840.6362/6–2547: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Embassy in the United Kingdom

secret

2786. From the Secretary for the Ambassador. I am impressed with the vital necessity of improving the present unsatifactory condition of European coal production and its critical importance to any plans for European recovery. I wish you therefore to ask Prime Minister Attlee to send top level representatives to Washington for a conference on this subject with particular reference to Ruhr production. I shall also ask General Clay to participate in this conference. A summary agenda will be sent you shortly. I hope the conference can meet as soon as possible. Let me know whether such a conference is agreeable to the British govt, the approximate date on which British representatives could arrive and the names of those who will attend.44

Marshall
  1. Ambassador Douglas called on Prime Minister Attlee on June 30. Attlee promised to take up the matter with Foreign Secretary Bevin and reply to Secretary Marshall’s proposal as soon as possible. On July 3, Bevin informed Douglas of his acceptance of the suggestion to send top-level representatives to Washington for a conference on coal.