Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers, 1944, Europe, Volume IV

740.00119 EAC/68

The Director of the Office of European Affairs ( Dunn ) to the Ambassador in the United Kingdom ( Winant )

[Extract]¹⁴

Washington , February 2, 1944.

My Dear Mr. Ambassador:

. . . . . . .

I am also enclosing herewith a copy of WS–16a entitled “Provisions for Imposition upon Rumania at Time of Surrender” and WS–17 entitled “Aspects of Rumanian Surrender Requiring Agreement between the British, Soviet, and American Governments”. These documents have been passed by the Working Security Committee, and have also been cleared through the State Department. Clearance, however, has not yet been received from the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and, accordingly, the two documents cannot be regarded at this juncture as formally approved. As soon as the clearance is obtained from the Joint Chiefs of Staff, a telegram will be sent informing you thereof.¹⁵

Sincerely yours,

James Clement Dunn

[Enclosure 1]

WS 16a

January 13, 1944

Provisions for Imposition Upon Rumania at Time of Surrender ¹⁶

The provisions outlined below, which are deemed essential to the assurance of security and to the further prosecution of the war against Germany and which have important political implications, are here recommended for imposition upon Rumania at the time of her surrender. They are intended to be imposed at the will of the governments of the United Kingdom, the United States, and the U.S.S.R., acting in the interests of the United Nations, Rumania having no free choice of assenting or dissenting. As used in this document, the word “Rumania” means, wherever applicable, whatever central government is in existence, as well as all provincial, local and lesser governmental organs, agencies and officials.

1. The Signatories. The instrument providing for the termination of hostilities should be signed by the Allied Commander-in-Chief and the Commander-in-Chief of the Soviet forces, by the Chief of the High Command of the Rumanian Armed Forces or his representative, and, if possible, by an authorized civilian official representing the Rumanian Government.

2. Unconditional Surrender. The Rumanian Government and the Rumanian High Command should be required to acknowledge the total defeat and unconditional surrender of Rumania’s armed forces and to agree to submit to such terms and faithfully to execute such duties as may be imposed upon them by the occupation authorities.

3. Additional Provisions to be Imposed upon Rumania. The occupation authorities should be authorized to impose, in addition to the terms stipulated at the time of surrender, such further terms as they may from time to time deem necessary or appropriate.

4. Occupation Organs. Rumania should be obligated to cooperate with and submit to the regulations and orders of such enforcement agencies as the Allied Commander-in-Chief and the Commander-in-Chief of the Soviet forces may establish for the military government of occupied Rumania and for the execution of the surrender terms.

5. Evacuation of Occupied Territories. Without prejudice to the ultimate settlement of disputed territorial claims, Rumanian armed forces should be withdrawn from all areas other than territory held by Rumania on June 21, 1941, their withdrawal to be carried out according to a schedule laid down by the occupation authorities. Rumanian officials in such areas, except those whose continued presence is desired by the occupation authorities, should likewise be withdrawn. Individuals or units in such areas may be designated to be held as prisoners of war.

6. Demobilization and Disarmament. Rumanian land, sea and air forces, including armed quasi-police forces, but excluding such civil police as may be approved by the Allied Commander-in-Chief and the Commander-in-Chief of the Soviet forces, should be completely demobilized. Demobilization should be carried out under the direction of the occupation authorities with as much consideration for internal order and social stability as is consistent with military security. All Rumanian forces, including para-military forces equipped with weapons, should be disarmed immediately under the direction of the occupation authorities. The movement and location of Rumanian troops within Rumania, pending demobilization, should be subject to the direction of the occupation authorities. A permanent audit and inspection system should be established and maintained, and there should be continuous and unhampered inspection by the occupation authorities of all areas and installations which are or might be used for the production of war materials, for the conduct of military staff work, or for military training.

7. Surrender of Materials of War. The further production of arms, ammunition and implements of war should be prohibited, except as it may be deemed desirable by the occupation authorities that it be continued. All arms, ammunition and implements of war should be delivered, and all installations, facilities and services necessary or desirable for the full utilization thereof should be made available to the occupation authorities for such disposition as they may wish to make of them, except that Rumania should be permitted to retain such limited quantities of arms and ammunition as may be designated for internal police purposes by the occupation authorities. Lists of such materials and their locations, as well as of fortifications, mine fields, war production plants, etc. should be turned over to the occupation authorities. The Rumanian authorities should be required to prevent the destruction of such materials and installations until ordered to deliver, destroy or otherwise dispose of them.

