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

CFM Files: Lot M–88: Box 112

United States Daily Journal of Meetings, Deputies for Germany of the Council of Foreign Ministers, London, November 6–22, 1947 ⁴⁶

London, November 6-22, 1947

secret

November 6, 1947

The first Deputies⁴⁷ session convened at 3:30 p.m. and, after fifteen minutes of klieg lights and photographers, got down to work at 3:45 p.m. with Patrick Dean acting as host and temporary chairman. It was agreed that the chairmanship should rotate after every fourth meeting starting with the next meeting; USSR, US, France, UK, in that order.

It was decided that as usual the press would be excluded from the session and that each delegation would take care of its own press relations.

Subsequent meetings are to take place at ten in the morning, thus dispensing with late afternoon sessions.

There was some debate as to what the agenda for the Deputies should include. There was agreement on two items: procedures for German Treaty, and the structure of provisional government for Germany. On a third item, namely, compensation for United Nations nationals for property removed from Germany as reparations or war booty, US and UK delegates believed that it was on the agenda by direction of the CFM in Moscow, whereas the French and Soviet delegations thought otherwise.

It was finally agreed that the first two items were on the agenda and that a decision regarding the third item would be temporarily postponed. (Mr. Dean informed Mr. Offie ⁴⁸ after the meeting that he had heard from Strang to the effect that the Department had also changed its mind on this matter and now felt that it should not be on the agenda for the Deputies.) The Soviet Delegation stated that each delegation had the right to put forth any question which it desired.

Because of the 30th anniversary of the Soviet Communist Revolution no meeting was to be held on Friday the seventh. The next meeting was therefore scheduled for 10:00 a.m. Saturday morning under U.K. Chairmanship and the first item was to be procedures for the preparation of the treaty.

Session ended about 5:30 p.m.

November 8, 1947

The Deputies meeting opened at 10:00 a.m. with Patrick Dean as Chairman. As the first item of business Mr. Dean suggested that we take up the question of an Information and Consultation Conference—part II of the procedures paper (CFM/47/M/125⁴⁹). Soviet delegate, however, wanted to start at the beginning and go through the paper point by point. The other delegates conceded to the wishes of their Soviet colleague.

First point raised was the inclusion of Albania among the 18 (or 19) priority nations. The Soviet and French delegates supported Albania and the US and UK opposed it. The arguments which were used last winter at London and last spring at Moscow were reiterated. It was finally decided to drop the matter and go on to the next item.

One new point arose: namely, the inclusion of Pakistan among the agreed participating nations. Since India had been divided the UK delegate suggested that Pakistan as well as India be included in this list of nations. French and Soviet delegates reserved their position subject to reference to their home governments. The US delegate agreed to the inclusion of Pakistan.

The Soviet delegate referred to a statement made at Moscow by the US delegate to the effect that one of the reasons why Albania should be excluded was that the US did not maintain diplomatic relations with this country. The Soviet delegate wanted to know specifically if this was a determining reason. He was obviously aiming at Brazil which has recently broken off diplomatic relations with the USSR. He was informed that the reference Moscow statement was made only in passing and was not particularly germane to the subject being discussed.

The next topic discussed was paragraph 4 of CFM/47/M/125 “after formation of an adequate German government”. Soviet delegate cited Potsdam and insisted that no peace treaty could be written prior to the formation of a German Government which could present its views. The other three delegates reading the same section of Potsdam could not get this interpretation and were opposed to delaying the actual drafting of a treaty until after adequate German government was established.

No agreement could be reached and the issue was dropped.

The third point discussed was the inclusion of China among the inviting powers of a German peace conference. Soviet delegate insisted that inasmuch as China was not a signatory to the German surrender she should not be included among the inviting powers. The other three delegates maintained their earlier position that China should be included and as no agreement was possible the issue was dropped.

The fourth point discussed was the composition of the future peace conference. The US, as previously, wanted a broad representation of the nations with full and equal rights. The French delegate reserved his position stating that the composition of the peace conference largely depended upon decisions which would be taken with respect to the composition of the four committees and the Information and Consultation Conference. The UK position was substantially that of the French, the UK delegate believing that the US proposal would make a rather large and unwieldy conference and that the matter might be left to the conference itself which once convoked could invite such other countries confined to the priority nations (18 or 19, depending on whether or not Albania was included) plus UK, US, France, USSR and China. The Soviet delegate argued lengthily against the inclusion of such countries as the Philippines and Chile being on a par with Canada and India. He saw no reason why countries should be invited to the peace conference merely because they had declared war on Germany. He repeatedly emphasized that nations which declared war on Germany as late as March 1945 had no claim to participation in the peace treaty.

