740.00119 Council/4–2246
Memorandum of Telephone Conversation, by the Deputy Director of the Office of Far Eastern Affairs (Penfield)
I called Dr. Tan17 today and told him that I had been authorized to inform him, with reference to his recent inquiry regarding the Paris Foreign Ministers meeting, that the invitations to the conference of the Council of Foreign Ministers provided for under Section I paragraph 2 of the Moscow Communiqué18 will be issued by the French Government; [Page 84] that the Chinese Government has been informed of the April 25 meeting of the Foreign Ministers as a matter of courtesy; and that if, during this meeting, questions other than the draft treaties are discussed Chinese representation or consultation will be invited.
Dr. Tan said that he felt that the Secretary would see to it that the Chinese interests in any matters which might be discussed at Paris would be protected and asked that Secretary Byrnes be informed before his departure that the Chinese were relying on him in this matter. I told Dr. Tan that we would endeavor to see that the Secretary was informed.
- Dr. Shao-hwa Tan, Chinese Minister.↩
- Telegram 631, April 11, 1946, to Chungking, not printed, authorized the Embassy in China to point out, informally, to the Chinese Foreign Office that the forthcoming meeting in Paris was not a meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers but simply a meeting arranged in conformity with the agreement reached at the Moscow Conference on the preparation of the peace treaties (740.00119 Council/4–1146). At about the same time, the Chinese Embassy in Washington was informed along the same lines. On April 17, Dr. Tan told Penfield that the Chinese Government would appreciate being consulted in advance regarding the time and place of the next Foreign Ministers Conference (740.00119 Council/4–1746).↩