501.BC/9–746
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Director of the Office of Special Political Affairs (Hiss)
Mr. Johnson called me last night to say that he thought the Department’s telegram (183 of September 7) of suggestions for a statement he might make at this stage of proceedings in the Ukrainian case against Greece is very good. He said that he liked our approach of taking the issues up one by one and in effect eliminating as unimportant all but the allegations relating to border incidents.
He went on to say that he had just been talking to Sir Alexander Cadogan and that Cadogan said that sending a commission to consider the question of Greek frontier incidents would be dangerous. He thought the sending of such a commission would provoke both sides to bring about incidents which they could allege were caused by the other side. Sir Alexander plans to talk to Mr. Hasluck (Australia) and apparently will try to dissuade Mr. Hasluck from proposing the sending out of any such commission. Cadogan also said that he had received a special telegram from Bevin thanking him for the statement he had made before the Council. Cadogan said that Bevin is seriously disturbed by the Ukrainian charges as he believes the case is ruining the Council’s reputation and believes, therefore, that the Council must terminate consideration of the case. Mr. Johnson believes that Cadogan is instructed to try to get the case dropped in its entirety on the ground that a prima facie case has not been made.
Mr. Johnson said that Van Kleffens is also very worried about the damage being done to the Council’s prestige. He feels that it is weak-kneed of the Council to allow cases of this kind to remain before it. In this connection, however, Mr. Johnson told me that he himself is convinced of the correctness of our position with respect to the proposal made by the British and the Dutch that the case not even be placed on the agenda. Mr. Johnson said that he has had many favorable comments about our position in this matter.
[Page 208]Mr. Johnson made clear that he too was still seriously preoccupied about the problem of the Council’s prestige if the Ukrainian case is not dropped from the agenda. He also said that he is convinced that the major Soviet purpose in sponsoring the Ukrainian move is to “break” Greece and to try to bring about a situation in Greece comparable to the situations in Rumania and Bulgaria. However, he anticipates that there will very likely be a movement within the Council for the appointment of a committee of the Council to receive further information. We agreed that if such a movement develops it would be unwise for this government to oppose it. In fact Mr. Johnson went so far as to say that the situation might develop in such a way that we should take the initiative in proposing the establishment of such a committee. In any event our support for a committee would, presumably, on the basis of present developments, be limited to a committee to consider only the frontier issue but its terms of reference should include incidents on all of Greece’s borders. In particular, Mr. Johnson agreed that if Australia, France, Mexico and Egypt, or some of this group, urge the appointment of a committee it would be unwise for this government to oppose it even though we might want to say in agreeing to it that we ourselves were not convinced that a prima facie case of a threat to the peace had been made out. We would, in such case, defer to the views of a substantial number of members of the Council that the matter warranted further investigation. Mr. Johnson said that he thought if the situation developed in this way it would be most unwise for the British themselves to oppose the appointment of a committee and that he would want to speak to Cadogan in an attempt to persuade the latter not to oppose a committee. Mr. Johnson agreed that his initial statement would be along the lines of preliminary comments as to the information thus far put before the Council without any indication of the ultimate views of the United States as to action the Council should take in disposing of the case. He will, meanwhile, attempt to ascertain the views of other representatives on the Council and will keep the Department informed of developments.