Telegram from Secretary of State James Byrnes to Ambassador Averell Harriman

--376 DECLASSIFIED by authority of TOP SEGRET people 1945 Kol VII P.914 US SERVIR RECORDA OP AND TOP SECRET 4 JULY 1945 PRIORITY Datef.7.33 3 FROM: OPNAV 461 TO : ALUSNA, MOSCOW 4 14 00 0413262, NCR NUMBER 308. TOP SECRET AND PERSONAL FROM THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR AMBASSADOR HARRIMAN. In reply to your telegram 031200, the President and I feel that it would be unwise for this Government to attempt to act as interpreter on this or any other point of the Yalta agreement in connection with the present bilateral Soviet-Chinese talks. You may, however, informally confirm to Soong your under- standing that in so far as this Governnent is concerned there was no discussion of interpretation on the sentence of the Yalta decision relating to the status of Outer M ongolia and in the absence of such discussion the accepted meaning of the words as written would be that the present factual and juridical status of Part II Outer Mongolia are to be preserved. You should make it clear to Soong that the United States Government cannot give any official interpretation of the words contained in the Yalta decision and that the informal confirmation of your inter- pretation is for his information alone and not for ase in his discussion with Soviet officials. For your information only, the status quo as we understand it is that while the de jure sovereignty of Outer Mongolia remains vested in China de facto this sovereignty is not exercised. The United States Government in conformity with the Nine Power Treaty of 1922 has carefully refrained from any indication that it considered the outlying dependencies of China such as Outer Mongolia in a different status from the remainder of China. BYRNES ROWON Released from the White House Map Room CCM - 14-5 - at 041326Z, July, 1945. Hewsutnam Q H. W. PUTNAM, Major, A.C. TOP SESMET