768.75/4–446
Memorandum by the Acting Department of State Member of the State-War-Navy Coordinating Committee (Matthews) to the Full Committee
The Department of State is urgently engaged in studying the Greek claims for an adjustment of the Greek Albanian frontier which involves [Page 136] the area popularly known as Northern Epirus or Southern Albania. The Department is in receipt of a note from the Greek Embassy in Washington, dated April 6 [8], 1946, and referring to the Peace Treaty presently to be negotiated. This note reads in part as follows:
“The Greek Government considers further postponement of this question as highly detrimental to the interests of Greece and hopes that the assurances given by both the United States and British Governments at the time of the recognition of Hoxha’s regime73 by their respective countries, to the effect that such recognition would not prejudice Greece’s territorial demands against Albania, will prompt them to see to it that the Albanian question will come up for consideration at an early date and that a settlement thereof involving the cession of Northern Epirus to Greece will be reached soon.”74
The Greek Government is attempting to secure all of Northern Epirus (Southern Albania) on a basis of ethnic and strategic considerations. The Department of State is obviously not qualified to assess the validity of any claims which the Greeks have made relate to the latter. The Albanians, on the other hand, wish the frontier to remain as it was in 1939.
The Secretary of State is to attend a meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers on April 25, 1946. It is essential that he be provided with adequate information to enable him to formulate a position on the question in time to meet the deadline.
In view of the importance and the time element involved in this matter, the Department of State would greatly appreciate receiving an estimate of the strategic value to Greece and/or Albania of the disputed region as a matter of high priority.
If further information on this subject is desired in connection with this estimate, Mr. Harry Howard, Division of International Organization Affairs, Department of State, is available for consultation and may be reached on State extension 2928.
- The United States and British Governments had not recognized the Albanian regime but had expressed, in 1945, a readiness to establish diplomatic relations. For documentation on this subject, see Foreign Relations, 1945, vol. iv, pp. 1 ff.↩
- Quoted from Greek Embassy memorandum 1556: it informed the Department that on February 15, 1946, the then Greek Foreign Minister, Constantine Rendis, had directed a letter to the Council of Foreign Ministers at London proposing that the Council prepare a draft treaty of peace between Greece and Albania for submission to the forthcoming Peace Conference. The memorandum stated that the Council had replied on March 2 that the Deputies to the Foreign Ministers had no authority to discuss the Greek request. (768.75/4–846) The Deputies were then sitting in London to prepare draft peace treaties with Italy, Rumania, Bulgaria, Finland, and Hungary. For the decision of the Deputies not to discuss the Greek proposal, see telegram 2609, March 5, from London, vol. ii, p. 21.↩