840.414/12–1245
The British Embassy to the Department of State
Aide-Mémoire
The French Ambassador in London7 has asked of His Majesty’s Government that Monsieur de Menthon’s team should have access to German archives in order to make their own selection of documents for use as evidence at Nuremberg.8
Mr. Bevin9 informed Monsieur Massigli in reply that His Majesty’s Government would make available photostatic copies of the original documents now at Nuremberg from which evidence has already been selected. The Ambassador, however, later returned to the charge stating that the French Government wished to send experts to make a personal study of the documents. It is, therefore, clear that the [Page 1131] French Government are really interested in access to German political archives generally. The French Ambassador has now been informed that as only a very few documents were found by the British forces and as the majority are in the American Zone, Mr. Bevin would consult the United States Government concerning the conditions they consider to be necessary as regards access.
While Mr. Bevin is most anxious to go as far as possible to meet the wishes of the French Government, he is apprehensive lest the work of microfilming at Marburg be retarded by the visit of a French team and by a subsequent visit by a Soviet team which would no doubt follow. He is inclined to think that the question of French participation in the exploitation of these documents should be postponed until the documents have been installed in a permanent institute. Meanwhile, he would like to give the French access, as distinct from the right of joint exploitation, to all the material which has already been microfilmed, of which prints have already reached London and Washington. He would be prepared to let the French and, if they desired, the Russians, see these prints in London with the exception of a small number which it might prove necessary to withhold.
His Majesty’s Ambassador is instructed to invite the concurrence of the United States Government in the proposals in the preceding paragraph and to enquire whether, among the microfilms already in London and Washington, there are any which the United States Government would wish to withhold from either the French or the Russians.
His Majesty’s Ambassador is instructed to stress the urgency of this matter since if the United States Government agree, it is desirable that His Majesty’s Government should make immediate arrangements in London for installing the photographs in a suitable establishment to which Allied Governments would be given access.