740.00119 Control (Bulgaria)/1–2645: Telegram
The Chargé in the Soviet Union ( Kennan ) to the Secretary of State
[Received January 27—12:15 a.m.]
244. ReEmbs 162, January 17, 5 p.m.36 Greek Ambassador on January 23 left at the Soviet Foreign Office a memorandum accepting the proposal for the appointment of a Greek representative accredited to the Allied Control Commission in Bulgaria which was made in a letter dated December 18 from Vyshinski37 to the British Chargé in Moscow.38
[Page 148]I have accordingly written to Molotov yesterday to inform him of our approval of this proposal, in accordance with the Department’s 67, January 10, 9 p.m.
The Greek Ambassador’s memorandum speaks of a representative who “would have access to the Allied Control Commission whenever it was considering a question affecting the interests of Greece”, but since Vyshinski’s letter merely proposed the appointment of a liaison officer who would present Greek claims under the Armistice Agreement, and the officer’s functions were similarly defined in the Department’s 67, I have in my own letter to Molotov referred to the proposed representative as “authorized to submit to the Commission the claims of the Greek Government arising out of the Armistice Agreement with Bulgaria”.
The British Chargé, in a letter to Molotov dated January 22, has approached the question on a different basis by asking that the same arrangements be made for the representation of the Greek and Yugoslav Governments with the Allied Control Commission in Bulgaria as have been agreed upon for the Czechoslovak and Yugoslav Governments in Hungary. Balfour states that the British Government does not understand why Molotov was reluctant to take this action at the same time that the Czechoslovak and Yugoslav Governments were invited through their Ambassadors in Moscow to appoint representatives in Hungary, and has instructed him to ask that letters now be sent to the Greek and Yugoslav Ambassadors in Moscow, inviting their governments each to send a representative to Sofia who would have access to the Control Commission on all questions affecting the interests of his government.
The British Government, Balfour adds, takes it for granted that the Greek, Yugoslav and Czechoslovak representatives in Bulgaria and in Hungary will have access to the American and British representatives on the Control Commission.
Sent to the Department as 244, repeated to Athens as 5, Sofia as 7, AmPolAd Caserta as 13 and London for Patterson39 as 30.
- Not printed; it reported that the Greek Ambassador had not yet approached the Soviet authorities concerning the proposed Greek mission to Sofia, but that he had prepared a draft note to the Soviet Government on the subject (740.00119 Control (Bulgaria)/1–1745).↩
- Audrey Yanuaryevich Vyshinsky, Assistant People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the Soviet Union.↩
- John Balfour.↩
- Richard C. Patterson, Jr., Ambassador to the Yugoslav Government in exile.↩