875.01/4–1045: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Chargé in the Soviet Union ( Kennan )
919. ReDeptel 360 February 17. The Department desires to keep the Soviet Government informed of recent developments relating to the proposal which was communicated informally to Colonel General Hoxha, head of the existing authority in Albania, that this Government might wish at an early date to send representatives to Albania on an informal basis to survey and report on conditions there preliminary to any examination of the question of recognizing an Albanian government.
Please inform the Soviet Commissariat of Foreign Affairs that General Hoxha has agreed to accept such a mission and that the Department has accordingly made preparations to send in a small group of State Department representatives under Foreign Service Officer Joseph E. Jacobs.
You may also inform the Commissariat of Foreign Affairs that General Hoxha has addressed a formal request to the President for Albanian representation at the San Francisco Conference and that the Department, in an informal memorandum to Hoxha, has indicated that it is not in a position to support his request since the procedure limiting participation to Governments of the United Nations was decided upon by the sponsoring Governments after due consideration [Page 25] of every aspect of the matter and since this Government cannot therefore appropriately undertake to reopen discussion of that procedure.79
The Department desires further, in view of reports which have been received concerning an alleged Pravda 80 article calling for Allied recognition of the Hoxha regime (Caserta’s 1455 April 10, repeated to Moscow as 13381), that you should take this opportunity to make known to the Commissariat of Foreign Affairs that this Government does not intend to take any decisive action with respect to Albania on recognition, except after consultation with the principal Allied Governments and that it is the hope of this Government that its attitude in this regard is shared by the Soviet Government.82
Sent to Moscow; repeated to AmPolAd Caserta and London.
- See footnote 69, p. 20.↩
- Moscow newspaper; organ of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.↩
- Not printed; it reported that the Albanian newspaper Bashkimi, in an issue of March 31, carried on its front page copies of articles from Pravda and from Borba, the newspaper of the Yugoslav Communist Party; both articles asserted that the time was at hand for the Allies to recognize the Albanian Government (875.01/4–1045).↩
- Telegram 1609, April 18, from Caserta, reported that the newspaper Bashkimi had printed the reply from the Soviet Chargé in Belgrade to Hoxha’s request for recognition; in its reply, the Soviet Government expressed its readiness to dispatch a Soviet military mission to Albania and its hope that the Albanian Government would accept the mission (875.01/4–1845).↩