840.50 Recovery/6–1947
The British Ambassador (Inverchapel) to the Secretary of State
Dear Mr. Secretary: On instructions from Mr. Bevin I enclose a copy of a message from him setting out the results of his conversations in Paris with M. Bidault on the subject of your proposals for European reconstruction.1 Mr. Bevin has instructed His Majesty’s Ambassador at Moscow to communicate this message urgently to M. Molotov. I understand that copies of the message have also been given to the American Ambassador and to the Soviet Chargé d’Affaires at Paris and that a communiqué in similar terms has been issued to the press.
2. In instructing His Majesty’s Ambassador at Moscow to transmit the enclosed communication to M. Molotov, Mr. Bevin stated that he thought it possible that M. Molotov might ask whether it was proposed (a) to make use of the Economic Commission for Europe to frame the reply to yourself, or (b) to set up new and separate bodies. Mr. Gunnar Myrdal, the Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Europe, who is now in Moscow, would presumably have told the Russians that in his view and in that of Mr. Trygve Lie,2 the [Page 263] Commission is the proper body to convoke such experts as are needed to provide the basis for framing the reply.
3. Mr. Bevin told Sir Maurice Peterson that the answer to such an enquiry is, that Great Britain and France are anxious, assuming that Russian cooperation is secured, to bring in the Economic Commission for Europe at a later stage in whatever ways are judged most appropriate. But the Commission has not yet a fully developed Secretariat and though Mr. Bevin and M. Bidault have full confidence in Mr. Myrdal, they are convinced that his staff could not successfully organise the initial steps needed to provide the basis for a reply to your proposal, more especially as the Secretariat has to deal with the second meeting of the Commission on the 5th July and will be taking over the essential functions of the European Central Inland Transport Organisation, the Emergency Economic Commission for Europe, and the European Coal Organisation. Mr. Bevin and M. Bidault are convinced, therefore, that the initial steps must be taken outside the Economic Commission for Europe, but it is their hope that the Commission, at its forthcoming session, will take note of and approve the steps taken, and it is the view of Mr. Bevin and M. Bidault that, assuming Russian cooperation, full use should be made of the Commission and its staff at a later stage.
Yours sincerely,