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 )1
Dear Mr. Molotov: I have received your letter of March 4, concerning the situation in Rumania, and I note that it appears to have crossed my letter to you of March 5 on the same subject.
While I appreciate receiving the statement of the Soviet position as set forth in your letter, I do not feel that it adequately answers the request which I had put forward that arrangements be made for effective tripartite consultation and action, through the three representatives on the Control Commission, with respect to the urgent political questions now existing in Rumania. I cannot concede that the purpose which my Government had in mind in proposing such consultation could be effectively served by an occasional interview between Mr. Vyshinsky, who I understand is only temporarily in Bucharest, and the American or the British representative. If the three countries are to join, as the Crimea Declaration on Liberated Europe envisaged, in assisting the people of Rumania to establish conditions of internal peace and to form an interim government broadly representative of all democratic elements in the population, then their representatives must have an opportunity for regular tripartite consultation to reach agreement and to assure that appropriate measures are taken.
I wish to stress once more the importance my Government attaches to agreement among the three allied governments on a solution of the Rumanian crisis in harmony with the Crimea Declaration.
Sincerely yours,
- In his telegram 656, March 7, Ambassador Harriman reported that he was replying to Molotov’s letter of March 4 “since it does not adequately answer my letter. …” He concluded with the following observation: “My experience indicates that the written word is usually more effective than presentation of our position orally in this sort of situation.” (740.00119 Control (Rumania)/3–745) Telegram 520, March 6, to Moscow, stated that the Department awaited with great interest the reaction of the Soviet Government to Harriman’s presentation of the American position on the Rumanian situation and authorized Harriman to take whatever steps were appropriate to impress upon the Soviet Government the urgency which the American Government attached to its proposals for agreement among the three Allied Governments for joint action to ensure a resolution of the Rumanian crisis in harmony with the Crimea Declaration (740.00110 Control (Rumania)/3–645).↩