768.75/8–1946
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Director of the Office; of European Affairs (Matthews)
| Participants: | Mr. Tsaldaris, Prime Minister of Greece; |
| The Secretary | |
| Mr. Matthews |
Mr. Tsaldaris asked to see the Secretary urgently and brought up the question of Greece’s claims against Albania and their desire to negotiate a peace treaty with Albania. After considerable discussion Mr. Tsaldaris apparently decided that he would introduce a resolution into the Paris Conference calling upon the Council of Foreign Ministers to draft a peace treaty between Albania and Greece. At one stage he wanted to have inserted the words “favorable to Greek claims”, but the Secretary persuaded him that this would not be a wise course. The Secretary agreed to support Mr. Tsaldaris’ resolution but was careful to make no commitment with regard to Greek territorial claims against Albania. At one stage Mr. Tsaldaris indicated that perhaps it would be better if the Council of Foreign Ministers did in fact take no action on the treaty until after a settlement of the German question, but his views were not very clear or well formulated in this regard.
He then brought up the question of the Greek-Bulgarian frontier and the territorial claims of both countries. He said that the Greeks had three different lines, and he wanted to know how far he would get American and British support on any of these lines—in other words, whether he should press for Greece’s extreme claims or just the minimum. The Secretary told him that the United States would definitely oppose the Bulgarian claims for territorial gains at the expense of Greece, and that he would look into the matter of Greek claims and let Mr. Tsaldaris know.25
Reverting to Greece’s claims vis-à-vis Albania, Mr. Tsaldaris reiterated his legal concept that Greece is in fact at war with Albania and his belief that this could be demonstrated to the Conference. The [Page 257] Secretary agreed that Mr. Bishop should get in touch with the Greek Legal Adviser and as a result of their conversations put the question up to Mr. Fahy, the Department’s Legal Adviser, in order to ascertain whether the United States likewise considers that a legal state of war does in fact exist between Greece and Albania.26
In conclusion Mr. Tsaldaris brought up the question of the importance of having the British and American observers for the forthcoming plebiscite. The Secretary explained the practical difficulties in view of our lack of adequate personnel and the shortness of time before September 1. Mr. Tsaldaris felt that the validity of the elections would be emphatically challenged by EAM and there might be considerable disturbances in connection with the plebiscite. He thought it was important from the point of view of world opinion that the impartiality of the plebiscite could be attested by outside observers. The Secretary agreed to look into the facts again and see if anything could be done.
- Telegram War 99695 from the War Department to Bonesteel, September 7, commenting on Greek claims, is printed in vol. iv, p. 854. For additional documentation on United States policy with respect to the Greek–Albanian and Greek-Bulgarian border questions, see vol. vii, pp. 88–288, passim.↩
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Messrs. Rendis and Spiropoulos of the Greek Delegation conferred with Bishop and Summers on August 20; the American participants described the meeting in memoranda of conversations dated August 20 and 21. In the August 21 document they concluded that “the Greek argument has failed to establish either that there was a manifest intention on the part of the Albanian or Greek authorities to consider themselves at war with each other or that the Albanian authorities had any right to act on behalf of the Albanian State.
“The difficulty in finding that Albania and Greece have been legally at war with each other does not mean that legal obstacles would prevent the treaty [from] disposing of the problems which the Greeks have in mind. The treaty now contains clauses with respect to Albania, and additional clauses could be added with the consent of the interested parties.” (768.75/8–2046, 8–2146)
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