740.00119 Council/4–2347: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Acting Secretary of State
priority
1529. Delsec 1462. For Acheson from Marshall. The Czechoslovakian Ambassador, Professor Jiri Horak, called this morning at his [Page 380] request. Memorandum of conversation being forwarded by courier pouch to Department with copy to Prague.19
He spoke at some length of the “undying gratitude” of his country to the United States. He raised the question of the Czech-Austrian frontier, particularly as to a small claim of about 1800 hectares on the right bank of the Danube near Bratislava. He wanted the CFM to add a clause to the Austrian Treaty that in connection with bilateral negotiations for Czech territorial claims, the CFM would “interest itself in the progress of the negotiations and view an agreement with satisfaction”.20
The Secretary said that he would discuss the territorial frontier question with General Clark. Marshall stated he had received from other sources quite a contrary impression of the Czechoslovak attitude toward the United States, and quoted excerpts from the Prime Minister’s statement as relayed here from Prague on April 16.21 Marshall said he wanted the Ambassador to know that he deeply resented the statement of the Czechoslovakian Prime Minister and that it was absolutely false insofar as concerned the American zone of Germany. Marshall repeated that he deeply resented it and that his Government resented it. He stated that he was not a diplomat and that he was accustomed to speaking directly and frankly and he wanted the Ambassador to know his views on the statement of the Prime Minister.
The Ambassador made no comment but reverted again to the frontier question.
[Page 381]Nothing further of importance was discussed.
Repeated Prague for Steinhardt 1.
- The memorandum of conversation under reference is filed separately under 711.60F/4–2347.↩
- Regarding the Czechoslovak-Austrian negotiations concerning frontier rectification, see telegram P 6899, March 16, from Vienna, and telegram 282, March 28, from Praha, pp. 503 and 516.↩
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Telegram 378, April 16, from Praha, not printed, had transmitted excerpts of a speech made by Czechoslovak Prime Minister Klement Gottwald on April 14, 1947 (740.00119 Control (Germany)/4–1647). According to the memorandum of the conversation with Horak cited above, Secretary Marshall quoted the following excerpt from Gottwald’s speech:
↩“It is our interest that Germany be de-Nazified and democratized in order that she cease to be a source of war. Up to the present such action has been taken only in the Soviet zone. This is why it is to the interest of the Czechoslovak state that we support by every possible means the Soviet point of view. In the same way in the question of the eastern frontiers of Germany, it is to our interest that the present German-Polish frontier be recognized and maintained for that means a lessening of the grip of the German tentacles about our republic.”
In this connection, telegram 379, April 16, 1947, from Praha, not printed, reported that Communist leaders and press in Czechoslovakia had lost no opportunity to publicize Soviet views at the Council of Foreign Ministers while distorting the American positions in such a way as to picture the United States as either indifferent to a potential German menace or actively supporting German reactionaries (740.00119 Control (Germany)/4–1647).