740.00119 Control (Albania)/11–2544
Memorandum by the Acting Secretary of State to President Roosevelt
The Department is assembling at Bari a few subordinate officers for handling Albanian affairs, with the intention of constituting a small mission to Albania upon the liberation of that country. The trend of military and political events in Southeastern Europe indicates that the organization of this mission should be completed at an early date.
We should like to appoint, as the head of this mission, Mr. Joseph E. Jacobs, a Foreign Service Officer of Class I, who has been Counselor of Legation at Cairo for some four years.
Since this group will be in effect the equivalent of a combined diplomatic and consular establishment, pending the resumption of regular diplomatic relations, we suggest that Mr. Jacobs have the personal rank of Minister.
If you approve,56 the Department will proceed with the necessary [Page 290] arrangements for Mr. Jacobs’ appointment, in order that he may proceed promptly to Bari, where Albanian questions of some importance are already requiring attention.
- The President subsequently approved of this suggestion and Mr. Jacobs was detailed to the Office of the U.S. Political Adviser on the Staff of the Supreme Allied Commander, Mediterranean Theater, effective on January 1, 1946. In a memorandum of December 19, 1944, the Chief of the Division of Southern European Affairs, Cavendish W. Cannon, explained that this procedure was adopted “in order that the Department may avoid giving grounds at this time for conjecture by interested parties regarding the intentions of this Government in organizing such missions”. (740.00119 Control (Albania)/12–1944)↩