740.0011 PW (Peace)/7–2347
The Secretary of State to the Soviet Chargé (Tsarapkin)24
Aide-Mémoire
The Secretary of State has the honor to refer to the Soviet Government’s aide-mémoire of July 22, 1947, transmitted to the American Embassy at Moscow, in which it is stated that “the Soviet Government considers it necessary that the question of convening of a conference for the drawing up of a peace treaty with Japan be provisionally examined by the Council of Foreign Ministers, composed of the representatives of” the Governments of the Soviet Union, China, Great Britain and the United States.
The United States Government considers that such discussions as occurred at Potsdam regarding problems of peace in the Far East, in connection with the establishment of the Council of Foreign Ministers, do not require enlarging the agreement on the Council set forth in the Potsdam protocol so as to make mandatory reference to the Council of matters relating to the peace settlement with Japan. Although the CFM was constituted on a basis which would have permitted its use for the preparation of a Treaty of Peace with Japan, provided the members of the Council subsequently agreed, this Government does not believe it appropriate for this matter to be referred to the Council for the reasons mentioned below.
In reference to the Cairo Declaration, the decisions of the Yalta Conference, or the Potsdam declaration on Japan, they contain no provisions which give the Council of Foreign Ministers any authority in connection with a Japanese peace settlement.
In Moscow in December 1945, four of the Governments represented on the Council of Foreign Ministers agreed to the setting up of a Far Eastern Commission composed of representatives of eleven powers “to formulate the policies, principles, and standards in conformity with which the fulfillment by Japan of its obligations under the Terms of Surrender may be accomplished.” It is the view of the United States Government that this action constituted a recognition of the primary interests of these powers in post-surrender policy matters for Japan and hence in the peace settlement. Accordingly, the special interest of other Pacific powers in the Japanese settlement requires the governments which compose the Council of Foreign Ministers to recognize that a conference now to consider that settlement even provisionally should be larger in composition than the Council.
Therefore, it is the view of the United States Government that neither the Council of Foreign Ministers, as established at Potsdam, [Page 489] nor a council composed of the representatives of the four powers mentioned by the Soviet Government is the appropriate body to consider the question of a Japanese peace treaty.
The approach made by the United States Government on July 11 to the other ten Governments represented on the Far Eastern Commission was based on this view. Since this approach to the Governments concerned was merely to ascertain their views on a conference for a Japanese peace settlement, such action cannot be interpreted as unilateral. Although, for the reasons given above, the United States Government does not consider that reference of this matter to the Council of Foreign Ministers is appropriate, it is transmitting the views of the Soviet Government to the Governments represented on the Far Eastern Commission which includes those represented on the Council of Foreign Ministers.
The United States Government wishes to point out that in the replies received from the other nine Governments represented on the Far Eastern Commission to the suggestions of the United States Government of July 11, all of these Governments indicated their agreement to an eleven-power conference on the Japanese peace settlement, as set forth in the attached summary25 of the views of these Governments. The conference would, of course, be free to decide its own procedure. It is hoped, therefore, that the Soviet Government will also indicate its willingness to attend a conference for the purpose of considering the Japanese peace settlement to be held in the near future and to be composed of the eleven states members of the Far Eastern Commission.