8. Occupation. The United States, United Kingdom, and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, acting in the interests of the United Nations, should have the right to occupy with any forces at their disposal and in any way they deem necessary, and to utilize in any way they deem appropriate, any or all parts of Rumanian territory heretofore acknowledged to be under Rumanian sovereignty or in dispute as to such sovereignty, and to exercise throughout such territory the legal rights of an occupying power as well as the other rights arising under the instrument of surrender. For political purposes Bucharest and other principal cities to be designated should be occupied, at least temporarily. No time limit for the period of general occupation should be stated.

9. Archives. Rumania should be required to preserve and make available to the occupation authorities all public and private archives, archival staffs, records, files, documents and information as those authorities may require.

10. Communications, Transport and Power. Rumania should be required to place at the disposal of the occupation authorities, for such aid and disposition as they may determine, all facilities for communication and transportation, and for the generation, transmission and distribution of power, including establishments for the manufacture and repair of such facilities. It should be required to protect and maintain as efficiently as possible all such facilities and to inform the occupation authorities concerning them.

10a. Control of Press, Radio, and Mail. The utilization of press, radio, mail, and similar instruments of dissemination of information should be made subject to such controls and supervision as may be imposed by occupation forces in the interests of military security and peace and order.

10b. Merchant Shipping. All merchant tonnage, including yachts and miscellaneous craft, wherever located, of Rumanian ownership or operated under or subject to Rumanian control (including ships which may be under foreign control but subject to recall by right of option, in which case such option shall be promptly exercised and the return of the vessels facilitated by the Rumanian Government), shall be immediately turned over to the occupation authorities acting in the interests of the United Nations, this action to be taken without prejudice to the ultimate disposition of such vessels.

10c. Prize Courts and Vessels. Neither Rumania nor her nationals should be permitted to file or maintain any claim of any description against the United Nations or any national thereof in respect of the seizure, condemnation, appropriation, detention, employment, loss or damage, limited or otherwise, of any Rumanian ships or boats, whether arising under Prize Court proceedings or otherwise. Also, all pending Rumanian Prize Court proceedings should be suspended and terminated immediately, and neither Rumania nor her nationals should be permitted to file or maintain any claim of any description for loss of or for damage to vessels or cargoes sunk by or in consequence of naval action and subsequently salved, in which any of the United Nations or their nationals may have had any interest either as owners, charterers, insurers or otherwise, notwithstanding any decree of condemnation which may have been made by a Prize Court of Rumania or of any of the Axis powers. Nothing contained in this paragraph should be construed to imply the admissibility of any other types of claim on the part of Rumania or of Rumanian nationals.

11. United Nations Nationals and Other Nationals in Custody. Rumania should be required to safeguard and care for all nationals and members of the armed forces of the United Nations held as prisoners of war or in other custody and to deliver or liberate them as directed by the occupation authorities. Comparable provisions should be made for the safeguarding and care of the nationals and members of armed forces of states other than the United Nations held as prisoners of war or in other custody by Rumania.

12. The Protection of Foreigners. Rumania should be required to assume special responsibility for the care of foreign nationals and their property within Rumania.

13. War Criminals. Rumania should be obligated to hold in custody and to deliver to the occupation authorities all persons of Rumanian nationality and other persons within Rumania or subject to Rumanian jurisdiction charged with having committed war crimes. Such persons should be delivered whether they are specified by name or by the rank, office or employment which they held in the Rumanian armed forces, the Rumanian Government, or other Rumanian organizations or agencies, at the time of the alleged crime. Rumania should be required to cooperate in the trial and punishment of the persons delivered under this obligation and of any persons of like category held by the United Nations as prisoners of war at the time of the surrender of Rumania through the production of records, the collection of evidence, the enactment of legislation, and any other steps necessary to facilitate such trial and punishment.

14. Control of the Movement of Persons. No person should be permitted to leave or enter Rumania without authorization of the occupation authorities. Rumania should be obligated to deliver upon demand persons who are nationals of any state at war with any of the United Nations or the nationals of countries occupied by such belligerent states.

15. Commercial and Financial Transactions. Rumania should be obligated to take such measures as the occupation authorities may require to control both foreign and domestic commerce, exchange, finance and all other types of economic activity carried on in Rumania or by Rumanian nationals.

16. Information and Possible Action Regarding Property. Rumania, pending further directions from the occupation authorities, should be required to take all necessary measures to safeguard, maintain and prevent the dissipation of all property removed from territory which has been under Rumanian occupation or control; and all property in Rumania belonging to, or seized, confiscated, or transferred under duress from, the governments or nationals of the United Nations, or the governments or nationals of other states whose territories have been occupied by Rumania; and such other property as the occupation authorities may specify. Rumania should be required not to dispose or allow the disposal of property outside its territory, whether of the Rumanian State, of political subdivisions thereof, of Rumanian public or private institutions or organizations, or of persons resident in Rumania, except with the permission of the occupation authorities.

