Foreign Relations of the United States, 1947, Council of Foreign Ministers; Germany and Austria, Volume II

C.F.M. Files: Lot M–88: Box 2079: CFM Documents

The Secretary General of the Council of Foreign Ministers (Kelchner) to Various Allied Governments ¹

secret

[New York, December 31, 1946.]

The Council of Foreign Ministers at its recent meeting in New York decided to hold its next meeting at Moscow on March 10, 1947, for the consideration of German and Austrian problems and to appoint Deputies for Germany and for Austria who are to start work in London on January 14.

2. The Council is anxious that the Governments of Allied neighboring States and of other Allied States which participated with their armed forces in the common struggle against Germany should have ample opportunity to express their views on the settlement of German problems which are of interest to them.

3. The Council accordingly hereby invites the … Government to communicate in writing at its early convenience to the Deputies for Germany its views on those aspects of the German problem which are of interest to it.

4. The Deputies for Germany will study these expressions of view and submit them, with a report to the Council of Foreign Ministers at its next meeting.

5. If the … Government wishes also to present views on the Austrian problem it is requested that such views should be communicated in writing to the Deputies for Austria whose instructions are to proceed with the preparation of a Treaty recognizing the independence of Austria and to submit proposals on this subject at the next meeting of the Council.

6. The … Government, and the other Governments to which a similar communication is being addressed, will, of course, be given full opportunity if they so desire to supplement their written communications on Germany or Austria by oral presentation to the Deputies concerned.

7. Replies to this communication should be addressed to the Secretariat, the Council of Foreign Ministers, Lancaster House, London S. W. I.

Sincerely yours,

Warren Kelchner

1. The source text, with the blank spaces indicated here, was circulated to the Council of Foreign Ministers by the Secretary General of the Council of Foreign Ministers as document CFM(46) (NY)80, December 31, 1946, under cover of the following communication:

   “Letter despatched on December 31 by the Secretary General of the Council of Foreign Ministers to the Governments of Australia, Belgium, Brazil, ByeloRussia, Canada, China, Denmark, Czechoslovakia, Greece, India, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, South Africa, Ukraine, and Yugoslavia.”

   This invitation was prepared in pursuance of the decision of the Council of Foreign Ministers recorded in Part IV of document CFM(46) (NY)74, December 12, 1946, Foreign Relations, 1946, vol. ii, p. 1557.