280. Editorial Note
From September 19 to 23, a tripartite Geneva Working Group met at Washington to discuss questions associated with the upcoming meeting of the Foreign Ministers at New York. The United States Delegation was led by Merchant and MacArthur; those of the British and French by Minister Scott and Ambassador Couve de Murville. At the first meeting on September 19, the three delegations were joined by one from the Federal Republic of Germany, headed by Grewe, which participated in the discussion of items related to Germany.
The second, third, and fourth meetings took place without German participation on the afternoon of September 19 and in the morning and afternoon of September 21. The Working Group drafted a 33-page report with three Annexes. The report was broken down into eight sections as follows: I. Agenda and Tactics; II. European Security and Germany; III. Disarmament; IV. East-West Contacts; V. German Participation; VI. NATO Consultation; VII. Date for the Paris Working Group; and VIII. Points to Raise with Molotov on September 27. It was never formally approved by the participants, but was considered by the Foreign Ministers at New York (see Document 284) and revised in light of their comments. It was circulated in the Department of State as POM B–7/53A, October 3.
Memoranda of the four meetings of the Working Group and copies of the various papers submitted during this work are in Department of State, Conference Files: Lot 60 D 627, CF 542. A copy of POM B–7/53A is ibid., CF 549.