Foreign Relations of the United States, 1946, Paris Peace Conference: Documents, Volume IV

CFM Files

Memorandum by Mr. Samuel Reber, Political Adviser, United States Delegation^72a

secret

Paris, September 21, 1946.

The following represents a brief summary of the British position on the Statute for the Free Territory as contained in their recent instructions from London.

The British consider our position with respect to the powers of the Governor is the minimum on which there can be no compromise, even if heavy pressure should be brought to bear. They also feel that the Governor’s position in our draft⁷³ is ambiguous in one respect and open to attack on the ground that whereas he is not responsible to the Assembly, he nevertheless presides over a Council of Government which is responsible to the Assembly. Also the British position in respect of the Governor will depend to a certain extent upon the nature of the Provisional Regime and the procedure to be established during this period. If this lasts long enough to enable the Governor to get established and to start his administration on a sound basis, then the British will be more willing during the permanent period to agree that his powers could be defined along the lines of our draft.

They are prepared to try to reach an understanding on our text provided we agree that there will be no withdrawal from the basic principles of our draft.

If we do agree, however, they raise the question of timing. They ask us to consider whether it would be best to agree upon a common text during the Subcommittee meetings and thus draw fire upon our common draft or whether it would be better for them to continue to defend their more extreme position until the Council of Foreign Ministers finally considers the question. I have told them that in the latter event it seemed to me it would be difficult for the Conference to vote upon any specific recommendation.

The French have not yet agreed to try to prepare a common draft and seem to feel that it will be better to await the meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers.

1. This memorandum was directed to the Secretary of State.
73. The report to the Paris Peace Conference by the Special Commission on the Statute of the Free Territory of Trieste, C.P.(IT/P)Doc.40 of September 13, contains the draft statutes proposed by the United States, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, and France; for text, see p. 592.