Foreign Relations of the United States, 1949, The Near East, South Asia, and Africa, Volume VI

501.BB Balkan/12–2149

The Department of State to the Greek Embassy ¹

confidential

Aide-Mémoire

Reference is made to the verbal inquiry of December 16, 1949 of the Royal Greek Embassy concerning the remarks on the Greek conciliation effort in President Romulo’s address to the General Assembly on December 10, 1949. The full remarks appear as follows in the verbatim record of the 276th plenary meeting:

“We are now approaching the closing exercises, but before we reach that item, as Chairman of the Conciliation Committee I would like to inform the General Assembly that the Committee has held further informal conversations with the representatives of the governments primarily concerned in the Greek question. From those conversations it appears that the prospects of peace are encouraging. I am confident that the progressive betterment of relations between the states concerned can be assured if all parties abide in good faith by the resolutions of the General Assembly and the provisions of the Charter.

It is my hope that all parties will, by their own free decisions, do all in their power to heal the wounds left by the conflict of the last few years. I have been informed by the representatives of Greece that there have been no death sentences carried out in Greece since the recent clemency legislation was enacted. The Committee has ex pressed to the Greek representatives its belief that this fact may help improve the situation between Greece and her Northern neighbours. The Committee hopes that the situation will continue to improve in the future. Attitudes of humanitarianism and tolerance, compatible with security and public order, cannot but help to facilitate the work of conciliation which must eventually take place among the States involved in this problem.”

It is understood that the Royal Ministry for Foreign Affairs is disturbed by the relationship drawn by President Romulo between the suspension of executions in Greece under the recent clemency legislation and the hope for improvement in the situation between Greece and Greece’s northern neighbors. It was maintained by the Embassy that, from the legal point of view, the internal administration of justice in Greece is not a proper matter of international action while, from the political point of view, President Romulo’s remarks might lead Greece’s northern neighbors to justify their refusal of conciliation proposals on the grounds of death sentences in Greece. It was said that when Mr. Kyrou recently raised these points with President Romulo, the latter commented that the reference in question in his address had been incorporated on the basis of suggestions made by the United States and United Kingdom representatives at the General Assembly.

It is a fact that competent representatives of the United States Delegation, in discussing informally with President Romulo the question of completing the conciliation effort of the fourth regular session of the General Assembly and of complying with the Ecuadorian Resolution on death sentences in Greece, did suggest to President Romulo that he incorporate something along the lines of the abovequoted remarks in his closing address. It is understood that this specific suggestion was not discussed with the British Delegation.

In making this suggestion, the United States representatives were aware that the question of the suspension of Greek executions had been discussed at considerable length in the General Assembly, which had asked President Romulo to ascertain the views of the Greek Government on this matter. They were impressed, moreover, by the deep concern manifested by several non-communist Delegations for the humanitarian aspects of this question and by the extent to which the suspension of Greek executions, as of September 30, 1949, had resulted in the creation of a political atmosphere favorable to Greece.

President Romulo’s remarks, though based on an American suggestion, were of course made on his own responsibility as Chairman of the Conciliation Committee. Their appropriateness should, in the Department’s opinion, be judged in the light of the existing situation in the Balkans and of the atmosphere at the General Assembly, as outlined above. The Department believes, moreover, that it would be difficult to take issue with the general statement addressed by President Romulo to all Governments involved in the Greek situation: “Attitudes of humanitarianism and tolerance, compatible with security and public order, cannot but help to facilitate the work of conciliation which must eventually take place among the States involved in this problem.” As the Embassy is aware, the United States Government has consistently championed the observance of human rights throughout the world and especially in the communist-dominated countries. It has not concealed its hope that the Government of Greece will, in its own political interest and in accordance with the high tradition of Greek humanitarianism, pursue the broad policy of judicial leniency on which it has already embarked with such favor able results.

Washington, December 21, 1949.

1. At the concluding meeting of the Fourth Session of the United Nations General Assembly on December 10, Assembly President Romulo made a statement in his capacity as Chairman of the Conciliation Committee. The text of the statement appears in the document printed here. For the official record of the Assembly meeting, see GA (IV), Plenary, pp. 608–619. On the afternoon of December 16, Greek Minister Economou-Gouras called at the Department of State at his request to protest, on instructions of the Greek Foreign Ministry, the substance of Romulo’s remarks. Economou-Gouras stated that offending portions of Romulo’s remarks had been included at the suggestion of the United States and British Delegations at the United Nations. Economou-Gouras com plained that it was inadmissible that the conduct of Greece’s northern neighbors with respect to Greece should be made conditional upon whether or not the Greek Government executed some Communists who had been supporting the aggressive designs of those countries against Greece (memorandum of con versation by Cromie, December 16, 1949: 501.BB/12–1649). The aide-mémoire printed here, prepared in the Department of State in response to Economou-Gouras’ oral démarche of December 16, was handed to Economou-Gouras by Deputy Director Rountree during a visit to the Department on December 22. In presenting the aide-mémoire, Rountree summarized the points made in it and expanded on the reasons which had led the United States Delegation to propose to Romulo that he include certain remarks on clemency in his statement to the General Assembly. Economou-Gouras reiterated the view of the Greek Government that references in Romulo’s statement to clemency for the rebels amounted to walking into a Communist propaganda trap. He said with some heat that American thinking on the matter represented a “deviation from the truth” which was that the one aim of the Soviet bloc was the overthrow of the Greek Government and its replacement by a Communist regime (memorandum of conversation by Cromie, December 22, 1949: 501.BB/12–2249).