Office of the Historian

740.00119 (Potsdam)/7–2645

United States Delegation Memorandum1

Potsdam, July 26, 1945

Meeting of Protocol Subcommittee, July 26, 1945

Mr. Gromyko was elected chairman of the subcommittee.

It was agreed that the Protocol of the Berlin Conference should follow exactly the form of the Protocol of the Crimea Conference.2

1.
It was agreed that the title of the first heading should be “Establishment of a Council of Foreign Ministers” which should be followed by the text which has already been approved by the Conference.3 There would then be inserted the approved text of the invitation to [Page 420] be sent by the three governments to the Governments of China and France.4
2.
It was agreed that the title of the second heading should be “The Political and Economic Principles to Govern the Treatment of Germany in the Initial Control Period” and that this should be followed by two sections “(A) Political Principles” and “(B) Economic Principles.” The first of these subheadings would be followed by the text already approved.5
3.
It was agreed that the third section would have to do with Poland and that the title of the section would be suggested by the U. S. S. R. This would be followed in the first instance by the text on the Polish question already approved by the Conference.6

A draft of these first three headings of the Protocol is attached hereto.7

It was agreed that the following subjects would be dealt with under succeeding headings:

  • IV Tangier
  • V Iran
  • VI Western Frontier of the U. S. S. R.
  • VII Territorial Trusteeship
  • VIII Government in Austria
  • IX Turkey and the Straits

The exact title of all of these will be subject to further consideration. The text will be supplied by the Delegations which raised the questions before the Conference. In other words, the Soviet Delegation will present texts on Tangier, the Western Frontier of the U. S. S. R., Territorial Trusteeship and Government in Austria.8 The British Delegation will present texts on Iran and Turkey and the Straits.

It was also agreed that decisions taken by the subcommittee are purely tentative and subject to revision after the various representatives have consulted their foreign ministers.

The next meeting of the subcommittee was fixed for Friday, July 27, immediately after the Big Three meeting.

  1. Authorship not indicated.↩
  2. See document No. 1416, post.↩
  3. Document No. 714, post.↩
  4. See document No. 1383, post, section i. Cf. documents Nos. 715 and 1395, post.↩
  5. Document No. 856, post.↩
  6. Document No. 1131, post.↩
  7. No attachment found.↩

  8. Cf. the following translation of an undated letter from Gromyko to Dunn (file No. 740.00119 Potsdam/7–2845):

    “I am sending you herewith the text of the protocol entries on questions raised at the Conference by the Soviet Delegation.”

    The attachment to this letter, however, consists, not of “entries” on questions raised by the Soviet Delegation, but of a Russian text of sections i and ii A of document No. 1383, post. Cf. documents Nos. 1343, 1426, 1428, and 1430–1433, post.

    ↩