Office of the Historian

CFM Files

United States Delegation Journal

September 19, 1946, 10 a.m.

USDel (PC) (Journal) 46

General Theron (South Africa) withdrew his amendment to Article 50 of the Italian peace treaty44 and Article 50 was adopted with the U.K. correction which had been previously accepted.45 General Theron spoke in behalf of his amendment to Article 51 which would have increased the personnel of the Italian Navy. He asked that the [Page 486] question be referred to a Naval Subcommittee. Mr. Alexander (U.K.) was the only Delegate who appeared to favor reference to a Subcommittee. After lengthy explanations by Admirals Karpounin (USSR) and Rebuffel (France), General Theron withdrew his amendment but requested that the four great powers inquire further into this matter and if necessary make recommendations to the Council of Foreign Ministers. He asked that this request be inserted in the minutes. Article 51 was adopted. Captain Pryce assured General Theron that his request would be considered by the United States Delegation and advised the Commission that the original U.S. proposal was that the personnel of the Italian Navy should be set at 25,000 officers and men but that having heard several opinions of naval experts the figure of 22,500 was accepted. Articles 53 and 54 were adopted without amendment.

General Theron withdrew his amendment to Article 55 in view of the four-power declaration delivered by the U.S. Delegate during discussions of paragraph 2, Article 52.46 He assumed that the procedure for establishing the quantity of reserve material would apply to aircraft. He asked that this statement be Recorded in the minutes. Article 55 was adopted. General Slavin (USSR) said that he did not quite understand General Theron’s statement. The Article in question talked of planes. General Slavin understood General Theron had been talking about spare parts for planes. General Theron said that he had been understood correctly. Articles 56, 57 and 58 were adopted without amendment. The Greek amendment to Article 58 [C.P. (Gen.) Doc.1.J.8] was withdrawn without reservation in view of the interpretation of the word “property” by the Economic Commission for Italy which included “war material”.47 Articles 59, 60, 61, 62 (Brazilian amendment withdrawn) [C.P. (Gen.) Doc.1.E.8], 62A, (adopted by the Commission as proposed by the U.K. Delegation).48 Annex 4B, 5A, 5B and 5C were adopted.

The Military clauses of the draft peace treaty with Italy were adopted in their entirety and the Chairman asked the rapporteur to prepare a report for the Plenary Conference which would represent the opinion of the Military Commission. The rapporteur (Delegate of Ethiopia) suggested that the report be submitted to the Commission before being submitted to the Plenary Conference. The decision on the procedure for submitting the report was deferred until the Secretary General had given his opinion. The next meeting will be at 10 a.m., September 20.

  1. Regarding South African amendments to the military provisions of the Italian treaty, see footnote 22, p. 470.↩
  2. See the United States Delegation Journal account of the 9th Meeting, September 3, p. 344.↩
  3. See the United States Delegation Journal account of the 20th Meeting, September 18, p. 475.↩
  4. See the United States Delegation Journal account of the 12th Meeting of the Military Commission, September 7, p. 397, and footnote 55, p. 398.↩
  5. For text, see the United States Delegation Journal account of the 13th Meeting, September 9, p. 405.↩