Office of the Historian

740.0019 E. W./5–1745: Telegram

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

London, May 17, 1945—5 p.m.
[Received May 17—1:40 p.m.]

4929. Department’s 3763, May 13.1 It seems to us that it would be wise before we approach the Foreign Office for the purpose of inviting the UK representative to join Pauley and Lubin in “a hasty inspection of some of the industrial areas of Germany on their way to Moscow”, to have the following points made clear.

1
Does the instruction in Department’s 3763, May 13 represent a reversal of the instruction in Department’s 3347, April 28, final paragraph;2 if so, it seems necessary that we should first notify the Foreign Office that such a reversal has been made and give reasons for it. Please note that at the request of the Department we asked the Foreign Office and they agreed to postpone the departure of the UK Delegation until our differences with the Soviet on the composition of the Reparations Commission had been resolved. (See last paragraph of Department’s 3347, April 28, 7 p.m. together with Embassy’s 4389, April 30, 8 p.m.) It seems from Hall-Patch’s conversation with Penrose yesterday and from Moscow’s 1578, May 14 to the Department that these differences have not been resolved.
2
After obtaining UK agreement to follow the US policy in these matters, we were disturbed to learn from Moscow’s 1578, May 14 to the Department repeated to us as 201, May 14 that on instructions from the Department the Soviet have already been informed of the proposed date of departure of the US Delegation, though the UK have not been informed that the Department’s plans to which the British agreed at the ministerial as well as the official level have been changed. This situation may be prejudicial to our efforts here to facilitate Foreign Office agreement with the Department’s wishes.
3
A further question that seems to us to need clarification before we approach the Foreign Office is whether the Department is prepared to begin discussions in Moscow on a tripartite basis if the Soviet agree to withdraw their demand for participation by the Yugoslavs and the Lublin Poles3 but at the same time refuse to agree to the inclusion of the French. We gather from Moscow’s 1578, May 14 to the Department that Maisky personally seems to favor such a procedure, though officially the Soviet demand for the inclusion of the Yugoslavs and the Lublin Poles still stands.
Winant
  1. See footnote 84, p. 1211.↩
  2. See footnote 65, p. 1201.↩
  3. Reference is to the Polish Provisional Government operating in Soviet-liberated Poland; see vol. v, p. 110, footnote 5.↩