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

CFM Files: Lot M–88: Box 58

Report by the Deputies for Germany to the Council of Foreign Ministers ⁴⁷

secret
CFM (47) (M) 60

Moscow, March 24, 1947.

Procedure for the Preparation of the German Peace Treaty

1. The Deputies herewith submit to the Council of Foreign Ministers the draft of the proposed procedure for the preparation of the German Peace Treaty (see Annex⁴⁸). This draft shows the agreed and unagreed passages, and indicates in the case of the unagreed proposals which Delegations support those proposals.

The Document is divided into two parts. The first part sets forth the procedure for the preparation of the draft Peace Treaty by the Council of Foreign Ministers. It also deals with the calling of a Peace Conference and the signature and ratification of the Peace Treaty. The second part is devoted to the consultation and information of the Allied States and their participation in the preparation of the Peace Treaty.

2. There is agreement among the four Delegations on the following principal proposals:

(a) The title of the document should be “Procedure for the Preparation of the German Peace Treaty”.

(b) The German Peace Treaty will be prepared by the Council of Foreign Ministers composed for this purpose of the members of the Council representing the Powers signatory to the Act of Military Surrender of Germany, in accordance with the Potsdam Agreement.

In the preparation of the Peace Treaty the Council will consult certain named Allied States.

(c) These Allied States are those which are neighbours of Germany and other Allied States which participated with their armed forces in the common struggle against Germany.

(d) These Governments should be given full opportunity to communicate to the Deputies or to the Council any views which they desire to present in connection with the German problem.

(e) Four permanent Committees will be set up by the Council for the study of questions relating to the German Peace Treaty:

Committee on the political and constitutional structure of Germany.

Committee on territorial adjustments and related problems.

Committee on the economic organization of Germany and reparations.

Committee on disarmament and demilitarization.

(f) Each of the four Committees will appoint Sub-Committees to examine concrete questions.

(g) The Council will establish an Information and Consultation Conference of the Allied States. Representatives of the Four Powers and of the Allied States mentioned in subparagraph (c) above will be members of the Conference.^* In this Conference the Allied States will receive information and documents about the proceedings of the Council, the Deputies, the Committees and Sub-Committees. Representatives of these Allied States will be able to comment and ask questions in oral or written form on any problem discussed in the communications or documents brought to their attention.

(h) The Governments of other Allied belligerent States, in addition to those in sub-paragraph (c) above, and of ex-enemy States which subsequently participated on the side of the Allied States with their armed forces in the war against Germany, will at an appropriate stage of the preparation of the Peace Treaty be given an opportunity to present their views on the German problem orally or in writing, to the Deputies or to the Council of Foreign Ministers, as the latter may think appropriate.

3. The following are the principal points on which agreement was not reached by the Deputies:

(a) The Soviet and French Deputies consider that Albania should be included in the list of Allied States referred to in paragraph 2(c) above, which will be consulted in the preparation of the Peace Treaty, and should therefore participate in the Information and Consultation Conference and in the Peace Conference. The U.S. and U.K. Deputies oppose this.

(b) Composition of Committees and Sub-Committees. The U.S. Delegation consider that the Committees should be composed of representatives of the Four Powers together with a convenient number of representatives drawn from the Allied States referred to in paragraph 2 (c) above.

The U.K. Delegation considers that the Committees should be composed of representatives of the Four Powers together with representatives of any of the Allied States referred to in paragraph 2 (c) who may wish to be represented.

The Soviet and French Delegations consider that the Committees should be composed of representatives of the Four Powers only.

The French Delegation has made clear that the question of the permanent Committees is, in its opinion, connected with that of the Sub-Committees and that it had proposed to restrict the composition of the permanent Committees to four members, on the understanding that in any case the Sub-Committees would include, in addition to the representatives of the Four Powers, representatives of the States directly interested in the problems considered by those Sub-Committees.

The Soviet Delegation considers that the composition of the Sub-Committees should be analogous to the composition of the permanent Committees and that the Sub-Committees may invite representatives of other States to present their views on questions in which they have a direct interest.

The U.S. and U.K. Delegations consider that the Sub-Committees should be composed of representatives of the Four Powers together with a convenient number of representatives drawn from the Allied States referred to in paragraph 2(c).

(c) The U.K. and U.S. Delegations propose that oral statements made by the representatives of Allied States (see paragraph 2(d) above) should be made in the presence of representatives of others of the Allied States wishing to attend as observers, and that it should be open to representatives attending as observers to make additional comment upon communications from representatives of other Allied States.

The French Delegation reserves its position regarding this proposal, pending the adoption of the whole procedure.

The Soviet Delegation is opposed to it.

(d) The Soviet Delegation proposes the insertion of a paragraph as follows: “Representatives of other Allied States not represented on the Council will be invited to participate in the discussion and study of questions relating to the German Peace Treaty in which they have a direct interest.”

The U.S. and U.K. Delegations do not agree to the insertion of item “d” mentioned above in the form given, but reserve their final opinion.

The French Delegation also reserves its opinion, pending the adoption of the whole procedure.

(e) The U.S. Delegation has reserved its position with respect to the arrangements for a Peace Conference and other later stages of the peace-making on the ground that it is premature at the present time to attempt to decide on procedure for this period.

The U.K., French and Soviet Delegations are in general agreement on the arrangements proposed for the process of holding a Peace Conference and for the signature and ratification of the German Peace Treaty with the following exceptions:

The U.K. and French Delegations consider that the Conference should be called when the preparation of the draft is “completed or sufficiently advanced”, whereas the Soviet Delegation considers that the Conference should not take place until the draft is “completed”.

The U.K. and French Delegations consider that China should be one of the convening powers of the Conference. The Soviet Delegation disagrees.

The Soviet Delegation considers that the Peace Conference should be called when a central government is formed in Germany which will be deemed adequate for the purpose of accepting the said document.

The U.K. Delegation does not agree that the calling of the Peace Conference must necessarily await the formation of a central German government. The U.K. and Soviet Delegations agree, however, that the German Government should be given an opportunity of stating its views before the Treaty is signed.

The Soviet Delegation considers that such opportunity should be afforded to the German Government at the Peace Conference. In the opinion of the U.K. Delegation, this will depend on the existence of a German Government adequate for the purpose of accepting the Peace Treaty at the time of the Peace Conference. The Soviet Delegation considers this provision superfluous.

The French Delegation considers that it is inadvisable to make any mention of a German Government until one exists.

The French Delegation proposes that the Information and Consultation Conference should begin its work immediately and without awaiting agreement regarding the remainder of the procedure.

The Soviet Delegation disagrees with this proposal; the other Delegations reserve their position.

47. Following a consideration of this Report at its 13th Meeting, March 25 (see telegram 1013, Delsec 1345, March 25, from Moscow, p. 287) and its 14th Meeting, March 26 (see telegram 1030, Delsec 1353, March 26, from Moscow, p. 292), the Council of Foreign Ministers decided to refer the Report back to the Deputies for further consideration.
48. The Annex is not printed. As revised by the Deputies, this Annex was circulated to the Council as document CFM(47) (M)125, April 12, 1947, p. 452.
49. The U.S. Delegation consider that provision should also be made for representation on the Information and Consultation Conference in addition to the Allied States referred to in sub-pargraph (c) above, of the States which were at war with, but which did not participate with their armed forces against Germany. The Deputies held a preliminary discussion on this proposal, but did not reach agreement. [Footnote in source text.]