Office of the Historian

740.00119 EW/6–1945: Telegram

No. 162
The Secretary of State to the Acting Secretary of State

Extract1
top secret
urgent
San Francisco, June 19, 1945.

3. To Grew, Acting Secretary of State, Washington, D. C. from Stettinius, UNCIO, San Francisco, California.

The following memorandum may be helpful in the preparation of a reply to the President’s memorandum of June 15 [9]:2 [Page 183]

“It seems clear that it would be desirable to avoid the convocation of a full-fledged peace conference to deal with the major political problems that have arisen as a result of the termination of the war in Europe. … It is therefore suggested that the problems concerned to [sic] be dealt with on an ad hoc basis by a council of Foreign Ministers. …

1.
The proposal might be discussed informally with the British and we could inform the Russians that we intended to raise this question at the meeting of the three Chiefs of State. …
2.
At the Big Three meeting, we would endeavor to obtain Soviet and British agreement as to the time and place of the meeting [of the proposed council] as well as to some of the items that would be placed on the agenda of the first meeting. …[”]

. . . . . . .

  1. For the full text of this message, see document No. 227.↩
  2. Document No. 150.↩