Office of the Historian

740.00119 Control (Germany)/3–1549

Statement by the United States Ambassador at Large (Jessup)1

[New York,] April 27, 1949.

1.
Mr. Acheson has given careful consideration to the information conveyed by Mr. Malik to Mr. Jessup on April 10 including the views [Page 736] expressed by Mr. Vishinsky.2 In accordance with the position indicated by Mr. Jessup to Mr. Malik on April 5,3 Mr. Acheson has informed Mr. Bevin and Mr. Schuman.
2.
Before proceeding with any formal discussion of arrangements regarding the simultaneous lifting of the restrictions on communications, transportation and trade and a meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers, it is necessary to have a clear understanding on certain points which have arisen in the informal conversations between Mr. Malik and Mr. Jessup.
3.
With regard to the lifting of the restrictions, it would need to be clearly understood that the restrictions to be removed are those imposed since March 1, 1948, on the one hand by the Government of the Soviet Union on communications, transportation and trade between Berlin and the Western zones of Germany, and on the other hand by any one of the four powers on communications, transportation and trade between the Western and Eastern zones of Germany.
4.
With regard to the question of the establishment of a Government in Western Germany, it is a well-known fact that the three Governments are proceeding with preparations for the establishment of such a Government. These preparations will continue.
5.
It can be stated in addition that, if a meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers is held, the fact of such a meeting will not interrupt or retard these preparations.
6.
As the representatives of the three governments made clear to Marshal Stalin during the course of the discussions in Moscow last August,4 the establishment of a Government in Western Germany in accordance with the decisions taken in London in June, 1948,5 does not preclude four-power agreement whereby a Government for the whole of Germany could be established, and the three governments will make a sincere endeavor to ascertain whether there is a real prospect of agreement among the Four Powers.
7.
The Foreign Ministers of the United States, France and the United Kingdom would be available for another meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers upon the conclusion of the necessary prior agreements and upon the removal of the restrictions on communications, transportation and trade referred to above, but wish to be in a position to return to their duties at home by the end of the second week of June. It is their belief that this would afford sufficient time for [Page 737] reaching agreement in the spirit in which, as stated above, they will enter upon the discussions. These prior agreements would deal with the description of the restrictions on communications, transportation and trade to be removed and the date of their removal, and the place, date and agenda for a subsequent meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers.

  1. Read to Malik on April 27.↩
  2. A memorandum of the conversation between Jessup and Malik on April 10 is printed on p. 717.↩
  3. The reference here is to the statement read by Jessup on April 5, p. 716.↩
  4. Documentation relating to the quadripartite discussions of the Berlin question in Moscow during August 1948 is in Foreign Relations, 1948, vol. ii, pp. 995 ff.↩
  5. For the text of the London decisions and related documentation, see ibid., pp. 1 ff.↩