth in the Soviet proposal but did not want United States concurrence to be construed as a recognition of the provisional regime functioning in Poland (740.00119 EAC/5–1945).↩