740.00119 EW 1939/9–544: Telegram
The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Harriman) to the Secretary of State
[Received September 5—7:08 a.m.]
3299. ReEmbs 3294, September 4, 8 p.m. All of us here, including General Deane,18 have been analyzing proposed armistice terms for Rumania as now amended as a result of the conference yesterday. [Page 221] We feel that the draft now includes substantially all the points covered in the Department’s instructions received to date and that through establishment of the control commission paralleling the Italian procedure points on which we may not be fully satisfied or new subjects can be dealt with.
Molotov is extremely anxious to have these armistice terms signed tomorrow, Wednesday night. I believe it is greatly to the interest of the Allies to have the situation in Rumania clarified which can be accomplished only through conclusion of an armistice. In the circumstances we recommend that I be instructed immediately to authorize the Soviet General to sign on our behalf.
I recommend that I be given discretion in connection with any further modifications the Department may desire, if I find that insistence on the inclusion of these points would delay the conclusion of the armistice.
- Maj. Gen. John R. Deane, Chief, U.S. Military Mission in the Soviet Union.↩