740.00119 Control (Germany) /9–3045: Telegram
The United States Political Adviser for Germany (Murphy) to the Secretary of State
[Received September 30—11:38 a.m.]
652. The seventh meeting of the Political Directorate was held on September 28 with Mr. Steel20 presiding.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
On the matter of population transfers, and the proposal of the US member that the Czech offer to send a delegation to Berlin to discuss this question be accepted the French member21 suggested that the Control authority should formulate its own plans before consulting the Czechs, and also that the refugees already in Germany should be provided for before those from outside. Mr. Sobolev22 agreed generally [Page 1282] with the French views and stated that enough facts are already known to begin now on the planning. Mr. Heath23 stressed the delay which had already occurred on this matter and suggested that, at least, preliminary talks could be had with the Czechs. Mr. Steel suggested that primary responsibility in this matter now lies with the Directorate of Prisoners of War and Displaced Persons and that the Political Directorate should merely communicate its views to them. He also stated that it would be appropriate for the Control authority to send observers into the Sudetenland. Accordingly, it was decided to send a communication to the Prisoners of War and Displaced Persons Directorate stating that the Political Directorate favored the acceptance of the Czech delegation as soon as the Prisoners of War and Displaced Persons Directorate considers that such a delegation can make a useful contribution to the settlement of this problem.
Mr. Heath presented a paper24 stating that whereas the Czechs had given formal notification of their willingness to suspend expulsion, the Poles had not done so. He proposed that the Council formally repeat to the Polish Government the request to suspend expulsions contained in the Potsdam Agreement. Mr. Sobolev felt this matter to be too important for settlement in the Directorate and suggested it be presented in the Coordinating Committee. He suggested that the Soviet member25 of that Committee might be opposed to such a move. Mr. Steel stated that he believed the British would favor it. The matter will be prepared for submission by the US member to the Coordinating Committee at its next meeting.
Mr. Steel then brought up the Coordinating Committee’s decision that identical notes be sent to the Governments of Poland and Czechoslovakia and the Allied Commission for Hungary requesting information concerning the Germans still to be expelled from those countries. The Committee had decided that identical notes be presented by the four powers through usual diplomatic channels. The text of a note was agreed, based upon a draft which Mr. Heath had submitted. (See my No. 615, September 29.) This message is being sent by the four powers to Poland and Czechoslovakia, but France is not sending it to the Allied Commission in Hungary since she is not represented on it. In this connection, Mr. Steel mentioned the opinion of the British Government that the procedure of sending identical notes through the [Page 1283] four powers is unnecessarily cumbersome and that some quicker way would be desirable. He recognized that the Soviet member was bound by his Government’s instructions, but he wished the record to show that the British Government would prefer a simpler mechanism, and might raise the point again. Mr. Heath stated that the Department hopes that the neutral countries may have some minimum representation in Berlin before too long a delay.26
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
- Christopher Eden Steel, British member of the Political Directorate.↩
- M. de la Tournelle.↩
- Arkady Aleksandrovich Sobolev, Political Adviser to the Chief of the Soviet Military Administration in Germany.↩
- Donald R. Heath, Counselor of Mission, Office of the U.S. Political Adviser for Germany.↩
- The memorandum of the U.S. member of the Political Directorate concerning the proposed Czechoslovak delegation to discuss Transfer of Populations, designated document DPOL/P(45)14, transmitted to the Department by the United States Political Adviser for Germany in his despatch 1068, October 6, 1945, neither printed (740.00119 Control (Germany)/10–645).↩
- Gen. Vasily Danilovich Sokolovsky.↩
- For documentation regarding the negotiations in the European Advisory Commission and the Allied Control Commission for Germany concerning the representation in Germany of foreign governments after surrender and the establishment of four-power control in Germany, see vol. iii, pp. 1084 ff.↩