875.01/1–2745: Telegram
The Acting Secretary of State to the Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Harriman)
360. ReDeptel January 27 to AmPolAd, Caserta, repeated to Moscow as no. 180.50 A formal request for recognition of the FNC authorities as the government of Albania has been addressed to the President by Enver Hoxha, and messages identical in text have likewise, it is understood, been dispatched to Marshal Stalin and Prime Minister Churchill.
Please inform the Soviet Foreign Office that while the Department has made no formal reply to Hoxha’s communication, the United States Political Adviser, AFHQ, has been instructed to indicate informally to the FNC representative at Bari that this Government cannot grant official recognition to any Albanian government at this time and that before taking such a formal step it would be necessary for us to have more complete knowledge than we now have regarding general conditions within Albania and, particularly, the extent to which the existing authorities are representative of the people’s will.51 Kirk was authorized to add, however, that this Government may wish in the near future to send representatives to Albania on an entirely informal basis for the purpose of surveying the situation there and carrying out such functions as may be appropriate under the circumstances. Sent to Moscow; repeated to Caserta and London.52
- See footnote 33, p, 8.↩
- Telegram 748, March 14, 8 p.m., from Moscow, reported that the British Embassy in Moscow had addressed a note to the Soviet Foreign Commissariat taking the same position as the United States relative to the recognition of the Albanian Provisional Government (875.01/3–1445).↩
- As telegrams 153 and 1255, respectively.↩