740.00119 Council/3–2248: Telegram
President Truman to the Chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars of the Soviet Union (Stalin)76
348. Referring to my message No. 346.77 The Secretary of State has fully informed me of the difficulty encountered at the Council of Foreign Ministers.
I agree that under a strict interpretation of the language of the Potsdam Agreement, France and China have not the right to participate in the consideration of Peace treaties unless they are signatories to the surrender terms or unless they are invited under paragraph 3(2) of the Potsdam agreement which provides that members of the Council other than the signatories may by agreement be invited to participate when matters directly concerning them are under discussion.
It is my recollection that at the conference table at Potsdam it was agreed during the discussion that members not signatory could be present and participate in the discussion but could not vote. It seems the first day the Council met, it was unanimously agreed that members not signatories could participate in the discussion, but could not vote. If we now change this rule and deny France and China because they are not signatories to the surrender the right even to discuss a matter in which they state they are interested, I fear it will create a bad impression. It will be charged that the three big Powers are denying other members of the Council an opportunity even to present their views.
Can’t we agree to regard the unanimous action of the Council on the opening day as an invitation to France and China to participate under the Potsdam Agreement? This is too small a matter to disrupt the work of the Council and delay progress towards peace and better understanding.
- According to a memorandum prepared in the White House on March 22, 1948, this message was drafted in London, under the direction of the Secretary of State; it was forwarded from London to the President on September 22 with a request from the Secretary that it be sent by the President to Stalin, and it was sent from the White House the same day as message No. 348. The message was delivered to the Soviet Foreign Commissariat in a letter of September 22 from Page to Vyshinsky. In a message from the White House late in the evening of September 22, the Secretary of State was informed that the message was sent to Stalin as he had requested. According to Truman, Year of Decisions, p. 516, this message was prepared during a trans-Atlantic teletype conversation between the Secretary of State and Admiral Leahy.↩
- Supra.↩