Being unable to reach any agreement, the issue was dropped.

The fifth and last point discussed was the type of German participation in the writing of the peace treaty. The US wanted to grant audience to “representative Germans” whereas the Soviet delegate insisted that satellite governments were given a voice in the writing of their treaties and that a German government should have the same privilege. The UK and French delegates maintained the positions held at Moscow.

Again no agreement was reached and the issue was dropped.

The meeting adjourned at 12:30 p.m. after deciding that the next meeting would be at 4:00 p.m., Monday, November 10.

November 10, 1947

Third meeting of Deputies opened at 4:15 p.m. UK in chair, Offie representing US.

Sovdel, referring to earlier mentioned cable of Mr. Bevin’s,⁵⁰ submitted Soviet proposal for CFM agenda.⁵¹

Chairman asked about inclusion of Pakistan in list of priority nations and French agreed. Soviet delegate said he had no instructions as yet.

Turning to paragraph 5, part I of CFM/47/M/125, Soviet delegate insisted that American proposal with regard to recommendations of 2/3 of majority of representatives of peace conference violated earlier agreed part of CFM/47/M/125 which stated that US, UK, France and USSR write the preparatory peace treaty. French suggested certain minor changes in wording and US member agreed to study matter. No agreement was reached so the conference passed on to paragraph 6.

There was a lengthy discussion as to whether or not a German government should sign and ratify the peace treaty and whether or not there should be a constitutional clause accepting the peace treaty. UK and USSR pointed out that signature and ratification was necessary according to international law to make the instrument legal. France expounded on necessity of broad acceptance by German people and wanted constitution to contain such acceptance clause. The Soviet delegate, when asked if he would accept the requirement of a constitutional clause as well as a signature and ratification by the German government, replied in the negative saying that he saw no point to it at all.

That part of paragraph 6 stating that the draft treaty would be presented to the other countries at war with Germany was not discussed since if agreement could be reached on the US proposal as to the composition of the treaty conference, all such nations would of course be present.

The first paragraph of part II of CFM/47/M/125 again brought up the question of the inclusion of Albania and Pakistan and there was no discussion.

In opening the discussion in paragraph 3 the chairman stated that according to the minutes of the 28th meeting of the CFM,⁵² the Soviet delegation had withdrawn its original proposal and had agreed to support the French draft of this paragraph subject to minor changes in wording. There was a lengthy pause while the Soviet delegate studied the minutes of the meeting in question. He agreed that the minutes read as the chair had indicated but insisted that the Soviets still held to the position that the main committee should be limited to the Big Four.

The US delegate repeated his earlier request that participation in the work of the committees be as broad as possible. The French offered several suggested changes in the wording but no agreement was reached.

Meeting adjourned at 6:30 p.m.

November 11, 1947

The fourth meeting opened at 10:05 a.m. Upon inquiry by the chair it was decided that the CFM agenda would be discussed after the Deputies had finished consideration of CFM document 125.

UK chairman opened discussion on paragraph 3, the composition of the permanent committee, by suggesting that such committees be made up of representatives of the Big Four plus representatives of not more than ten other countries to be chosen from the list of priority nations at a meeting of the Big Four and all priority nations. Soviet delegate objected to the inclusion of representatives of other nations as members, insisting again that US, UK, France and USSR write the treaty and that other interested nations could be called in to present their views but would not have full rights of membership. The other delegates agreed to study the British proposal.

Re paragraph 4, the US proposal stated that the report of the permanent committees to the CFM would include the proposals presented by the Allied states who participated in the discussions. Soviet delegate objected to this saying that such states could present their views to the Information and Consultative Conference but that they had no place in the permanent committees. The US suggested rewording so as to avoid any inferred commitment that there would be other participating states but the Soviet delegate refused to concede. The latter cited Potsdam paragraph 4(a)⁵³ which said that the peace treaty was to be written by the Big Four. The US delegate cited Potsdam paragraph 4(b)⁵⁴ which gave the CFM freedom of action in adapting their work to the particular problems involved.

