Office of the Historian

740.00119 Control (Bulgaria)/2–446

Memorandum by the Deputy Director of the Office of European Affairs (Matthews) to the Secretary of State

[Washington,] February 14, 1946.

Mr. Secretary: The attached telegram to Moscow in regard to the treatment of our Delegation on the ACC Bulgaria in particular and on the ACCs in Rumania and Hungary in general is submitted for your signature, if you approve.54 It should serve as a basis for any practical retaliatory measures in areas controlled by us that we may consider advisable as concrete implementation of our determination, set forth in this telegram, to obtain effective execution of the Potsdam agreements in regard to the ACC procedures.

It may be noted that we have not felt it advisable to protest the Soviet demand for justification of requests for Bulgarian funds, mentioned by Gen. Crane, as we have instituted similar requirements of the Russians in Italy. We have also refrained from raising the matter of clearances of personnel into Bulgaria as our reports from Barnes indicate that little difficulty has been experienced recently in this regard in so far as official personnel has been concerned. Our principal trouble has been in connection with American business representatives whose right to enter was not specifically covered at Potsdam.

I believe you asked that a telegram along the lines of the attached be drafted.55

H. Freeman Matthews
  1. Telegram 295, February 15, to Moscow, infra. No changes were made in the draft.↩
  2. This final sentence was written by Matthews in longhand.↩