840.50 Recovery/7–2447: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs ( Clayton ), in Geneva 1
880. For Clayton. Kirk reports2 that when he told Spaak of Alphand’s3 reported desire to list colonial resources among assets of [Page 829] nations participating Paris Conference,4 Spaak assumed that Congo uranium should not be so listed. Kirk informed him, and Dept concurs, that it should not be so included and should if possible not even be mentioned.
If in any future conversations with any representatives of participating nations you should be asked for suggestions on Conference treatment of radioactive minerals, or if you should hear of any plans for consideration of the subject by participating nations, I hope you can discreetly head off any further development along this line. Dept strongly unwilling link uranium supply or atomic energy development with question of European rehabilitation. Subject is not appropriately within scope of present plans and discussions since industrial application of atomic energy is considered to be still remote.
- Under Secretary of State William L. Clayton was in Geneva for the Second Session of the Preparatory Committee of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Employment; for documentation on United States participation in that conference, see pp. 909 ff.↩
- Reference is to telegram 1134 from Brussels, July 18, not printed.↩
- Hervé Alphand, Director of Economic Services, French Ministry of Foreign Affairs.↩
- For documentation on United States interest in the Paris Conference of the Committee of European Economic Cooperation, see vol. iii, pp. 249 ff.↩