740.00119 EW/11–1945: Telegram
The Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Winant) to the Secretary of State
[Received 8:40 p.m.]
12126. We discussed substance of Dept’s 10074, November 17, 1 p.m.14 with Harvey15 today. He said he could assure us off-hand that Foreign Office agreed France should be regarded as “signatory power”. He recalled that French had at one point been emphatic in stating they had nothing to do with armistice but felt they would henceforward wish to be included. He said Foreign Office shared our desire for revision of armistice regime and would await our proposals with interest. His understanding of Soviet attitude was that Soviets had no objection to revision of armistice provided revision did not constitute provisional peace treaty and that it would have no objection to provisional peace treaty provided similar treaties were concluded with Balkan satellites.
Harvey thought most desirable course, if there were any prospect of achieving it, would be to reconvene deputies of Big Four Foreign Ministers and proceed to work out definitive settlement. If this could not be done in near future he thought that revision of armistice which would take some time and be of limited practical effect, would, nevertheless, be worthwhile. He felt that such a revision might include provisions on civil affairs and financial arrangements and that in any event there would be some matters, particularly military provisions, [Page 1088] which it would be preferable to include in agreements only between Great Britain, US and Italy.
Sent Dept; rptd Rome as 145.