740.00119 Council/3–1247: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the President and the Acting Secretary of State

top secret
urgent

776. Delsec 1295. From Marshall to the President and Acting Secretary Acheson. Today’s CFM meeting,9 12 March, with Bidault Chairman, [Page 245] proved relatively ineffective. Bevin replied lengthily to charges pressed yesterday by Molotov.10 Based on shortage of German manpower for her economy, he asked the Soviets for a report of German prisoners of war still held in Allied territory. All four Ministers agreed to furnish this information.

Bevin charged Soviet failure to destroy German capital ships and Molotov accepted charge but gave extenuating reasons. Molotov stated he would report subsequently on progress in this matter.11

Bevin hewed the line that destruction of so-called war potential plants could not proceed much further without agreement on unified German economy. He added that the Potsdam Agreement is seriously affected by Germany’s not being treated as an economic unit and felt that the German level of industry plan should be reviewed and brought up to date.

He proposed that Deputies limit their review of ACC report to the facts, leaving policy matters for the Council of Foreign Ministers.

Molotov agreed with the necessity for unified German economy and review of the German level of industry plan, but saw no reason why war potential plants having no peacetime use should not be destroyed at once.12

The four delegates appeared to be in general agreement with this view, although no formal statement was made to that effect.

After considerably more discussion along the foregoing lines, most of which appeared to be propaganda for home consumption, it was agreed that the CFM would review and discuss all eight items of the ACC report in the priority proposed by the Deputies and that any directive to the Deputies for further study would be held in abeyance pending complete discussion by CFM.

[
Marshall
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  1. This was the 3rd Meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers.
  2. Foreign Secretary Bevin read a prepared statement on demilitarization which was circulated to the Council as document CFM(47) (M) 8, March 12, 1947; the text of the statement is printed in Documents on International Affairs 1947–1948 selected and edited by Margaret Carlyle and issued under the auspices of the Royal Institute of International Affairs (London, New York, Toronto, Oxford University Press, 1952), pp. 417–422.
  3. In document CFM (47) (M) 69, March 27, 1947, not printed, the Soviet Delegation stated that “the complete destruction of the ships of category ‘C’ of the German navy will be fully accomplished in August 1947.” The Tripartite Naval Commission had defined category “C” ships as those which were inoperable or those whose construction and repair could not be completed in six months. For the Report of the Tripartite Naval Commission, December 6, 1945, see Foreign Relations, 1945, vol. iii, p. 1506.
  4. Foreign Minister Molotov’s reply to Foreign Secretary Bevin’s prepared statement is summarized and quoted from at length in Molotov, Speeches and Statements at Moscow, pp. 8–10.