Soviet delegate stated categorically that he could not agree with giving other Allied states full right of participation in the work of the committee so the issue was dropped.

No agreement could be reached on paragraph 6 dealing with the composition of the sub-committees, Soviet delegate insisting that these sub-committees should have the same composition as the permanent committees. The UK suggested a rewording of their orginal proposal on this which was accepted by the French and US.

On paragraph 7 concerning the establishment of the Information and Consultative Conference, Soviet delegation stood by the position expressed at Moscow. The UK delegation withdrew its note on this subject submitted at the closing out of the Moscow Conference and expressed its support of the French statement. There was no further discussion and the meeting adjourned at 12:00 noon.

November 12, 1947

Fifth meeting opened at 10:00 a.m. under Soviet chairmanship. Both UK and France submitted proposed agendas⁵⁵ for the CFM. France made it obvious that she wanted discussion of the Saar problem. Both of them asked that the Austrian question be placed no. 1 on the agenda. There was considerable discussion on just what items should be included and their order. The U.S. Delegate hoped to submit a formal suggestion at the next meeting. It was clear that the Soviet member did not want any discussion of the Saar nor the U.S. draft treaty on demilitarization and could see no reason why the German Deputies should be particularly worked up about the urgency of the Austrian treaty. Further discussion was postponed.

Sections A and B of CFM 121⁵⁶ on the form and scope of provisional political organization in Germany were discussed and there were no changes in the positions of the various delegations from those expressed in Moscow. The meeting adjourned at 12:15.

November 13, 1947

Sixth meeting of the Deputies, under Soviet chairmanship, opened at 10:00 a.m. The records of decisions of the 49th, 50th, 51st and 52nd meetings of the Deputies were agreed.

Discussed Sections C, D and E of CFM 121. There were virtually no changes in the position of the several delegations from what they had been at Moscow. Sovdel insisted on election of provisional government, whereas the US position was that such government should reflect the political complexion of the Land Diets, have power to effect legislative and executive acts over all of Germany, but that popular election was not necessary.

The US, UK and French all agreed that any central government of Germany should have only those powers specifically given it by the Constitution and should not have powers in the realm of education, religion, cultural affairs, security—whereas the Sovdel wanted the central government to have substantial powers including certain police powers.

There was a lengthy exchange between the US and Soviet delegates on the US reservation in Paragraph 2 F of Section E of CFM 121, which stated that any provisional constitution must be approved by ACA and contain certain Potsdam provisions regarding decentralization of government and the development of local responsibility. The Sovdel, after repeated evasive replies and arguments that were extraneous to the matter at hand, finally admitted that they had no objections to submitting a provisional constitution to the ACA but that they could not support the US reference reservation.

The meeting adjourned at 12:15.

November 14, 1947

The 7th meeting of this session of the Deputies opened at 10 a.m. under the chairmanship of Smirnov. There was a lengthy discussion as to procedure to be followed by the CFM on agenda matters. The US, UK and French delegates all felt that regardless of what agenda was developed, there should be an understanding beforehand that the Foreign Ministers could consider the broad problems of Germany and Austria and skip from one item to another of the agenda as they saw fit. The Soviet member refused to go along with this understanding but did indicate that he would attempt to get further instructions from his government.

There was no agreement reached as to what items should be placed on the agenda, but there was a general agreement on the wording of two questions, should they later be chosen for inclusion on the agenda. These were (1) form and scope of the provisional political organization of Germany, (2) report of the Commission on the Treaty for Austria.⁵⁷

The US delegate emphasized that the understanding with respect to flexibility in the discussion of the agenda items was a condition to his acceptance of any agenda.

Monday, November 17

The 8th meeting of this session of the Deputies opened at 10:00 under chairmanship of Smirnov. Virtually no progress made in four hours of tiresome debate. The Soviet Delegate was reluctant to put the US draft treaty⁵⁸ on the CFM agenda. First he stated this matter had been discussed at Moscow and the views of the other Delegations were known, hence there was no point in discussing the matter further. Then he attempted to find out from the US delegation what disposition had been made of the numerous suggested changes in this draft treaty which the Soviets had made at Moscow. Finally, when he discovered that the US proposed to submit a revised draft, he felt that agreeing to place the item on the agenda was like buying a cat in the bag and insisted that the question of including this item on the agenda should be left for the Ministers themselves.

