740.00119 PW/7–1045

No. 448
Memorandum by the Acting Secretary of State
[Extracts]
secret

Memorandum of Conversation

Subject: … Greek elections.

Participants: The British Ambassador, the Earl of Halifax; Acting Secretary, Mr. Grew.

Lord Halifax called on me this afternoon and the following matters were discussed:

. . . . . . .

3. The Ambassador then discussed with me my recent aide-mémoire concerning the Greek elections.1 He said that with regard to approaching the Greek Government and eventually the Soviet and French Governments the British Government was in accord. The British Government did not, however, concur in our recommendation concerning the sequence of a plebiscite and the elections in Greece as it was felt that this was a matter for the Greek Government to determine. I asked the Ambassador if he would not like me to request Mr. Kohler to come in to the conversation in order to discuss the subject in detail but Lord Halifax said that he merely wished to leave his reply2 to our aide-mémoire and as it was self-explanatory he did not think we needed to discuss the details at this time.

A number of other matters were discussed informally but there was nothing of importance to place on the record.

J[oseph] C. G[rew]