Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers, 1944, General, Volume I

500.CC/7–2444

Memorandum of Conversation, by the Director of the Office of Far Eastern Affairs (Grew)

[Washington,] July 24, 1944.

Mr. Liu Chieh, Minister-Counselor of the Chinese Embassy, having called today at my request, I referred to our conversation on July 13⁵⁰ and told him that according to present plans we expected to commence the informal conversations with representatives of Great Britain and the Soviet Union on the general subject of an international security organization on August 10, and that as soon as these talks were completed we would be glad to conduct similar conversations with representatives of Great Britain and China. In the meantime, however, we proposed to keep the Chinese representatives informed of developments in our discussions with the British and Russians and by following this method we felt that our later conversations with the British and the Chinese would proceed rapidly. On the basis of such statements as had been made by the Chinese Government concerning the general subject of an international organization for the maintenance of peace and security, we believed that our respective views were not far apart and we therefore were hopeful that an accord could be reached without great delay. I also said that these arrangements with regard to the choice of August 10 as the opening date and the decision to hold the conversations in two separate cycles probably would be announced in due course by Mr. Hull and I assumed that the Chinese Government, which we wished to consult in connection with every step, would find no objection to this procedure.

The Minister in reply said that his Government would have no objection to the proposed announcement by Mr. Hull and Mr. Liu Chieh gave no indication of disapproval of the decision to hold the conversations in two separate cycles.

The Minister said that the Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr. Victor Hoo, would probably be one of their delegates and that Dr. Kung⁵¹ might also be a member of the delegation if he was able to get out of hospital in time. He asked me if I could tell him the make-up of our own delegation to which I replied that I would make a point of letting him know the names of our group in due course.

Joseph C. Grew

50. Memorandum of conversation not printed; it concerned a proposed press statement to be made by the Secretary of State on the forthcoming conversations. For press releases of July 17 and 19, see Department of State Bulletin, July 23, 1944, p. 84.
51. H. H. Kung, Chinese Vice Premier and Vice President of Executive Yuan, was in Washington during the conversations but did not participate as an official representative.