740.00119 E.A.C./3–2745: Telegram

The Ambassador in the United Kingdom ( Winant ) to the Secretary of State

3141. Comea 201. In connection with my foregoing 3140, March 27, 3 p.m.25 concerning Foreign Office desire to enlarge scope of reparations [Page 1185] discussions in Moscow, Hall-Patch26 made it clear to Mosely27 and Penrose28 that the Foreign Office hopes that restitution discussions will be carried through in the EAC and will not be raised at Moscow. He believes the French would be willing to work out the restitution problem in the EAC on the basis of the strict United States-United Kingdom definition of return of identifiable property provided they were not required specifically to renounce eventual discussion of their much broader definition.

Winant
  1. Not printed; this telegram indicated British interest in learning, during the Reparations Conference in Moscow, as much as possible concerning Soviet handling of food and raw material surpluses in Soviet-occupied areas of Eastern Europe. The British felt that uncoordinated removals of supplies to Russia as reparations from these occupied countries would divert potential supplies from other liberated areas. (740.00119 EAC/3–2745)
  2. Edmund L. Hall-Patch, Assistant Under Secretary of State, British Foreign Office.
  3. Philip E. Mosely, Political Adviser to the United States Delegation to the European Advisory Commission.
  4. Ernest F. Penrose, Special Assistant to the Ambassador in London.