740.00119 Control (Rumania)/2–2445: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Harriman)28
605. The Department’s attitude on the question of granting co-belligerent status to Rumania was set forth in the Department’s telegrams to Bucharest of January 30 and February 24, repeated to you as numbers 195 and 416. While the considerations underlying our view that Rumania’s desire for such status should have sympathetic consideration remain unchanged, the Department does not consider [Page 514] the present time appropriate for the Allies to take such a step, as it would be subject to interpretation as an intentional act of approval of the present authorities and by implication a disparagement of the principle of coalition government.
In order to provide a safeguard against the possible difficult situation which would be created should the Soviet Government act unilaterally and recognize Rumania as a cobelligerent without consulting the United States and British Governments, the Department would like you to inform the Government to which you are accredited that this Government believes that the present Allied policy of not granting cobelligerent status to Rumania should remain unchanged for the present and that no decision on the Rumanian request for such status except as a joint decision arrived at after consultation among the three Governments should be taken.
- Sent also to London as No. 2010 and repeated to Bucharest as No. 133. Telegram 3248, March 29, from London, reported that the sense of the Department’s instruction had been conveyed to the British Foreign Office and Foreign Secretary Eden had responded in a letter of March 26 in part as follows: “I am glad to say that we are in full agreement with your Government in considering that Rumania should not for the present be granted any such status”. (740.00119–Control (Rumania)/3–2945)↩