Rumania should be required to take any measures concerning the disposition of all such property that the occupation authorities may require.

Rumania should be required to furnish such information concerning property rights and interests, and transactions or agreements with regard thereto, as the occupation authorities may require.

17. Reparation. Rumania should be obligated to make such reparation and restitution as the United Nations may require and to comply with such directions as may from time to time be prescribed by the occupation authorities acting in the interests of the United Nations.

18. Undesirable Rumanian Organizations. All Rumanian organizations which may be regarded as a threat to the security of the occupation forces or to international peace, should be disbanded. Such parts of these organizations as it may seem desirable may be retained or converted for the purpose of performing necessary economic or social functions. The formation of new organizations, designed to replace any which may be disbanded for the reasons stated above, or whose existence may be regarded as a threat to the security of the occupation forces or to international peace, should be prohibited.

19. Discriminatory Laws. All Rumanian laws discriminating against persons on grounds of race, color, creed or political opinion should be suspended or repealed as directed by the occupation authorities.

20. Review of Cases of Persons Detained. All cases of persons held in custody or restrained or restricted under any Rumanian law, administrative order, or otherwise, should be subject to review in accordance with principles and procedures laid down by the occupation authorities, in order that those unjustly or illegally held may be released and relieved of any legal disability arising from their detention.

21. Maintenance of Law and Order. Subject to the paramount rights and power of the occupation authorities, the Rumanian Government should be obligated to maintain law and order in Rumania. Rumanian governmental agencies should be required to keep their services intact and to perform their functions, subject to the control of the occupation authorities and to the rights of these authorities to abolish or reform such agencies.

22. Rumanian Diplomatic Relations. Until otherwise determined the conduct of the diplomatic relations of Rumania should be subject to the direction and control of the occupation authorities.

23. Cultural Agencies. The conduct of educational and other cultural agencies should be subject to the general supervision of the occupation authorities.

24. Economic Reconstruction. Rumania should be required to assist and cooperate with the United Nations in such measures for relief, rehabilitation, and economic reconstruction as the United Nations may decide to undertake.

25. Cooperation in Peace Measures. Rumania should be required to render such assistance, other than the provision of armed forces, as the United Nations may require for the furtherance of the measures for the maintenance of international peace and security taken by the United Nations.

26. Costs of Occupation. Rumania should be obligated to bear the costs of occupation.

27. Duration and Enforcement of Instrument of Surrender. The instrument of surrender should continue in force until its termination by agreement among the United Nations. The Governments of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, acting in the interests of the United Nations, should reserve full freedom of action in case Rumania’s obligations under the terms of surrender are not fulfilled.

[Enclosure 2]

WS 17
(S 98a)

January 14, 1944

Aspects of Rumanian Surrender Requiring Agreement Between the British, Soviet, and American Governments

(See Document WS 16a)

The following factors should be taken into account in considering the terms recommended in the accompanying document, WS 16a, for imposition upon Rumania at the time of her surrender.

Comment on Nature of Surrender Document

It is believed that the capitulation of Rumania should be recorded in a single document of unconditional surrender. The statement of principles embodied in WS 16a would, it is felt, provide an adequate legal basis for the principal security, political and economic controls which the United Nations will need to impose on Rumania at the time of surrender and thereafter. The principles listed therein should not, however, be considered as exclusive of such additional conditions which it may be found advisable or necessary to impose. Nor should it be considered that all such terms must necessarily be included in the instrument of surrender so long as the instrument includes the complete and unconditional surrender of Rumania and such other broad and general terms as the three Governments may agree should be included therein in order to safeguard their rights and powers. In general, it is believed that the document of unconditional surrender should be a relatively brief instrument, with full power reserved to implement it by such proclamations, orders and ordinances as the occupation authorities and the Governments which they represent may deem advisable or necessary.

United Nations Concerned with the Terms of Rumanian Surrender

The following United Nations are at war with Rumania: the United States, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, Australia, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Haiti, India, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Union of South Africa. The imposition of provisions of surrender upon Rumania should rest with the Soviet, British, and American Governments, acting in the interest of the United Nations, without prejudice to the participation by other United Nations which are at war with Rumania in subsequent peace negotiations with Rumania.

