501.BC/8–2947: Telegram
The Chargé in the United Kingdom (Clark) to the Secretary of State
4706. 1. Michael Wright, Superintending Under Secretary Foreign Office, asked Embassy officer to call today and displayed text of personal message from Foreign Secretary Bevin to Acting Secretary sent this morning via British Embassy Washington in connection with [Page 803] statement in SC yesterday by US delegate to effect that mutual defense arrangements between UK and Egypt are “pointless.”1
2. Wright said that Cadogan’s telegram reporting this position as having been taken by USDel in yesterday’s debate came as “bombshell” which all Foreign Office officials from Bevin down found hard to understand. Initial reaction in Foreign Office according Wright is that USDel “may have made it impossible for Britain and Egypt ever to work out a defense pact.”
3. Wright said that it is essential for Foreign Office to know as soon as possible whether statement by USDel represents considered policy of USG re any future alliance between UK and Egypt. If so, Wright thought that high level talks subject should be arranged as soon as possible. If statement does not represent US policy and if time did not permit instructions to USUN which would make the true position clear, Wright hoped that Acting Secretary or Secretary would find suitable occasion to dispel impression created yesterday in SC re US attitude towards future UK-Egyptian alliance.
4. Wright said that a UK-Egyptian alliance up to present has been regarded by British General Staff as of vital importance to peace of area. Consequently, Wright thought that question as to whether USG is opposed to such an alliance would be put to War Department by War Office through military channels.
5. Wright expressed belief that if and when negotiations are resumed between UK and Egypt, Egyptians will lose no opportunity to quote USDel as spokesman of US policy. He said that it was for this reason that Foreign Secretary Bevin attached such importance to clarification of actual US position.
Department please pass to USUN.
- Mr. Bevin’s message was incorporated in a letter of September 2 to Mr. Lovett from British Ambassador Inverchapel and was delivered by an officer of the British Embassy the following day. It expressed Mr. Bevin’s deep concern that Ambassador Johnson’s remarks of August 28 in discussing the Colombian resolution were calculated not only to render difficult if not impossible the negotiation of an Anglo-Egyptian treaty but also to undermine the whole British strategic position in the Middle East. Mr. Bevin found it difficult to understand this point of view at a time when the United States was urging the United Kingdom to maintain its military commitments in Greece and elsewhere (501.BC/9–247).↩