740.0011 E.W./3–2445: Telegram
The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Harriman) to the Secretary of State
[Received 8:12 p.m.]
895. In view of the unilateral and unsatisfactory interpretations which the Soviet authorities have given to certain of the Crimean decisions and in view of the uncooperative attitude they have assumed of late, I must express my conviction that the interpretation of the [Page 521] Declaration on Liberated Europe given in the last paragraph of the Department’s 621, March 16, midnight,34 is not only questionable but also tactically inadvisable.
I feel that from a reading of the entire text of the Declaration on Liberated Europe it is clear that it is the intent and purpose of the Declaration that whenever any of the conditions enumerated are not being properly fulfilled, the three Governments have obligated themselves to concert in order to assist the liberated countries “to solve by democratic means their pressing political and economic problems”. Moreover, it is clear that the Declaration calls for outside intervention by the three powers and not by one power unilaterally when conditions require it. The Soviet Government therefore by intervening in Rumania admitted that conditions required such intervention and thus they failed to observe the obligation they assumed in the Declaration in concert with the other powers and countervened the operative sections of the Declaration by not concerting with us on measures necessary to discharge the joint responsibility we all assumed.
Any other interpretation of the Declaration would make it meaningless and thus one of the most widely approved actions of the Crimea Conference would be nullified.
In this connection, it will be recalled that in the Soviet Government’s reply of March 17 to our proposals for tripartite discussions regarding Rumania, it was contended, that the mutual obligations of the three powers regarding former Axis satellite states is based upon the presence there of Allied Control Commissions and that the establishment of a tripartite commission concerning Rumania would undermine the power of the Allied Control Commission in that country. If this unjustified interpretation is accepted, the Declaration as regards satellite countries would be meaningless since this interpretation would be in fact a return to the position which held before the Declaration was made.
I feel, therefore, that we should continue to press for tripartite discussions regarding Rumania and if necessary at a later date be prepared to make it known that the reasons for the failure to hold such discussions was due to the refusal of the Soviet Government to accept our proposals for discussions based upon the Declaration. It is publicly known that we have asked for such discussions and to drop the matter now would not only be interpreted as weakness on our part but would tend to give the impression that by our failure to insist on such discussions we have written off the Declaration as a dead letter.