for their own security the great disparity in armed forces existing in the world.

The United States Government wishes to insure that the discussion at any meeting of the four Ministers shall include these real causes of tension and that a suitable agenda to that end be drawn up. Since the Soviet Government has admitted the possibility of discussing questions other than Germany, and has itself drawn attention to that of armaments, the Government of the United States, which desires to raise this question, assumes that the Soviet Government does not object to the representatives of the four Governments in the preliminary conversations preparing an agenda which will cover the causes of tension in Europe, including the existing level of armaments; problems affecting Germany; the Austrian treaty. The formulation of these and other subjects which may be agreed upon, as well as their order on the agenda, will naturally be considered at the preliminary conference.

If the Soviet Government agrees with the basis outlined above for a preliminary conference in Paris, the United States Government suggests that the representatives of the Four Powers meet there on March 5. If, as the Government of the United States hopes, the preliminary conference of representatives finds a mutually acceptable basis for a meeting of the ministers, the Government of the United States suggests that the Foreign Ministers of the United States, France, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union meet in Washington on a date to be recommended by the representatives. The Government of the United States is informed that these arrangements would be convenient to the Governments of France and the United Kingdom.

61. NOTE FROM THE SECRETARY OF STATE TO THE SOVIET 1 FOREIGN MINISTER, MAY 31, 19512

The Secretary of State presents his compliments to His Excellency the Foreign Minister of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and has the honor to refer to the current Four Power negotiations in Paris. Since March 5 the representative of the United States, together with the representatives of France and the United Kingdom, has been engaged in discussions with the representative of the Soviet Union in a preliminary conference in Paris. This preliminary conference was agreed upon as a result of an exchange of notes which ended with the note of the United States Government dated February 19, 1951,3 and the reply of the Soviet Government dated March 1, 1951. As indicated in that exchange of notes, the purpose of the conference was to reach agreement on a mutually acceptable agenda for a meeting of the Foreign Ministers of the United States,

3

1 Andrei Y. Vyshinsky.

Department of State Bulletin, June 11, 1951, pp. 933-934.

The British

and French Governments sent similar notes to the Soviet Government.

United Kingdom, France and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Such an agreement has not yet been reached.

In the course of the discussions, the views of the four delegations were brought out and clarified. Considering that the discussions had provided all the elements necessary for agreement on an agenda, the representatives of the United States, United Kingdom and France presented to the Soviet representative on May 2 a new proposal containing three alternative agenda.' The purpose of these three alternatives was to assure the possibility of the meeting of the four Foreign Ministers. It has been, and remains, the view of the United States Government that such a meeting is desirable in the interest of strengthening peace, which is the constant objective of the foreign policy of the United States.

In the course of the examination of these three alternatives the representatives in Paris were unable to reach full agreement. As regards the first alternative, the only difficulty was that the wording proposed by the three delegations for the sub-item concerning armaments was not acceptable to the Soviet delegation. The third alternative was not accepted by the Soviet delegation as a basis for agreement. In the second alternative, however, modifications were made in Item 1 and there is now agreement among the four delegations on the presentation of this item as well as on the inclusion of four other items in the agenda and on their wording. Apart from the final order of these four items, which remains to be determined, but ought not to present major difficulties, agreement could have been reached on the second alternative if the Soviet delegation had not insisted on the acceptance of their proposal relating to the North Atlantic Treaty.

The United States Government for its part considers that the amount of agreement so far reached on the agenda makes possible a meeting of the four Foreign Ministers which would permit discussion among others of all topics proposed by the Soviet Government in the exchange of notes preceding the Paris conference and on the 5th and 7th of March at the outset of that conference. Accordingly, the United States Government is pleased to invite the four Foreign Ministers to meet in Washington and suggests that the meeting begin on July 23. The United States Government is prepared to participate in such a conference not only on the agenda (alternative B) described above, but also on either of the two other agenda (alternatives A and C). The texts of these three proposals are enclosed.

The United States Government hopes to receive an early reply from the Soviet Government indicating its readiness to accept this invitation and stating which of the three agenda it finds acceptable for the purpose of holding a meeting of the four Foreign Ministers. Any further arrangements for the meeting could be worked out on receipt of a favorable reply from the Soviet Government.

1 Proposed alternative agenda are printed as an "enclosure" (infra) to this document.

Enclosure:

ALTERNATIVE (a)

I. Examination of the causes and effects of present international tensions in Europe and of the means to secure a real and lasting improvement in the relations between the Soviet Union, the United States, United Kingdom, and France, including the following questions relating to: the demilitarization of Germany: the existing level of armaments and armed forces and measures to be proposed jointly by the U.S.S.R., United States, United Kingdom, and France for the international control and reduction of armaments and armed forces; fulfillment of present treaty obligations and agreements; the elimination of the threat of war and fear of aggression.

II. Completion of the treaty for the re-establishment of an independent and democratic Austria.

III. Problems relating to the re-establishment of German unity and the preparation of a treaty of peace.

1

IV. Fulfillment of the treaties of peace with Italy, Rumania, Bulgaria, and Hungary: agreements of the Four Powers concerning Germany and Austria. V. Fulfillment of the treaty of peace with Italy in the part concerning Trieste.

