890D.01/622: Telegram
The Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Winant) to the Secretary of State
[Received July 30—6:24 p.m.]
4259. After further discussing with Mr. Eden your 3484 July 25, Mr. Eden confirmed the statement in the last paragraph of your message 3515 July 28, 8 p.m., that General Spears leftBeirut for Cairo July 27 with General Catroux and a meeting will be held with others in Cairo at which I understand Minister of State Casey will sit in. He assured me that the British have no other than their publicly declared policy with regard to Syria and the Lebanon. He took up the question of General Spears’ services in this field with the Prime Minister but was unable to convince the Prime Minister that General Spears was not doing a good job. As reported in my telegram number 3975 July 18, 2 p.m. there is a close personal friendship between the Prime Minister and General Spears which will make it very difficult to bring about a change in this area. I hope that the conference in Cairo may lead to some improvement.
Mr. Eden also told me they have agreed that General de Gaulle go out there with the idea of further clarifying the situation. He leaves here next Tuesday and also plans to visit Brazzaville. He expects to be away from London about a month.