Office of the Historian

840.414/10–2145: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the United States Political Adviser for Germany (Murphy)

Washington, October 25, 1945—6 p.m.

736. Reference German FonOff and related documents Dept is in agreement with your position outlined in last paragraph urtel 791 October 16.2 Dept feels further that since FonOff archives and related records concerning German overseas activities have no bearing on reestablishment of German central administrations authorized by ACC3 they should be held in situ and thoroughly screened prior to release to Russians and French. Dept agrees to plan 2 outlined urtel 823 October 21 as regards the ultimate disposition but stresses again the fact that reciprocity in sharing archives has not been shown by our Allies except the British (re Deptel 594, October 3). Every effort should be made to detail additional investigative personnel to the Marburg team in order to speed up the screening work. Dept is interested in knowing whether arrangements have been made for return visit on a reciprocal basis by an Anglo-American investigative party to survey documents found in the Russian occupied zones; any further request to examine the Marburg documents might be countered provisionally with the above suggestion.

Byrnes
  1. Not printed; in the last paragraph Murphy stated that he was requesting that access to German Foreign Office records be limited for the time being to British and American authorities unless directed otherwise by the State Department or his own office (840.414/10–1645).↩
  2. Allied Control Council.↩