840.50 Recovery/9–2247: Telegram

The Acting Secretary of State to the Embassy in the United Kingdom
secret

4103. For Clayton, Caffery, Douglas. Further discussions with Harriman Committee representatives indicate their strong desire to discuss technical aspects of CEEC reports directly with experts who are familiar with underlying data. Discussion would be for the purpose of clarification and further explanation of the report rather than to attempt to revise report in Washington. Accordingly Dept has revised its previous position and now recommends that such technical experts accompany Executive Committee arriving early October.

For your info we believe it will become clear from discussions in Washington that further substantial work by Committees in Paris will be necessary.

For reasons contained Dept’s 3604 (repeated London as 4081) to Paris suggest that technical delegation be held to smallest number consistent with adequate representation of each committee or commodity field. Probably one or two from each committee would suffice, if carefully chosen for technical competence. Adequate broad representation [Page 445] from various countries should be taken into account to extent feasible without sacrificing competence.

Lovett