Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers, The Conference of Berlin (The Potsdam Conference), 1945, Volume I

740.00119 EW/7–1545

No. 520
The Assistant Secretary of State (Dunn) to the Secretary of State ¹

[Babelsberg,] July 15, 1945.

Memorandum for the Secretary

Poland’s Claims to German Territory and Their Effect on Allied Control Responsibilities in Germany

At present Marshal Zhukov claims that he has no control over the areas of Eastern Germany which have been unilaterally placed under Polish administration.² These areas contain the mining resources of Upper Silesia and a large part of the food surpluses of Germany. Before a joint economic policy for the treatment [of Germany³] can be agreed, either in the field of reparation or in respect to the responsibilities of the Control Council, it is necessary to know what is the Germany to which those policies relate.

This Government approves in principle territorial adjustment for Poland’s benefit but opposes unilateral action in this as in other territorial settlements. In the case of German territories this opposition is reinforced by our joint responsibility as one of the four occupying powers. Unilateral detachment from Germany of areas of great economic importance and arbitrary transfer to the rest of Germany of some ten to twelve million Germans will have great repercussions throughout Germany, including the American zone, and will have important indirect effects on our war effort.

When questions arise concerning the status of the areas of Eastern Germany which the Soviet Command has placed under Polish administration the following questions might be raised:

1. Is a unilateral transfer of authority over German territory compatible with the Agreement on Control Machinery in Germany,⁴ which provides that while other United Nations may contribute auxiliary contingents, the four powers will control Germany within her 1937 boundaries?

2. Are the resources thus removed from Allied control in Germany to be made good either by Poland or by the Soviet Union? The United States is unable and unwilling to make good deficits, particularly in foodstuffs and fuel, thus created in the rest of Germany and in liberated countries which expected to meet some of their urgent needs from German resources.

3. Are Russia’s reparation claims based on the resources of Germany in her 1937 boundaries or in the new boundaries thus created through unilateral action?

4. Will the ten to twelve million Germans displaced from the East be accommodated and resettled in the Soviet zone?

5. Will not the four controlling powers in Germany need to enter into agreements with Poland and Czechoslovakia regulating the orderly removal of Germans from their territories and their resettlement in the rest of Germany?

Questions along these lines will help to bring out Russia’s intentions and plans in regard to the determination of Poland’s Western frontier in relation to the joint economic policies of the four powers in Germany, without displaying either complacency or hostility toward the Soviet desire to secure the Oder–Neisse line for Poland.

James Clement Dunn

1. Printed from a carbon copy on which there is an uncertified typed signature.
2. See document No. 515.
3. Manuscript interpolation by Philip E. Mosely.
4. i. e., the protocol regarding the zones of occupation in Germany and the administration of Greater Berlin, signed at London, September 12, 1944. For text, see Treaties and Other International Acts Series No. 3071; United States Treaties and Other International Agreements, vol. 5, pt. 2, p. 2078; Foreign Relations, The Conferences at Malta and Yalta, 1945, p. 118. The reference is to articles 1 and 4 of this protocol.