868.00/7–146
Memorandum of Conversation, by Mr. H. Freeman Matthews, Political Adviser to the United States Delegation at the Council of Foreign Ministers
| Participants: | M. Tsaldaris, Greek Prime Minister |
| M. Dragoumis | |
| Ambassador Diamantoupoulos | |
| The Secretary | |
| Mr. Matthews |
The Prime Minister began with a general expression of gratitude of the Greek people and Government for the understanding and sympathy shown them by the American people and Government, for American assistance in connection with the observance of the elections, and now in a revision of the election registers, and for the stand which Mr. Byrnes took with regard to the Dodecanese Islands. He said that there were several additional matters to which the Greek Government attached much importance, namely, the questions of reparation and the country’s economic rehabilitation. He also said that moral support for the Greek position vis-à-vis her neighbors, particularly in the light of Bulgarian territorial pretensions, was most important. He said he did not wish to take up the Secretary’s time this morning but he would like to have an hour with him again before leaving Paris.
The Secretary said he was delighted to meet the Prime Minister and explained why he had felt it would be better to see him here than for the Prime Minister to visit Washington at this time. The Secretary said that he expected to be in Paris for some weeks, that a number of high Department officials are here, and that with the situation existing in Washington, many important problems still pending before Congress and Congress getting ready for adjournment, all of which kept the President extremely busy as well as other high officers of our Government, he felt it would be better to see the Prime Minister here. The Secretary then spoke of the deep affection which the American people have for Greece, the admiration for Greek heroism during the war and the great interest and sympathy with which Greece’s problems are viewed in the United States. He then described his 10 months’ endeavor to obtain Russian approval for the transfer of the Dodecanese Islands to Greece which culminated with Mr. Molotov’s sudden acceptance of the American proposal last Friday. He said that he would be happy to see the Prime Minister again before his departure from Paris. The Secretary then asked a number of questions with regard to conditions in the Dodecanese and was told that the population before the war totaled about 130,000 and that the principal means of livelihood for the inhabitants was sponge fishing. [Page 175] The Prime Minister expressed his interest in sending into the Islands as soon as possible a number of Greek civil officials in order to survey the political situation and needs of the Islands. He also spoke of the dangers of the extreme Communists to Greece’s internal situation and the importance of offsetting these dangers through a program of economic rehabilitation and general political stabilization within Greece.