Office of the Historian

840.811/6–1248

The Embassy of the Soviet Union to the Secretary of State

[Translation]
No. 109

The Embassy of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics presents its compliments to His Excellency the Secretary of State and, in reply to his note of May 25 of this year regarding the convocation of a conference for drafting a new convention on the regime of navigation of the Danube, has the honor, on instructions from the Soviet Government, to communicate the following:

Noting that in view of the present situation the previously proposed date for calling the conference could not be adhered to, the Soviet Government is ready to agree to the proposal of the Government of the U.S.A. to call the conference on July 30 of this year. However, in as much as it has become known to the Soviet Government that the Government of Yugoslavia has stated that it would have difficulty in providing the necessary facilities for holding the conference in Belgrade on the date contemplated, the Soviet Government suggests that the conference be held in the capital of one of the other Danubian states that will participate in the conference with a deciding vote.

The Soviet Government has already taken occasion to state its position regarding the participation of Austria in a conference for working out a convention regarding the regime of navigation of the Danube. [Page 615] This position is based on the decision of the Council of Foreign Ministers of December 12, 1946. However, the Soviet Government agrees to Austria’s being invited to send two representatives to the conference in a consultative capacity.

The Soviet Government also agrees to the drafting of a communication of the four governments to the Government of the country calling the conference, as proposed in the note of the Government of the United States of America, and to the formula of inviting the participants of the conference in the name of the said Government and of the Governments of France, the United Kingdom, the U.S.S.R., and the United States.

Corresponding notes are being sent simultaneously to the governments of Great Britain and France.

Washington, June 12, 1948.