740.0011 European War 1939/14843
Memorandum of Conversation, by Mr. Cavendish W. Cannon of the Division of European Affairs
| Participants: | Mr. Brutus Coste, Rumanian Chargé d’Affaires; |
| The Secretary; | |
| Mr. Cannon of the European Division. |
The Rumanian Chargé d’Affaires ad interim called at his request, on the Secretary today.
He handed to the Secretary a note98 concerning the reoccupation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina by Rumanian forces and the political and legal status of these territories from the Rumanian point of view.
He then said that his purpose in requesting the interview was to set forth, by the instruction of his Government, the position of the Rumanian Government in the present hostilities in Eastern Europe. He said that in joining with Germany in the war against the U. S. S. R. the aim of Rumania was only to recover the territories seized by the U. S. S. R. a year ago, namely the northern Bukovina and Bessarabia; that these military operations therefore did not constitute an aggression; and that there was now a change in the nature of the Rumanian participation, in that having regained the territories in question, Rumanian operations will henceforth be limited to the duties of an occupation force. He said that for strategical reasons the Rumanian army had been obliged to advance beyond the reclaimed territories, but that, even as an occupation force, their area of operations would be limited to the region between the Dniester and the Bug rivers. He was further instructed to say that Rumania had formulated no territorial claims, and that the occupation of certain areas was for reasons of strategical necessity, and also as “collateral” for the damages caused by the U. S. S. R. in Bessarabia. He had been instructed to inform the [Page 327] Secretary that his Government had formally notified the German Government of its position, and specifically had made clear to the Germans that Rumania would be unwilling to agree to any territorial expansion to the east in exchange for a renunciation of Rumania’s claims against Hungary in Transylvania, which will be maintained as a matter of prime national policy.
The Secretary thanked Mr. Coste for this communication and requested Mr. Cannon, who was present at the interview, to put it in the form of a memorandum for the Secretary.
Mr. Coste then begged leave to add certain personal observations to the statement he had just made. He said that Rumania had always supported the principle of collective security, and had been one of the most ardent adherents of the League of Nations. He felt that it had not been sufficiently appreciated abroad that Rumania had rejected the German invitation to participate, as Italy, Hungary, and Bulgaria had done, in the invasion and dismemberment of Yugoslavia. After a full generation in the shadow of the “Red menace” directly across the frontier, and after the “seizure of Rumanian territory” by the Soviets a year ago, Rumanian policy is of course conditioned by the great danger which the U. S. S. R. presents. The Rumanian Government, he added, has evidence that the U. S. S. R. planned further seizures of Rumanian territory, and one reason for restricting Rumanian military operations at the present time is to conserve the army for the future security of the country.
The Secretary remarked that the spread of communism as a system is a problem in itself, but at this time the American Government considers Hitlerism the world enemy; that since 1933 the United States had consistently preached and practiced principles of international understanding and cooperation which needed no reiteration now, and that in that same period Hitlerism had shown itself to be the enemy of all peaceful nations, destroying them one after the other; that the United States was bending its full energies and expending billions of dollars for the defeat of Hitlerism, and this situation determines our attitude toward those countries which aid the Hitler cause or prolong the conflict for its defeat.
Mr. Coste replied that Rumania hoped again to be free to cooperate with other countries peacefully, and that he felt that meanwhile Rumania’s special problem, as regards the relations with the U. S. S. R. seemed not to be clearly appreciated, as witness Mr. Churchill’s recent declaration in which Rumania was grouped with Italy, Hungary and Bulgaria as the “jackals of the tiger.”
The Secretary observed that this was a matter between Mr. Coste and the British Government.
- Not found in Department files.↩