740.00119 Council/4–1348
The Soviet Ambassador (Panyushhin) to the Secretary of State
No. 78
Sir: In connection with the letter of March 25 of this year from the Department of State,1 I have been instructed by the Soviet Government to state the following:
The Soviet Government considers quite unsatisfactory the reply of the Government of the United States of America to the note of March 6 of this year from the Soviet Government2 in connection with the separate Anglo-French-American negotiations concerning Germany, [Page 363] which took place in London in February and March of this year, in as much as statements were made in the U.S.A. note of March 25 contradicting the real state of affairs.
In particular, the statement in the note of March 6 of this year from the Soviet Government to the effect that the question of creating a unified Anglo-American zone had never been presented for the consideration of the Control Council, cannot be refuted in any degree by a reference in the U.S.A. note of March 25 to General McNarney’s memorandum. As you know, the said memorandum did not touch on the question of creating a unified Anglo-American zone but merely contained an invitation to any other zone to join the American Zone, and even this question was not considered by the Control Council.
In this connection, we must recall the statement of Marshal Sokolov-sky at the meeting of the Control Council on February 25, 1947, to the effect that the Control Council “has no relation to the agreement for the unification of the British and American zones of occupation. It took no part in it and never approved it. This agreement was concluded without the knowledge of the Control Council, although such action no doubt violated the agreed principles of our joint task.”3
Thus, the attempt to present the matter as though the merger of the British and American zones was effected with the knowledge of the Control Council is obviously of no value.
As regards the other questions dealt with in your letter, it must be noted that you did not produce any facts to refute the data presented by the Soviet Government in its note of March 6. Therefore, the Soviet Government does not see the necessity for returning to a discussion of these questions, which were set forth with comprehensive fullness in the preceding note of the U.S.S.R.
The fact that the Government of the U.S.A. preferred to pass over in silence the numerous violations of agreed decisions on Germany, cited in the said note, merely confirms the fact that the responsibility for the collapse of the agreement concerning the Control Council in Germany, and also for actions directed toward the liquidation of the Council of Foreign Ministers, as well as for the consequences of such a policy, lies entirely with the governments of the United States of America, Great Britain and France.
Accept [etc.]