740.00119 European War 1939/2519: Telegram
The Ambassador to the Yugoslav Government in Exile (MacVeagh) to the Secretary of State
[Received April 24—4:12 p.m.]
Yugos 96. See my Yugos 92 of April 16. The Soviet Ambassador informed me today that, having received the consent of the three [Page 177] Governments concerned, he is telling Prince Stirbey that he may communicate to Maniu his, Stirbey’s, suggestion that he transfer himself to Russian-held territory in Moldavia and establish a government there in opposition to Antonescu.
In this connection, when I informed him on April 19, as instructed in the Department’s Yugos 26 of April 18, he asked me whether the Department meant its remarks to apply to Bessarabia, altering its previous acceptance of the 1940 boundary (see Department’s Yugos 23 of April 11). To this I replied that in my belief the Department was merely repeating its known policy of deferring boundary issues until the conclusion of hostilities with special reference to this particular proposal in regard to Moldavia [Transylvania], and that the question of Bessarabia already agreed to did not arise. My explanation in this matter he repeated to Moscow and has now received the following reply (translation from the French):
The Soviet Government has taken note of Mr. MacVeagh’s explanation that the reservation made by the United States Government with regard to the territorial jurisdiction of the Government of Maniu had no bearing on Bessarabia, it being granted that the United States Government in associating itself with the Soviet armistice conditions thereby accepted.
Referring to the restoration of the Rumanian-Soviet frontier in conformity with the Rumanian-Soviet agreement of 1940.
The Soviet Government considers that anything relating to the territorial jurisdiction of Maniu must equally be based on the known declaration of Mr. V. M. Molotov concerning the preservation of the Rumanian-Soviet frontier established in 1940.