Office of the Historian

740.00119 Control (Rumania)/1–1845: Telegram

The Acting Secretary of State to the Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Harriman)

Washington, April 4, 1945—6 p.m.

790. ReEmbtel 175, January 18, 10 p.m.48 When General Schuyler raised in the ACC the matter of Belgian and Greek representation in Rumania, General Vinogradov replied that representatives of the [Page 529] Belgian and Greek governments should not come to Rumania at this time in view of a recent statement by Vyshinsky that “consideration would not be given to the inauguration of diplomatic relations between Rumania and the smaller (United) nations until full diplomatic relations had been established with the larger (United) nations”.49

The Belgian Government has recently informed the Department that it has designated M. Eugene Dubois to be its representative in Rumania with the title of Consul General. A similar communication has been received from Netherlands Government which has named Charles Dozy as Consul General. The Greek Government has stated that it desires to send a political representative to Rumania as well as consuls to Bucharest, Braila and Galati, but has not supplied the names of the men it proposes to appoint to those posts.

Please inform the Soviet Government that the United States Government agrees entirely with the Soviet view that there should be no renewal of diplomatic relations between Rumania and the smaller United Nations at this time, but believes that the requests of such nations for consular representation for the purpose of protecting their interests in Rumania should be given favorable consideration. Such representation appears desirable for practical reasons, especially in view of the withdrawal of the Swiss as protecting power for the interests of a number of these countries. It would relieve the ACC itself of responsibility and added work involved in protecting such interests.

In your communication to the Soviet Government you may find it useful to refer to Molotov’s remark at the time of the discussion of armistice terms for Rumania (your despatch no. 1066, October 7, 1944, enclosure 5–d, page 250) that there would be no objection to United Nations other than the three principal Allies being represented in Rumania by consuls.

You should say that this Government believes a favorable reply should be given to the requests of the Belgian Netherlands and Greek Governments for the early entry of consular representatives into Rumania and that appropriate instructions should be sent to the ACC.

For your own information we would be disposed to look favorably on the Greek request to have a political representative in Rumania, with a status corresponding roughly to that of Berry and Le Rougetel,51 and we would also favor similar representation for other United Nations, notably France. We believe, however, that the Soviet Government should not be pressed to consent to the entry of such representatives [Page 530] until agreement has been reached on the general proposition that United Nations with substantial interests in Rumania should be allowed to send representatives there immediately in order to protect their interests.

Repeated to Bucharest, Brussels and Athens,52

Acheson
  1. Not printed; it reported that the Belgian Ambassador in Moscow had on several occasions since September 1944 proposed to the Soviet Government that a Belgian agent be allowed into Rumania to protect Belgian interests there, but the Soviet Government had been unable to accede to the request; subsequently, the Belgian Ambassador had inquired informally whether the United States Government would be willing to take over Belgian interests in Rumania; Ambassador Harriman requested the Department’s views on the subject (740.00119 Control (Rumania)/1–1845). General Schuyler took up the subject with General Vinogradov during a conference held on January 19.↩
  2. The quotation is from the “Outline of a Conference between General Vinogradov and General Schuyler at Meeting 19 January 1945”, a copy of which was transmitted to the Department as an enclosure to despatch 71, January 20, 1945, from Bucharest (740.00119 Control (Rumania)/1–2045).↩
  3. Not printed.↩
  4. John Heiler Le Rougetel, British Political Representative in Rumania with the rank of Minister.↩
  5. As telegrams 171, 258, and 297, respectively.↩