Office of the Historian

840.50/1–2345: Telegram

The Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Winant) to the Secretary of State

London, January 23, 1945—6 p.m.
[Received January 23—3:22 p.m.]

803. We find that Sobolev19 has not yet heard from Moscow on the proposed EEC and ECO discussions.

Ronald is preparing a draft message to British Embassy, Moscow, instructing it to make another approach to the Soviet. The Foreign Office would appreciate an approach to the Soviet also by Harriman in which it might be mentioned that the United States will be represented from London since the only hope of early action by the Soviet is that they will also appoint a representative or an observer from their London Embassy.20

Ronald thinks that the presentation of rigid agendas by the United States or United Kingdom Governments would be unwise. We note (paragraph 2 of Department’s 410, January 18, 9 p.m.21) that the Department is working on a suggested agenda. We shall be glad to have this as soon as possible for guidance regarding the subjects which the Department wishes us to cover. We assume that this will leave it open for us to present the agenda in the form which appears most suited to the circumstances. We propose to aim at postponing until the last item the question what countries shall participate and in what form they will participate. This procedure can be supported on the ground that these questions can best be considered after agreement has been reached on the nature of the problems to be dealt with and on the structure and terms of reference of the organizations to deal with them. In this way we hope to avoid an early clash on the Soviet-Polish issue.22 If we cannot avoid differences on the last item, we shall at least have completed the work on the organization and shall have it ready to function immediately after the political difficulties have been resolved.

Winant
  1. Arkady Alexandrovich Sobolev, Counselor of the Soviet Embassy in the United Kingdom.↩
  2. W. Averell Harriman, Ambassador in the Soviet Union, was so instructed in telegram 154, January 25, 1945, 4 p.m., not printed.↩
  3. Not printed.↩
  4. For documentation on the negotiations between the United States, United Kingdom, and Soviet Union regarding the establishment of a Polish Provisional Government of National Unity, see vol. v, pp. 110 ff.↩