740.00119 Council/5–246: Telegram
The Acting Secretary of State to the Secretary of State, at Paris
2074. Secdel [Unnumbered]. Brit Emb handed Dept today following paraphrase of FonOff tel dated April 26 to Brit Emb.
“We are proposing that when the Greek territorial claims, both against Albania and against Bulgaria, come to be considered either by the Council of Foreign Ministers or by the Peace Conference, the British representative should say that His Majesty’s Government have not made up their minds about the Greek proposals but that Greece has good claims on the sympathies of the United Nations in view of her services to the common cause and of her sufferings from the Bulgarian and Albanian invasion and occupation. His Majesty’s Government therefore think that the Greek claims should be fully investigated either by the hearing of witnesses before the Council of Foreign Ministers, by the appointment of a Special Commission or by other appropriate procedure.
The claims against Bulgaria will, of course, have to be considered in relation to the Bulgarian Peace Treaty. The claim to Northern Epirus falls to be considered by the Council of Foreign Ministers under the first section of the Potsdam protocol, where it is said that “as its immediate important task the Council shall be authorised to propose settlements of territorial questions outstanding at the termination of the war in Europe.
Please inform the State Department of the above and say that the United Kingdom delegation in Paris will be discussing the matter with the United States delegation. We do not propose to say anything to the Greeks for the present, until we know what the American attitude is likely to be.”