Office of the Historian

740.00119 Council/4–2147: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Acting Secretary of State

confidential
urgent
Moscow, April 21, 1947—10 p.m.

1489. Delsec 1454. For the President, Vandenberg, Connally and Acheson from Marshall. Thirty-eighth CFM meeting, April 21, Bidault [Page 371] presiding, considered the report of the Four Power Commission appointed by the CFM in 1946 to study the financial arrangements for the Free Territory of Trieste created by the Italian Peace Treaty.3

Bevin proposed: (1) That the report be transmitted to the United Nations Security Council, along with the comment of the Italian and Yugoslav Governments and suggestions that any CFM member cared to make; (2) that the CFM members agree to assist the Free Territory to obtain adequate supplies of essential materials, equipment and ships which it requires; and (3) that the CFM recommend the acceptance by the Security Council of any request by the Governor of the Free Territory for external assistance up to $5,000,000 in free exchange during 1947 in view of a possible exchange deficit during the first few months of the Territory’s existence. Bevin pointed out that not only the US and France but also Italy and Yugoslavia agreed with the British that Trieste would need external assistance in the beginning in order to organize its finances and economy. He asked Molotov to agree.

Molotov refused to give a direct reply. He said the Commission’s report could not be transmitted to the Security Council without an expression of the views of the CFM members and he would not state his position on the other UK proposals until they were considered further. He proposed that special deputies be appointed by the Council to report on Wednesday.4

Marshall opposed this suggestion as being a time-consuming procedure which was unjustified. Bevin and Bidault agreed. Molotov insisted he would not accept the British proposal without further study. The Council finally reached agreement on appointing special deputies5 who will report to the Council Tuesday6 afternoon.

Dept please pass to Vienna as 53, Rome as 46 and Paris as 165.

Repeated London as 177, Berlin as 313.

[
Marshall
]
  1. Document CFM(47) (M)2, March 10, 1947, not printed; regarding the Report, see footnote 28, p. 163.↩
  2. For a full account of Molotov’s statements on the financial position of Trieste, see Molotov, Speeches and Statements at Moscow, pp. 104–105.↩
  3. The following Special Deputies were appointed: United States–Matthews; United Kingdom–Hall-Patch; France–Alphand; Soviet Union–Vyshinsky.↩
  4. April 22.↩