740.0011 EW (Peace)/3–2744
Memorandum by the Assistant Chief of the Division of Southern European Affairs (Camion) to the Director of the Office of European Affairs (Dunn)
Mr. Dunn: Mr. Pares42 of the British Embassy came to see me yesterday (Sunday) evening to read to me, from rough, untyped code-room copy, the substance of a series of telegrams, beginning with one [Page 159] to the Foreign Office from the British Ambassador at Moscow. It was to the effect that Mr. Molotoff had sent a letter to the Ambassador, referring to the Rumanian peace proposals, and, after some abuse of the Rumanians as being the worst of the satellites, offering “at the request of the British Government” nevertheless to continue to deal with Prince Stirbey.
The Russians then made a proposal to the effect that contact should at once be established with Marshal Antonescu, supplementary to the message which General Wilson has already sent to him, covering these points:
- (a)
- Antonescu should order Rumanian troops in contact with the Russians to surrender.
- (b)
- If this order can be carried out as regards Rumanian formations in the Dniester and Crimea regions, such troops, after surrender, would then be sent to the Pruth areas to be returned to Marshal Antonescu for organization by the Rumanians for use against the Germans;
- (c)
- Contact should be established between the Rumanian and Soviet commands, for handling “practical problems of mutual basic aid” against the Germans; Marshal Antonescu to name the Rumanian personality for this purpose, or to agree that it should be one of the Rumanian generals already surrendered and now in the USSR.
A second telegram gave the text of a message from London to Lord Moyne, the British Resident Minister at Cairo, instructing him to see that through General Wilson a message is sent to Antonescu along the lines indicated above. This telegram also said that since Antonescu may not be reached (he is reported to have obeyed the summons to Hitler) the same measures should be applied by Maniu or anyone else coming into effective control of the Rumanian Government. Accordingly, a similar communication should be given to Prince Stirbey, by the representatives of the three Governments (Great Britain, the USSR, and the United States) at Cairo, for transmission to Maniu.
The telegram to the Embassy at Washington reporting the above requested that the Department be informed, with the request that we send instructions to Cairo to join in the communication to Prince Stirbey as outlined above.
It is to be supposed that paraphrases of the telegrams in question will be sent by the Embassy to the Department in due course. Meanwhile, I think we can proceed on the basis of the above summary, which is based on notes taken while the telegrams were being read to me.
You will observe that the Russian proposal in its present form would leave the matter of the Rumanian surrender exclusively in Russian hands.
- Peter Pares, Second Secretary of the British Embassy.↩