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HOLD FOR RELEASE HOLD FOR RELEASE HOLD FOR RELEASE AUGUST 2, 1945 CAUTION: The following report on the Tripartite Conference in Berlin MUST BE HELD IN THE STRICTEST CONFIDENCE until released. NOTE: Release will be simultaneous in Washington, London and Moscow and is automatic at 5:30 P.M., EASTERN WAR TIME, Thursday, August 2, 1945. The text may be moved from Weshington for distribution within the United States, but there MUST BE NO ADVANCE EXPORT from the United States in advance of publication. Extreordinary precautions must be taken to hold this statement and report absolutely confidential and secret until the hour set for automatic release. Radio commentators and news brordcrsters are particularly cautioned not to make the statement and report the subject of speculation before the hour of release for publication. EBEN A. AYERS al adt Assistant to CHARLES G. ROSS soang to to REPORT ON THE TRIPARTITE CONFERENCE OF BERLIN On July 17, 1945, the President of the United States of America, Harry S. Truman, the Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, Generalissimo J. V. Stalin, and the Prime Minister of Great Britai.., Winston S. Churchill, together with Mr. Clement R. Attlee, met in the Tripartite Conference of Berlin. They were accompanied by the foreign secretaries of the three governments, Mr. James F. Byrnes, Mr. V. M. Molotov, and Mr. Anthony Eden, the Chiefs of Staff, and other advisers. There were nine meetings between July seventeenth and July twenty-fifth. The conference was then interrupted for two days while = SERVICES the results of the British general election were being declared. On July twenty-eighth Mr. Attlee returned to the conference as Prime Minister, accompanied by the new Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Mr. Ernest Bevin. Four days of further discussion then took place. During the course of the conference there were regular meetings of the heads of the three governments accompanied by the foreign to secretaries, and also of the foreign secretaries alone. Committees appointed by the foreign secretaries for preliminary consideration of questions before the conference also met daily. The meetings of the conference were held at the Cecilienhof near Potsdam. The conference ended on August 2, 1945. Important decisions and egreements were reached. Views were exchanged on a number of other questions and consideration of these matters will be continued by the council of foreign ministers established by the conference. President Truman, Generalissimo Stplin and Prime Minister Attlee leave this conference, which has strengthened the ties between the three governments and extended the scope of their collaboration and understanding, wi th renewed confidence that thei: overnments and peoples, together wi th the other United Nations, will ensure the creation of e just and enduring peace. II ESTABLISHMENT OF A COUNCIL OF FOREIGN MINISTERS The conference reached an agreement for the establishment of a Council of Foreign Ministers representing the five principal powers to continue the necessary preparatory work for the peace settlements and to take up other matters which from time to time may be referred to the Council by agreement of the governments participating in the Council. LOVER)