Message to C. Attlee (Correspondence Vol. 1, No. 512)

Your message on the differences over the Council of Ministers has reached me. V. M. Molotov's stand on this issue derives from the necessity of faithfully carrying out the Berlin Conference decision, clearly formulated in paragraph 3 (b) of the decision on the Council of Ministers. The Council of Ministers decision of September 11 runs counter to the Berlin Conference decision mentioned above and is, therefore, inacceptable.
The point, then, is not Council of Ministers procedure, but whether the Council of Foreign Ministers has the right to revoke this or that provision of the Berlin Conference decisions. I think we shall depreciate the Berlin Conference decisions if we for a single moment grant the Council of Foreign Ministers the right to revoke them. I do not think that rectification of the error committed - a rectification designed to reaffirm the decisions of the Berlin Conference, on which V. M. Molotov insists - can give rise to a negative attitude to the Conference or to the Council of Ministers, or offend anyone.