Office of the Historian

740.00119 Council/4–2447

The British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (Bevin) to the Secretary of State 61

Moscow, 24th April, 1947.

Dear Mr. Marshall: You will remember that we had a discussion on April 18th with General Robertson and General Draper about future arrangements in the bi-zonal area in Germany.62 We agreed that as a result of our talk that General Robertson would go to Berlin to continue the discussion of the whole matter with General Clay, in order that they might make joint recommendations including specific language on one point.

I do not know what information you may have received from General Clay about the talks, but I have heard from my people in Berlin that certain difficulties have arisen and that the discussions are not going perhaps as smoothly as was intended.

[Page 491]

I attach, as you know, the greatest importance to making a real success of our fusion arrangements as soon as we possibly can, and I am sure that you share this view. As Foreign Secretary, I am now responsible for all aspects of British policy in Germany, the former Control Office for Germany having now disappeared. I trust that you and I can reach a satisfactory arrangement on the basis of the four points set out in the agreed memorandum of our conversation on April 18th.

In the circumstances I very much hope that on your way through Berlin you will be able to spare the time to go into the whole position. General Robertson will, of course, be at your entire disposal in case he can be of any assistance to you.63

I feel that with so much at stake, it is most important that the two D.M.Gs. should reach an agreement very speedily with our backing on the lines which have already been discussed between you and me.

Yours sincerely,

Ernest Bevin

  1. A copy of the following letter, dated April 24, 1947, from Secretary Marshall’s Special Assistant Marshall S. Carter to Pierson Dixon of the United Kingdom Delegation, is attached to the source text:

    “Please inform Mr. Bevin that his letter to Secretary Marshall on the future arrangements for the bizonal area in Germany was received at 7:00 p.m. this date and will be brought to the Secretary’s attention while he is enroute to Berlin.”

    ↩
  2. See telegrams 1469, Delsec 1445 and 1470, Delsec 1446, April 19, from Moscow, pp. 356 and 357.↩
  3. A marginal handwritten notation opposite this paragraph in the source text reads as follows: “Secy did not see him.” Regarding Secretary Marshall’s meeting with General Clay in Berlin on April 25, see telegram 1006, April 27, 1947, from Berlin, and footnote 15, p. 909.↩