Signatory or Signatories to the Surrender Instrument (Article 1)

The Soviet, British, and American Governments may appoint their several plenipotentiaries, civilian or military or both, to examine jointly the credentials of the Rumanian plenipotentiary or plenipotentiaries and to present for his or their signature, without discussion or negotiation, the instrument of surrender. On the other hand, having agreed together on the provisions of that instrument, the three governments may appoint a single plenipotentiary to act in the name of all three. In this latter case, the Soviet Government, on the ground that its forces have borne the brunt of the fighting against Rumania, will probably insist that the joint representative be a Soviet official or officer, perhaps the Commander-in-Chief of the Southern Ukrainian Army. To support this position it might cite the granting by it to General Eisenhower of full powers to act on its behalf in presenting the terms of surrender to the Italian Government. If the offer of surrender should be made in the field, the presentation of the surrender instrument might be made by the Soviet commander. If the offer should be made elsewhere, for example in a neutral country, the presentation of the surrender instrument might be made by representatives of the three Governments.

Provisional Status of Evacuated Territories and of Certain Occupied Territory (Articles 5 and 8)

Article 5 of WS 16a provides for the evacuation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina by the Rumanian armed forces “without prejudice to the ultimate settlement of disputed territorial claims”. However, if these disputed areas were at once thereafter reabsorbed into the Soviet administrative system, the ultimate territorial settlement, which the American Government believes should form part of the final settlement, would in effect be prejudged. If geographical and military considerations should make it inevitable for these disputed areas to be placed under Soviet occupation until the conclusion of the final settlement, it should be stipulated between the three principal Allies that these areas are to be occupied in the interest of the United Nations, and are not to be assimilated to the status of national territory until their final disposition has been agreed upon as part of the general peace settlement.

If the above-mentioned arrangement should prove impossible in the face of Soviet insistence upon the immediate reincorporation of Bessarabia into the U.S.S.R., the position might be taken that Northern Bukovina should receive a treatment different from that of Bessarabia and should be administered under United Nations military government in the interest of the United Nations, pending the general peace settlement. Rumania’s possession of Bessarabia from 1918 to 1940 was never given de jure recognition by the Soviet Union, nor, in any formal instrument, by the United States. Northern Bukovina, on the other hand, was never a part of Russia until 1940, and the Soviet claim to it has never been recognized by any of the United Nations. The disposition of Northern Bukovina is closely connected with that of Eastern Poland and both problems should be considered together as part of the general peace settlement.

The three principal United Nations should agree, according to the circumstances existing at the time of surrender and occupation, whether the territory acquired by Hungary from Rumania since the outbreak of the war should be placed, in whole or in part, under the military government for Hungary or of that for Rumania. Similarly, the three principal United Nations should agree, according to the circumstances existing at the time of surrender and occupation, whether the territory acquired by Bulgaria from Rumania since the outbreak of the war should be placed, in whole or in part, under the military government for Bulgaria or of that for Rumania. These decisions should be without prejudice to the ultimate disposition of the territories concerned.

From what Rumanian Regime should surrender be accepted?

Assuming a Rumanian offer of surrender prior to the capitulation of Germany, the answer to this question would depend in part on the degree to which a Rumanian Government desirous of capitulating might be able to escape from German domination. Of particular importance would be the question of whether any Rumanian Government would be in a position to offer more than a token surrender, leaving the territory itself still to be conquered, as in the case of Italy. If there is agreement among the governments of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the U.S.S.R. that the Rumanians are in a position to offer unconditional surrender, then those governments should agree without delay as to the Rumanian regime from which they are willing to accept such surrender. If they desire to saddle the Antonescu regime¹⁷ with responsibility for Rumanian participation in the war, it would be important to secure the submission of the present Rumanian leaders, and thus to forestall the danger that later generations of Rumanian nationalists would blame the defeat and the surrender on the moderate and pro-Ally groups.

On the other hand, by accepting surrender from Antonescu, an impression might be created that his government would be expected to carry out the execution of the terms of surrender. Public opinion in countries of the United Nations, as well as in Rumania, might thereby be confused. For this reason, and also in view of the possible desirability of using Rumanian forces and Rumanian personnel in the subsequent prosecution of the war against Germany, it might be desired, either prior to or subsequent to the surrender, to replace the Antonescu regime by a Maniu–Bratianu government,¹⁸ or by some other group more representative than is the present regime of the popular will and better able to rally the Rumanian people to cooperation with the United Nations in the war against Germany.

14. The omitted portion of this letter is printed in vol. i, p. 165.
15. Notice of clearance by the Joint Chiefs of Staff was transmitted in telegram 853 (Eacom 3), February 3, 1944, midnight, to London; not printed.
16. There is no record that the American delegation ever circulated in the European Advisory Commission a document on surrender terms for Rumania.
17. Marshal Ion Antonescu was Head of the Rumanian Government and Premier, called Dictator or Conducator; Mihai Antonescu was Vice Premier.
18. Iuliu Maniu, Rumanian National Peasant Party leader; Constantin I. C. Bratianu, Rumanian National Liberal Party leader.