Foreign Relations of the United States, 1946, Council of Foreign Ministers, Volume II

C.F.M. Files: Lot M–88: Box 2061: CFM Documents

Invitation to the Paris Peace Conference, Prepared by the Council of Foreign Ministers⁷²

secret
C.F.M.(46) 190 (revised)

Paris, 8 July, 1946.

The Council of Foreign Ministers was charged, as its immediate and important task, with the preparation of treaties of peace with Italy, Roumania, Bulgaria, Hungary and Finland, with a view to their submission to the United Nations.

The procedure governing the drafting of the Peace Treaties with Italy, Roumania, Bulgaria, Hungary and Finland was determined as follows in the final text by the Council of Foreign Ministers of the United States of America, the United Kingdom and the U.S.S.R., assembled at Moscow from 16th to 26th December 1945; the French and Chinese Governments have adhered to the provisions of this text:

• “1. In the drawing up by the Council of Foreign Ministers of treaties of peace with Italy, Roumania, Bulgaria, Hungary and Finland, only members of the Council who are, or, under the terms of the Agreement establishing the Council of Foreign Ministers adopted at the Berlin Conference, are deemed to be, signatory of the Surrender Terms, will participate, unless and until the Council take further action, under the Agreement to invite other members of the Council to participate on questions directly concerning them. That is to say:

  (a) The terms of the peace treaty with Italy will be drafted by the Foreign Ministers of the United Kingdom, the United States, the Soviet Union and France;

  (b) The terms of the peace treaties with Roumania, Bulgaria and Hungary, by the Foreign Ministers of the Soviet Union, the United States and the United Kingdom;

  (c) The terms of the peace treaty with Finland by the Foreign Ministers of the Soviet Union and the United Kingdom.

• The Deputies of the Foreign Ministers will immediately resume their work in London on the basis of understandings reached on the questions discussed at the first plenary session of the Council of Foreign Ministers in London.
• 2. When the preparation of all these drafts has been completed, the Council of Foreign Ministers will convoke a conference for the purpose of considering treaties of peace with Italy, Roumania, Bulgaria, Hungary and Finland. The conference will consist of the five members of the Council of Foreign Ministers, together with all members of the United Nations which actively waged war with substantial military forces against European enemy States, namely: Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, United Kingdom, United States of America, China, France, Australia, Belgium, Bielorussian Soviet Socialist Republic, Brazil, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Ethiopia, Greece, India, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Union of South Africa, Yugoslavia and Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.
• The Conference will be held not later than the 1st May 1946.
• 3. After the conclusion of the deliberations of the conference and upon consideration of its recommendations the States signatory to the terms of armistice with Italy, Roumania, Bulgaria, Hungary and Finland—France being regarded as such for the purposes of the peace treaty with Italy—will draw up final texts of peace treaties.
• 4. The final texts of the respective peace treaties as so drawn up will be signed by the representatives of the States represented at the conference which are at war with the enemy States in question. The texts of the respective peace treaties will then be submitted to the other United Nations which are at war with the enemy States in question.
• 5. The peace treaties will come into force immediately after they have been ratified by the Allied States signatory to the respective armistices, France being regarded as such in the case of the peace treaty with Italy. These treaties are subject to ratification by the enemy States in question.”

The French Government, acting on behalf of the Council of Foreign Ministers, and in accordance with the Council’s decision of July 8th, has the honour to invite the Government of . . . . ., referred to in paragraph 2 of the above-mentioned text as one of those who should participate in the consideration of Peace Treaties with Italy, Roumania, Bulgaria, Hungary and Finland, to send a delegation to Paris to represent it at the Conference which will open on 29th July, 1946, in Paris, at the Palais du Luxembourg.

The drafts of the Peace Treaties with Italy, Roumania, Bulgaria, Hungary and Finland, prepared by the Council of Foreign Ministers, will be communicated to the Government of . . . . . as soon as possible.

With a view to facilitating the work of the Conference, proposals concerning organization and rules of procedure which have been recommended for their consideration, are being handed to the . . . . .

{	Embassy	}	in Paris.
	Legation

72. The draft invitation to be sent by the French Government to the other governments to be represented at the Paris Peace Conference was considered by the Council of Foreign Ministers at its 35th Meeting, July 5, 1946, and its 37th Meeting, July 8; see the United States Delegation Record of those meetings, pp. 781 and 817, respectively. At their 15th Informal Meeting, July 8, 1946, the Council of Foreign Ministers agreed to the text of the invitation set forth here; see the United States Delegation Record of that meeting, supra. The invitations to the governments participating in the Paris Peace Conference were issued by the French Government on July 9, 1946.