Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers, 1945, European Advisory Commission, Austria, Germany, Volume III

EAC File: Lot 52 M 64, File “306 EAC Report 1945/1946”

Viscount Hood of the British Foreign Office to Mr. Philip Mosely, Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of State (Dunn)

London, 27 October, 1945.

Dear Phil: I suggest that we should try to complete the Report on the work of the European Advisory Commission.

You will remember that at the informal meeting of the Commission on the 31st August, general approval was given to the Report and the Acting Secretary General circulated on the 6th September a text^10a which incorporated the suggestions made and agreed at the meeting. In his covering note¹¹ Lieutenant Boggs drew attention to certain outstanding points and the United States Representative circulated on the 8th September a memorandum¹¹ proposing certain further amendments arising from the fact that the United States Government did not approve Article 38 of the Agreement on Certain Additional Requirements to be Imposed on Germany.¹²

It was proposed that the final text should be approved at a formal meeting of the Commission, but as that meeting never took place, I suggest, that we should now agree between ourselves the few outstanding points and arrange with Lancaster House for the circulation of the Report to the four Delegations.

The points mentioned in the Acting Secretary General’s note of the 6th September might, I suggest, be dealt with as follows:

(1) the last sentence of the report¹³ should be amended to read as follows:—

“This recommendation was communicated to and approved by the Provisional Government of the French Republic.”

(2) The date of 12th September 1945 should appear at the foot of the report.

(3) Under Item 9 in Annex II the following dates should be inserted:¹⁴

French approval: 11th September 1945

United States approval: 8th September 1945

(except for Article 38)

(4) On page 2 the number of formal meetings should be shown as 20.¹⁵

I further suggest that we should adopt the amendments proposed by the United States Representative in his memorandum of 8th September.

I enclose a copy of the report showing the amendments suggested above and I should be grateful if you would let me know whether you agree that this should be the final English text. If so, the French and Russian texts might be similarly amended and then the three texts with Annex I and maps can be sent to each delegation.

I am writing in similar terms to Saksin and Gros.¹⁶

Yours ever,

Sammy

1. Not printed; for the final version of the Report on the Work of the European Advisory Commission, see p. 544.
11. Not printed.
11. Not printed.
12. For text of the agreement between the Governments of the United States, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and France on certain additional requirements to be imposed on Germany, signed on July 25, 1945, at a meeting of the European Advisory Commission in London, see Conference of Berlin (Potsdam), vol. ii, p. 1011.
13. In the draft report of September 6, 1945, not printed, this sentence read as follows: “In accordance with this recommendation [the recommendation of the Potsdam Conference that the European Advisory Commission be dissolved], which was communicated to and approved by the Provisional Government of the French Republic, the Commission met for the last time on . . . . . September, 1945, and recorded its dissolution.”
14. In the draft report of September 6, item 9 to Annex II, left blank the dates of French and United States approval of the agreement on certain additional requirements to be imposed on Germany.
15. The draft report of September 6 fixed the number of formal E.A.C. meetings at 21, presumably in anticipation of a final meeting to mark the dissolution of the Commission and approve the Report.
16. André Gros of the French Embassy in the United Kingdom who served as a member of the French Delegation to the European Advisory Commission.