Moscow Embassy Files: 800 Rumania
The American Ambassador in the Soviet Union ( Harriman ) to the People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the Soviet Union ( Molotov )
Dear Mr. Molotov: You will recall that in my letter to you of February 261 stated that if political developments in Rumania should fail to take an orderly course along the lines indicated in the Declaration on Liberated Europe issued at the Crimea Conference, my Government felt that a situation would arise which would call for full consultation between the three major Allied powers.
In my letter to you of March 1, I set forth the views of my Government on the fundamental question involved in the present phase of [Page 499] the Rumanian situation, and I proposed that major political matters affecting the interests and responsibilities in Rumania of the three Allied governments should in future be made the subject of full consultation among the three members of the Allied Control Commission.
I am writing now to make it clear that my Government considers that a situation has already arisen which calls for such tripartite consultation, particularly in the light of the Declaration on Liberated Europe agreed to at Yalta, and that appropriate arrangements for such consultation should be made at once. My Government does not view the statement made in the last paragraph of your letter of February 27, concerning measures to be taken to inform the Allies of the situation in Rumania, as a satisfactory answer to our desire for genuine tripartite consultation. In the past, the Soviet Vice Chairman of the Allied Control Commission in Bucharest has not kept General Schuyler informed of action taken by the Commission or by representatives of the Soviet Government in giving orders to the Rumanian authorities, and any continuation of past practices in this respect would not be acceptable to my Government as a solution of the present need for tripartite consultation.
My Government’s proposal that such consultation take place among the three representatives in the Allied Control Commission is not based on the responsibilities of that body for the supervision of the execution of the armistice under the direction of the Allied (Soviet) High Command. In advancing this proposal, my Government proceeded from the consideration that this represented the only means by which a ready exchange of views on the spot by representatives of the three governments could be achieved. My Government does not view the question of Rumania’s form of government as one pertaining to any clause of the armistice agreement and therefore does not consider it as falling within the normal jurisdiction of the Allied Control Commission. It sees no reason, however, why the three Allied representatives on that body should not meet together to discuss, on behalf of their respective governments, this problem which so clearly calls for tripartite consultation and action.
In view of the above, I hope that the Soviet Government will now take immediate steps to make this consultation possible, and that I may be advised on the nature of the steps taken, in order that I may inform my Government promptly.