Office of the Historian

EAC Files: Lot 52 M 64, File “Minutes—EAC Meetings—1 June 45 To”.

Minutes of an Informal Meeting of the European Advisory Commission, Held at Lancaster House, London, Monday, 6 August 1945, at 4:15 p.m.

London, August 6, 1945, 4:15 p.m.
[Extracts]
Present: Ambassador Winant and Mr. E. A. Lightner;6 Lord Hood;7 Mr. G. F. Saksin8 and Mr. N. V. Ivanov; Ambassador Massigli and M. Franfort;9 Russian-French-English [Page 540] interpreters: Mr. W. D. McAfee and Mr. T. A. Marchenko; Deputy Secretary-General, Lt. M. W. Boggs.

. . . . . . .

IV. Report on the Work of the E.A.C.

Mr. Saksin proposed that, in view of the action taken at Potsdam, the E.A.C. prepare a summary of its work. The Berlin communiqué9a had expressed a high opinion of the work of the E.A.C., and mentioned that it had successfully tackled the work entrusted to it. Mr. Saksin stated that, as a matter of fact, it has performed many complicated tasks since October 1943. It has completed eleven documents; its members have spent 520 hours in 111 meetings. All this work has been justified by the work accomplished. Its great value has been that it has been one of the few existing organs where, in a consistently friendly atmosphere, and [an] attempt has been made to reach agreement on important problems. Mr. Saksin suggested that the Secretary-General, assisted by experts from the four Delegations, be asked to draw up a report of the Commission’s work and that the report be completed within about two weeks. Mr. Saksin circulated a memorandum (not enclosed) proposing a preliminary outline for drawing up such a report.

The Commission accepted Mr. Saksin’s proposal and agreed to study his memorandum.10

The meeting adjourned at 2020 hours.

  1. E. Allan Lightner, Jr., Assistant Political Adviser to the United States Representative on the European Advisory Commission.↩
  2. Viscount Hood of the British Foreign Office, Acting United Kingdom Representative on the European Advisory Commission.↩
  3. Georgy Filipovich Saksin, Counselor of the Soviet Embassy in the United Kingdom and Acting Soviet Representative on the European Advisory Commission.↩
  4. Pierre Franckfort, First Secretary of the French Embassy in the United Kingdom and member of the French Delegation to the European Advisory Commission.↩
  5. For text of the Berlin Communiqué, released to the press on August 2, 1945, see Conference of Berlin (Potsdam), vol. ii, p. 1499, or Department of State Bulletin, August 5, 1945, p. 153.↩
  6. Memorandum not printed. On August 17, 1945, at an informal meeting, the European Advisory Commission agreed that the Acting Secretary General of the Commission (Lt. M. L. Boggs) would draft a report based on the USSR proposal and would submit the draft to a committee of experts representing the four Delegations. The Acting Secretary General’s first draft, not printed, was accepted by the committee of experts on August 27. The Committee’s draft report was referred to the Commission for approval on August 31 (EAC File Lot 52M64).↩