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

740.0011 EW Peace/2–1847

The Acting Secretary of State to the Mexican Ambassador (Espinosa de los Monteros)

Washington, March 6, 1947.

My Dear Mr. Ambassador: Before his departure for Moscow, Secretary Marshall asked me to communicate with you in his absence regarding your visit to his office on February 18 last.⁶⁰ At that time you inquired, on behalf of your Government, whether my Government would support, in the Council of Foreign Ministers, the claim of the Mexican Government that it should be invited to participate in the making of the peace treaty with Germany. You will recall that you left with Secretary Marshall a memorandum⁶¹ embodying your Government’s inquiry, and that he said he would look into the matter immediately and give you this Government’s answer.

Since your visit, the Department has instructed the American Ambassador in Mexico, D.F., to acknowledge on behalf of the United States Government the Foreign Office memorandum of January 16 last,⁶² in which this inquiry was first made. The American Ambassador was instructed⁶³ to make his acknowledgment in the following terms:

1. The Department has received the Memorandum.

2. The Council of Foreign Ministers, at its session in New York in 1946, decided to appoint deputies for Germany and instructed them to hear the views of governments of Allied States neighboring Germany and of other Allied States which participated with their armed forces in the common struggle against Germany, should these governments wish to present their views on the German problem. These deputies are now meeting in London. As the Ministry for Foreign Relations has noted in its Memorandum, the Council of Foreign Ministers left open the question of holding a peace conference.

3. The Government of the United States agrees that Mexico should be allowed to participate in the making of the treaties for Germany and Austria.

4. The United States will make its position in this respect known to the other powers represented on the Council of Foreign Ministers.

5. The opposition offered by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics to the proposal of the United States, that Mexico should participate in the negotiations for a peace with Italy, gives no grounds for assurance that all the other powers represented on the Council of Foreign Ministers will agree to Mexico’s participation in the peace arrangements for Germany and Austria.

Sincerely yours,

Dean Acheson

60. The memorandum of conversation covering this visit is filed separately under 740.0011 EW Peace/2–1847.
61. The memorandum under reference here, dated February 18, 1947, not printed, is also filed under 740.0011 EW Peace/2–1847.
62. The memorandum under reference was transmitted to the Department as an enclosure to despatch 2556, January 27, 1947, from Mexico City, neither printed (740.0011 EW(Peace)/2–2747).
63. In instruction 867, February 27, 1947, to Mexico City, not printed.