Another lengthy discussion followed on whether or not the item “Other Business” should be placed on the agenda. The US, UK and French Delegates approved this item, but again the Soviet Delegate would not agree. He seemed to fear that in this item the other Delegates were trying to slip something over on him. With the understanding that the records would show that any Minister had the privilege of submitting any relevant item for discussion, it was agreed that the agenda would contain no item of “other business”.

The US Delegation withdrew its reservation on the two items previously agreed by the three other Delegates, i.e., economic principles and procedure for German Peace Treaty.

The Russians placed a general reservation on the acceptance of individual items subject to the adoption of a satisfactory over-all agenda. This reservation has now been stated by all four Delegates.

The French Delegate wanted “frontiers” to be a separate item on the agenda. The French and Soviet Delegates wanted a report from the ACA to be a separate item on the agenda.

The meeting adjourned at 2:00 p.m.

November 18, 1947

Ambassador Murphy chaired 9th meeting this session of Deputies. After numerous and lengthy arguments by the Soviet Delegation [Delegate], it was obvious that he was not prepared to concede an inch in meeting the wishes of the other Delegates in the adoption of a CFM agenda. The U. S. Delegation proposed submission of two draft agendas to the CFM—one agreed by the U. S., U. K. and France the other proposed by the Soviet Delegation. With the understanding that the Ministers had the right to bring up any additional subject not on the agenda as prepared by the Deputies, the French agreed to the deletion of the item calling for discussion on a report from the ACA. This meant that complete agreement could be reached by U. S., U. K., French, on the items and their sequence.⁵⁹

The Soviet Delegate was noticeably perturbed when he discovered that the other Delegates were really serious in presenting their own version of an agenda, and made several attempts to get the other delegates to agree on the presentation to the CFM of the four agreed items with no reference to the order in which they should be discussed. The meeting adjourned at 1:30 after approving revised version of paper on procedures for the Peace Treaty⁶⁰ and after a very brief discussion of the type of report to be made by the Deputies to the CFM.

November 19, 1947

Ambassador Murphy chaired the tenth and eleventh meetings, running from 10:00 to 1:30 and from 4:00 to 7:30. Having reached complete disagreement on the agenda, the problem under discussion in these two meetings was to agree on a report to the Ministers informing them of the Deputies’ disagreement. The seven hours of the two sessions consisted of nothing more than wearisome irrelevant arguments on the part of Smirnov. Repeated attempts on the part of the other delegates to arrive at an acceptable report proved useless. It was suggested that the chairman report verbally to the Ministers, but this suggestion was not acceptable to the Soviet Delegation unless they could see and approve beforehand the exact wording of the report. Since the four delegates could not arrive at any unanimous written report, it was obvious the Chairman could not produce an acceptable verbal report without conceding completely to the Soviet Delegation.

It was obvious that the Soviet Delegation did not want any report to go to the Foreign Ministers which would show them in the minority opposed to an agreed decision of the 3 Delegations.

November 21, 1947

Ambassador Murphy chaired a fruitless 12th meeting of the Deputies this session beginning at 10:00. In trying to reach an agreed report for the Deputies, the Soviet Delegation went over the same worn ground, which showed conclusively that he would not agree to any report which presented the Soviets as standing alone in face of agreement by the other three delegates. The French Delegate proposed that the two agendas be incorporated into one document and submitted to the CFM. He had proposed this several days earlier and it had been unacceptable to the Soviet Delegation [Delegate] but now, in order to prolong the discussion further, he saw great merit in the French proposal and wanted to study the matter, promising to present his views at the next meeting. Other delegates wanted to meet in the afternoon or on Monday; the Soviet Delegate insisted on meeting Saturday p.m.

November 22, 1947

Thirteenth and final meeting of the Deputies at 3 p.m. The Soviet Delegate presented an amended version of the proposal the Soviet Delegate made the day before, which proved utterly unacceptable to the other delegates. Again an attempt was made to have the chairman, this time St. Hardouin, to report to the Ministers, but the Soviet Delegate insisted that the oral report first be written and approved by all delegates.

