Office of the Historian

740.00119 EAC/6–1645: Telegram

The Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Winant) to the Secretary of State

London, June 16, 1945—4 p.m.
[Received June 16—2:44 p.m.]

6102. Comea 288. Mytel 5622 to Dept;48 repeated to Paris as mytel 337. Today Massigli handed me memorandum containing French reply to my verbal communication June 4 re French zone in Germany. Summary of memorandum follows:

(1)
Regretting failure to reach agreement on basis its previous proposal for French zone and anxious not delay establishment of Allied Control French Govt presents following compromise proposal.
(2)
“The boundaries which would thus be set for the French zone representing [in?] eyes of French Govt a provisional solution which should be revised at later date. Draft agreement to be presented by EAC for approval of four Govts should contain clause permitting revision of this agreement in so far as boundaries of French zone are concerned.”
(3)
Following districts to be transferred from British zone as defined in agreement Nov 14, 1944: Saar Palatinate Hesse west of Rhine Trier and Koblenz Bezirke including that part of Koblenz east of Rhine.
(4)
Following would be taken from US zone: (a) Kreise of Oberwesterwald, Niederwesterwald, Unterlahn and Sankt Goarshausen; (b) Bezirke of Konstanz and Freiburg and Alhoskarlsruhe [all of Karlsruhe?] Bezirke south of Bruchsal-Mühlacker railway, leaving railway in US zone, (c) Kreis of Friedrichshafen in Württemberg (French Govt does not seek to occupy remaining districts in South Württemberg as offered by US but will accept them if US Govt insists); (d) Kreis of Lindau in Bavaria.
(5)
Deployment of French forces to take place as soon as possible and simultaneously on both banks of Rhine. End of summary.

Having in mind Dept’s 4561 June 749 1 at once stated personal view re paragraph 2 above that I saw no need to include in agreement provision for later revision of French zone and that we should not try [Page 341] now to foresee exact conditions of occupation and detailed requirements of occupying forces as they may be a year from now.

Re French request for greater part of Karlsruhe Bezirk I pointed out that Stuttgart–Bruchsal railway crosses Kreise of Pforzheim, Karlsruhe and Bruchsal and that there were strong administrative disadvantages in dividing up the small Kreis administrative units.

Sent Dept as 6102; repeated Paris as 372 (secret for Caffery and Murphy).

Winant
  1. Not printed; it reported that the French Representative to E.A.C. had been fully and emphatically informed on the U.S. viewpoint on French zone of occupation in Germany, in accordance with Department’s telegram 4385, June 2, to London (740.00119 EAC/6–445).↩
  2. See footnote 36, p. 332.↩