Foreign Relations of the United States, 1946, Paris Peace Conference: Proceedings, Volume III

CFM Files

United States Delegation Minutes

September 28, 1946, 10 a.m.

Chairman: General Mossor

The Soviet Delegation stated that they did not concur with the UK declaration which was inserted in the Record of the 22nd meeting. This declaration stated that it was the opinion of the UK Delegation that the term “total tonnage” included “all naval tonnage” and that this interpretation applied to all the Balkan and Finnish treaties. Captain Pryce said that if the Soviet Delegation did not agree with this declaration, then they did not agree with the Council of Foreign Ministers agreement. He said that the US Delegation wished to go on Record as concurring in the UK opinion. The Record of the 22nd meeting with two annexes was adopted. The Record of the 27th meeting with the annex was adopted. Article 12 of the Bulgarian treaty was adopted with the corrections proposed by the UK Delegation for the similar article in the Italian treaty.⁸⁴ General Balmer spoke in opposition to the Greek amendment (CP(Gen) Doc. 1 J 23) to Article 13. The US Delegation believed that the word “property” appearing in Article 21 could be interpreted as it had been for the Italian treaty.⁸⁵ General Balmer said that the list of war matériels called for by the Greek amendment would not be necessary as it would be called for by the diplomatic mission when it began its work. The tables of reserves required by Bulgaria would be passed on by the diplomatic mission also. The destruction called for in paragraph 3 of the article would be carried out only upon order of the diplomatic mission and under adequate supervision. General Slavin (USSR) supported the US position. Mr. Dragoumis (Greece) withdrew the amendment but asked for the insertion of the following statement in the Record: “The Greek Delegation considers that the army and air force left to Bulgaria as set forth in the draft treaty and her possession of arms not specified by the treaty without real control having been established constitute a menace to Greece.” Admiral Manola (Yugoslavia) asked if the Greek amendment (CP(Gen)Doc. 1 J 35) proposing an Inter-Allied Control Commission and CP (Gen) Doc. 1 J 36, amending Annex 3, had been withdrawn. The Greek Delegate answered in the affirmative. Articles 14, 15, 16, 17 and 18 were adopted without amendment.

General Slavin asked if the US reservation concerning war graves was withdrawn.⁸⁶ General Balmer said that it was. The Greek amendment (CP(Gen) Doc. 1 J 24) proposing a new article regarding mine clearance was withdrawn. Annexes 2 and 3 were adopted unanimously. The Chairman asked if the US still maintained its reservation to Article 14 of the treaty with Rumania. Captain Pryce replied that the US Delegation had made the reservation because it felt that the finally-adopted article on prohibition of special assault craft should apply to all the Balkan and Finnish treaties. Captain Pryce asked the Commission to follow up its previous agreement that the provision should apply to all treaties. Admiral Karpounine (USSR) said there was no formal amendment presented for the Balkan treaties other than Bulgaria and submitted that the Commission not consider the proposal as there was no formal amendment before it. Captain Pryce referred the Chairman to the Record of the second meeting of the Military Commission, paragraph 4, subparagraph c, which stated that similar questions may be considered together. He said that the proposal simply furthered the agreement of the Council of Foreign Ministers which was that the articles be identical in all the treaties in question. If a formal amendment was needed, a formal amendment could be presented but the point was that the Commission knew what he was trying to get into the treaty without a lot of explanation. The Chairman said that the citation made by Captain Pryce of the Record of the second meeting referred only to consideration of similar amendments not of automatic application. General Slavin, asked how the question had arisen, said that the Commission had already accepted Article 12 of the Bulgarian treaty as amended by a simple majority. Here there was no formal amendment. The Plenary Conference could decide what to do about Article 14 of the Rumanian treaty but the Commission should adopt Article 14 now in its original form. Captain Pryce reminded the Commission that it had already adopted two changes in the Rumanian treaty without the need for formal amendments and presented in a formal motion the following resolution:

“The Commission agrees that the articles on prohibitions in the Balkan and Finnish treaties, that is, Article 12 of the Bulgarian treaty, Article 14 of the Rumanian treaty, Article 13 of the Hungarian treaty, and Article 16 of the Finnish treaty, should be in identical language, i.e., that decided upon for Article 12 of the Bulgarian treaty.”

General Slavin said that the Soviet Delegation agreed that similar articles of the Balkan and Finnish treaties should be identical. It was a basic principle that not only Article 12 but all the limiting articles of the treaties should be identical. He proposed unanimous adoption of the US resolution without further debate. He suggested that the same proposal be adopted in all clauses of limitation. He meant this in a general sense not in specific figures. The US resolution was adopted unanimously, as was Article 14. A Czechoslovak amendment to Article 15 was withdrawn, the Czechoslovak Delegate requesting that a statement to the effect that reserves were included in the matériel allowed be annexed to the treaty. This was agreed to. The Rumanian treaty in its entirety was finally adopted. The Bulgarian treaty was provisionally adopted in its entirety, as amended.

The meeting adjourned at 12:55 p.m.

84. It was decided that majority and minority reports on article 12 would be submitted to the Conference; see C.P.(Plen) Doc. 19, October 7, Report of the Military Commission on the Draft Peace Treaty with Bulgaria, vol. iv, p. 517.
85. See the United States Delegation Journal account of the 21st Meeting, September 19, p. 485.
86. The reservation followed article 18 in the Bulgarian treaty, vol. iv, p. 98. Telegram W98258 from the War Department to General Balmer, August 22, contained the following: “Consideration war graves clauses may be dropped from draft Bulgarian Treaty. Understanding between War and State Departments (as in State Cable 2681, 5 June) is that appropriate bilateral agreement on U.S. war dead in Bulgaria will be presented to Bulgarian Government simultaneously with signing of any peace treaty with Bulgaria to which U.S. is signatory.” (CFM Files)