Unable to reach any agreement, it was finally decided to have each Deputy report separately and individually to his Minister.

Adjourned subject to further meeting, should the chairman feel any necessary.

46. This Journal was included as Annex Q to the Report of the Activities of the United States Delegation to the Deputies for Germany of the Council of Foreign Ministers, November 22, 1947, prepared by Kenyon C. Bolton, Secretary of the Delegation.

    Following each meeting of the Deputies, a telegraphic report was sent to the Department of State. These telegrams are included in file 740.00119 Council. The United States Delegation Minutes are included in CFM Files, Lot M–88, Box 112 as are copies of formal documents circulated during the meetings of the Deputies.

47. The Deputies for Germany were: United States–Robert D. Murphy; United Kingdom–Patrick Dean; France—Tarbé de Saint Hardouin; Soviet Union–Andrey Andreyevich Smirnov.
48. Carmel Offie, of the staff of the United States Political Adviser for Germany, was serving as a member of the American Delegation to this meeting of the Deputies.
49. Ante, p. 452. As slightly amended by the Deputies for Germany at this and succeeding meetings, CFM (47) (M) 125 was reissued as document CFM (D) (L) (47) (G) 78 rev., November 12, 1947, not printed. Differences between the two documents are indicated in annotations to CFM (47) (M) 125.
50. The reference here is to Foreign Secretary Bevin’s proposals, communicated to the American, French, and Soviet Governments on November 6, regarding the tasks to be undertaken by the Deputies for Germany; see footnote 38 to telegram 2232, November 5, to Berlin, pp. 698, 699.

51. The agenda proposed by the Soviet Delegation, circulated to the Deputies as document CFM (D) (L) (47) (G)74, not printed, listed the following items:

    1) Procedure for the preparation of a German peace treaty.

    2) Form and scope of a provisional German political organization.

    3) Report by the Allied Control Council on the implementation of the decisions of the Moscow session of the Council of Foreign Ministers with regard to demilitarization.

    4) Economic principles, level of German industry, reparations.

    5) Report of the Austrian Treaty Commission.

52. The reference here is to the Record of Decisions of the 28th Meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers at Moscow, April 14, 1947 which is quoted in footnote 9 to CFM (47) (M) 125, April 12, p. 452.
53. The reference here should be to the Report on the Tripartite Conference of Berlin, August 2, 1945, Part II, paragraph (3) (i), Foreign Relations, The Conference of Berlin (The Potsdam Conference) 1945, vol. ii, p. 1500.
54. Paragraph (4) (ii) of reference cited in footnote 53, p. 707.

55. The agenda proposed by the United Kingdom Delegation listed the following items:

    1) Report of the Austrian Treaty Commission.

    2) Economic principles, level of German industry, reparations, and the integration of the Saar into the French economy.

    3) Form and scope of the provisional political organization of Germany.

    4) Draft disarmament and demilitarization treaty.

    5) Report of the Deputies on the procedure for the preparation of the German peace treaty.

    The agenda proposed by the French Delegation listed the following items:

    1) Report of the Austrian Treaty Commission.

    2) Economic principles.

    3) Frontiers of Germany.

    4) Provisional political organization of Germany.

    5) Questions relating to security; draft treaty relating to disarmament and demilitarization and special regimes applicable to certain parts of Germany (Ruhr and Rhineland).

    6) Report of the Allied Control Council on questions on which they have been instructed by the Moscow session of the Council of Foreign Ministers.

56. Ante, p. 436.
57. Document CFM/ATC (47) 77, October 11, 1947, p. 631.
58. Reference to the draft treaty on the disarmament and demilitarization of Germany, submitted by Secretary of State Byrnes to the Council of Foreign Ministers in Paris on April 30, 1946; for the text, see Foreign Relations, 1946, vol. ii, p. 190.
59. The items listed in the virtually identical American, British, and French agenda proposals are set forth in footnote 78, telegram 6191, Delsec 1501, November 25, from London, p. 731. The items in the Soviet agenda proposal are listed in the same footnote.
60. Under reference here is document CFM (D) (L) (47) (G) 78 Revised, not printed, which incorporated the amendments agreed upon by the Deputies to document CFM (47) (M) 125, April 12, 1947, p. 452.