711.35/1–2747
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Under Secretary of State (Acheson)
The British Ambassador22 called at his request. He handed me the attached Aide-Mémoire. After reading it, I said to him that I regretted very much that the British Government had to take any action at all at just this time as it seemed to me that our policy was producing results in Argentina. I asked him (1) precisely what the British Government had in mind doing, (2) whether the British Government proposed to issue a public statement, and (3) whether it proposed to address any communication to the Argentine Government. As to the first, the Ambassador said that this Aide-Mémoire related to the gentleman’s agreement23 not to sell arms to Argentina, that no action would be taken for ten days, and that thereafter the British had no ambitious ideas but only, as Mr. Hadow24 had informed Mr. Braden, a “trivial program of naval replacement, i.e. parts and equipment, et cetera”. As to the public or private statements, he would undertake to find out from his Government. I urged very strongly that no statement be made either to the press or to the Argentine Government.
- Lord Inverchapel.↩
- For a reference to an informal agreement between the United States and the United Kingdom not to supply arms and munitions to Argentina, see Foreign Relations, 1946, vol. xi, p. 279.↩
- Robert H. Hadow, British Counsellor of Embassy.↩