ALTERNATIVE (b)

Examination of the causes and effects of the present international tensions in Europe and of the means necessary to secure a real and lasting improvement in the relations between the Soviet Union, the U.S., U.K. and France, including the following questions relating to: the demilitarization of Germany;

U.S., U.K. and France

the existing level of armaments and armed forces and measures to be proposed jointly by the U.S.S.R., U.S., U.K. and France for the international control and reduction of armaments and armed forces;

U.S.S.R.

measures for the reduction of armaments and armed forces of the U.S.S.R., the U.K., the U.S. and France, the existing level of armaments and armed forces and the establishment of an appropriate international control;

the demilitarization of Germany; fulfillment of present treaty obligations and agreements; the elimination of the threat of war and fear of aggression.

Completion of the treaty for the re-establishment of an independent and democratic Austria.

Problems relating to the re-establishment of German unity and the preparation of a treaty of peace.

Fulfillment of the treaties of peace with Italy, Rumania, Bulgaria and Hungary; agreements of the Four Powers concerning Germany and Austria.

Fulfillment of the treaty of peace with Italy in the part concerning Trieste.

ALTERNATIVE (c)

I. Examination of measures for the elimination of the present international tensions in Europe, of the threat of war, and of the fear of aggression.

II. Questions concerning armaments and armed forces.

III. Questions concerning Austria.

IV. Questions concerning Germany.

V. Fulfillment of treaties and agreements.

Treaties of Feb. 10, 1947; TIAS 1648, 1649, 1650, and 1651 (61 Stat., pt. 2, pp. 1245-2229).

62. NOTE FROM THE SECRETARY OF STATE TO THE SOVIET 1 FOREIGN MINISTER, JUNE 15, 1951 2

The Secretary of State presents his compliments to His Excellency the Foreign Minister of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and has the honor to refer to the current four-power negotiations in Paris. 1. The United States Government communicated on May 313 to the Soviet Government a note designed to remove the deputies conference from the deadlock in which it has been for some weeks. To this end the United States Government proposed, together with the Governments of France and the United Kingdom, that a conference of Ministers should meet on the basis of whichever one of the three agenda which had been submitted to it the Soviet Government should prefer.

The negative reply of the Soviet Government has put the deputies conference back to the point at which it was before May 31.

The Soviet Government stated in its note of June 4 that in its view it would be inexpedient to interrupt the work of the conference. The United States Government took account of this recommendation. As a result the deputies have held further meetings. These meetings have shown again that it is impossible to make any progress. The Soviet representative in fact continues to make the meeting of Ministers of Foreign Affairs conditional on a demand which it knows to be unacceptable to the other delegates although the Soviet delegate has obtained satisfaction insofar as concerns the inclusion in the agenda of all the questions which the Soviet Government stated that it wished to have discussed in its notes leading up to the conference or in the proposals which it made for the agenda at the beginning of the conference.

2. If the insistence of the Soviet Government on including in the agenda some mention of "the Atlantic Treaty and the American military bases" is to be explained by its desire thus to secure directly or indirectly a decision of the Ministers calling into question a treaty concluded by twelve powers for the purpose of ensuring their common defense and to which the U.S.S.R. is not a party, it is clear that this insistence is entirely unjustified since such a decision does not come within the competence of the meeting of Ministers.

If on the other hand the purpose of the Soviet Government is solely to reserve the right of the Soviet Foreign Minister fully to give his interpretation of the causes and effects of international tension this insistence is unnecessary since it has been agreed that the agenda should contain a general heading which would permit each Minister to express his point of view on these matters.

1 Andrei Y. Vyshinsky.

2 Department of State Bulletin, June 25, 1951, p. 1021. The British and French Governments sent similar notes to the Soviet Government.

3 Supra.

Text in Documents on International Affairs, 1951 (London, 1954), p. 260.

3. Considering that the further discussions between the deputies on this question which the Soviet Government proposed in their note of June fourth have not advanced the prospect of agreement, the United States Government proposes that the Foreign Ministers of the four powers without further efforts by the deputies to complete an agreement on the agenda should meet on the basis of the large measure of agreement already reached by the deputies in Paris. Taking into account agenda B1 and the notes which have been exchanged between the Soviet Government and the other governments in which their respective points of view are recorded, the four Foreign Ministers should be able to proceed without delay to their task of seeking to reduce the existing tensions in Europe.

63. DECLARATION BY THE DEPUTIES OF THE FOREIGN MINISTERS OF THE UNITED STATES, THE UNITED KINGDOM, AND FRANCE, JUNE 21, 19512

3

1. On June 15 the three western governments communicated a renewed invitation to the Soviet Government to attend a meeting of the four foreign ministers on the basis of the large measure of agreement reached at the Paris conference on an agenda and taking into account the views of the Soviet Government and the three western governments concerning the chief point in disagreement.

2. As has been fully explained by the three representatives today, the Soviet Government's reply of June 19 constitutes a rejection of this invitation since it is a reaffirmation of the position previously taken up by the Soviet Government. The experience of the deputies in resuming their meetings in accordance with the proposal made in the Soviet note of June 4 shows that the continuation of this discussion has no practical utility.

3. The invitation to the Soviet Government for a meeting of the four foreign ministers, in accordance either with the notes of the three western governments of May 31 or those of June 15, 1951, remains open and the three governments express the hope that the Soviet Government, after further consideration, will find it possible to transmit through the diplomatic channel its acceptance of this invitation. In this case, if necessary, representatives of the four governments could meet immediately in order to settle the date and other detailed arrangements for the meeting of ministers.