Office of the Historian

740.00119 Potsdam/8–745: Telegram

No. 1246
The President to the Ambassador in China (Hurley)1
top secret
[Babelsberg,] 24 July 1945.

Personal and Top Secret for Ambassador Hurley from the President. Number 311.

Please inform Chiang Kai-Shek that we propose to issue in the near future the following message to Japan in regard to surrender and request the Generalissimo to inform us without delay of his concurrence.

“Proclamation by the Heads of Governments, United States, United Kingdom and China.

(1) We,—the President of the United States, and the Prime Minister of Great Britain, representing the hundreds of millions of our countrymen, have conferred and agree that Japan shall be given an opportunity to end this war. [Then follow paragraphs 2 to 13 inclusive of the attachment to document No. 1249.]”

Please acknowledge receipt of this.

Harry S. Truman
  1. Cf. document No. 1244. Ellipses throughout this document appear in the original. Presumably this paper was not communicated to the Soviet Delegation.↩