Office of the Historian

CFM Files: Lot M–88: Box 152: SFM Documents 1–40

Draft Communiqué on Berlin1

top secret
New York, September 13, 1950.

Document 25

France, Great Britain, and the United States have long recognized with admiration the heroic struggle of Berlin to preserve its freedom against totalitarian aggression and have demonstrated their will to aid Berlin in this struggle. They recognize also the heavy price Berlin has had to pay to defend its freedom and have aided the city to meet its many economic problems. They deplore the separation of the Soviet Zone and Soviet Berlin Sector from free Germany. They will continue to oppose any action which, in contravention of agreement and civilized practice, aims to take advantage of Berlin’s isolation in the conduct of economic or other forms of aggression against the people of Berlin.

Resolved to maintain the rights of the three Western Occupation Powers in Berlin, the Foreign Ministers of France, Great Britain and the United States join in declaring that any attack upon Berlin by whatever forces would be firmly resisted. They would regard such attack as bringing into effect the provisions of the North Atlantic Treaty, and would immediately take steps to present the issue to the United Nations. The Foreign Ministers further

Direct the High Commission to review the Statement of Principles Governing the Relationship between the Allied Kommandatura and Greater Berlin,2 and to liberalize Allied controls to the maximum extent possible;

Pledge that their Governments will continue their efforts to alleviate the critical economic situation of Berlin;

Express once more the hope that Berlin will ultimately be able to take its due place in a free, united and prosperous Germany.

  1. Attached to the source text was a cover sheet, not printed. This draft was introduced by the United States Delegation at the third meeting of the Foreign Ministers on September 13. It was subsequently agreed that a separate communiqué on Berlin was not necessary and the substance of this draft was incorporated in the Instruction to the Allied High Commission and in the Communiqué on Germany in Document 37 (Final), pp. 1288 and 1296, respectively. For the minutes of the third meeting, see p. 1209.↩
  2. For text of this statement, issued on May 14, 1949, see Germany 1947–1949: The Story in Documents (Washington, Government Printing Office, 1950), pp. 324–326.↩