840.50 Recovery/7–1647
The British Chargé (Balfour) to the Secretary of State
Dear Mr. Secretary: I have just received a telegram from Mr. Bevin in Paris asking me to convey to you the following personal message from him. Mr. Bevin’s telegram was despatched last night, July 15th.
“The initial stages of our work in Paris have passed off with great smoothness and rapidity and there is every evidence of good-will and of a desire to cooperate on the part of all participating countries.1 It has been particularly interesting that in general countries have been anxious to be represented on committees for commodities in which they can make some contribution to European reconstruction.
A further point of interest which has emerged from these preliminary discussions is that the Scandinavian countries are prepared to work as a team and all are somewhat anxious to know how far the special arrangements which may be necessary in order to implement the effective pooling of resources within Europe can be reconciled with the general principle of non-discrimination. They have not at present fully developed their thinking in any of these directions, but they are obviously reflecting seriously upon this whole complex of problems and are prepared to put their best people to work to try to help to solve them.
I think that we can regard the limited size and actual membership of the Executive as extremely satisfactory. I am sure that you will be glad to see that Italy has obtained a seat on this Committee, which, I anticipate, will be an important cog in the machine. The Turks, in particular, made an attempt to enlarge the membership of this Committee by the addition of themselves, but the other Delegations felt that this would have been quite inappropriate and their suggestion was therefore withdrawn.
On the whole, I am glad to be able to tell you not only that the composition of these committees is satisfactory in itself, but also that it has been arrived at without any visible ill-will or dissatisfaction. Our final meeting today was conducted in a very genial atmosphere”.2
Yours sincerely,
- The Conference on European Reconstruction opened on July 12, and British Foreign Secretary Bevin was elected president. By that evening, the working committee, composed of representatives of all participants, reached agreement on a plan for organizing the conference; this was presented to the conference’s second plenary session at 4 p. m. on July 13. A Cooperation Committee, Executive Committee, and committees on Food and Agriculture, Energy-Power, Iron and Steel, and Transportation were established. It was provided that the Cooperation Committee’s function would be to prepare a report on European availabilities and requirements for the next four years, to be submitted to the United States before September 1. It was decided that “the Cooperation Committee, as suggested by the Secretary of State of the U.S.A., shall seek the friendly assistance of the U.S. for the preparation of the report.” (Telegram 2789 from Paris, 840.50 Recovery/7–1347). Substantial documentation on the progress of the conference is in the 840.50 Recovery file.↩
- On July 17 Secretary of State Marshall handed to President Truman a memorandum summarizing this message, and on the same day Under Secretary Lovett conveyed the information to Senator Vandenberg and Congressman Eaton. (840.50 Recovery/7–1647)↩