875.01/11–845: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Acting Representative in Albania (Fultz)
106. Following is text of US note to Gen Hoxha regarding recognition of present Albanian authorities:
“The Government of the United States, having considered the request of the Albanian authorities for recognition, has instructed me to inform you of its readiness to enter into diplomatic relations with the existing regime in Albania as the provisional Government of Albania.
In establishing official relations with an Albanian Government, the United States Government desires to act in conformity with the obligations and principles to which it subscribed in the Crimea Declaration on Liberated Europe and accordingly requests assurances that the forthcoming elections for a Constituent Assembly shall be held on a genuinely free basis, with secret ballot and without threats or intimidation; that all democratic individuals and groups in Albania shall enjoy freedom of speech and the right lawfully to present and support their candidates; and that foreign press correspondents shall be permitted to enter Albania to observe and report freely on the elections and the work of the Constituent Assembly.
The Government of the United States also desires that the Albanian authorities shall confirm that the treaties and agreements which were in force between the United States and Albania on April 7, 1939, remain valid. The United States Government, on its part, confirms the continuing validity of these instruments.
Upon receipt of the assurances requested, the Government of the United States will be prepared to proceed with the exchange of diplomatic representatives.
I have also been directed to advise you that the present proposal of the United States Government with regard to the establishment of diplomatic relations should not be construed as prejudicing consideration, [Page 68] at a later date, of other questions of an international character involving Albania.
I shall be most happy to transmit to my Government your reply to the proposals set forth above.”
Dept has not yet received reply from Soviet Govt to US suggestion that Allied notes on recognition be communicated to Hoxha on Nov 10.54 Foregoing note should not be delivered, therefore, until you have received confirmation from Dept of Soviet approval of date or until you have ascertained that the Soviet Rep in Tirana has been instructed by his Govt to present a note on that date.55
Sent to Tirana; repeated to Bern for Jacobs.56
- See footnote 52, p. 67.↩
- Telegram 107, November 8, 3 p.m., to Tirana, advised that the British and Soviet Governments had instructed their respective representatives in Tirana to communicate notes of recognition to General Hoxha on November 10 and instructed Fultz to deliver the American note to Hoxha on that date (875.01/11–845).↩
- As telegram 3243.↩