840.00/7–248: Telegram
The Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Douglas) to the Secretary of State
us urgent
2949. For the Secretary and Lovett (eyes only) from Douglas. Reference Deptel 2430, June 28 and Embtel 2879, June 29.1 Jebb handed me personally the following report on the work of the Permanent Commission of the Brussels Treaty and the progress report on the work of the Military Committee:
Progress Report of the Secretariat-General
“Article VII of the Brussels Treaty which was signed on 17 March 1948 by Belgium, France, Holland, Luxembourg and the United Kingdom provided for the creation of a Consultative Council which would meet at regular intervals to discuss the problems involved in carrying out the terms of the Treaty and to decide the best measures to be adopted to put these terms into effect.
[Page 144]“On 17 April in Paris, the five Foreign Ministers laid down that this Consultative Council, which would consist of the Foreign Ministers of the signatory states, should be set up to meet not less than once in every three months in each of the respective capitals in turn. At the same time, a Permanent Commission was created, to be composed of the diplomatic representatives of the five countries in London and a representative appointed by His Majesty’s Government especially for this purpose, to be assisted by a secretariat.
“The Permanent Commission has until now largely been concerned with organizational questions. It held its first meeting on the 21th April at Lancaster House, where the Secretary-General and his staff have their offices for the time being, although possibilities of permanent accommodation elsewhere in London are being investigated. The Commission agreed to hold meetings regularly once a week and more often when a special need arises. A summary of these meetings is kept by the Secretary-General and circulated to the members of the Commission. The chair is taken in rotation, changing with that of the Consultative Council, every three months.
relationship of the permanent commission with other bodies
“The first object of the Permanent Commission was to define its status in relation to other international bodies. This was broadly defined, it being agreed that the Permanent Commission acts for the Consultative Council when the latter body is not in session, in which circumstances the representatives assumed to represent the views of their Foreign Ministers. As the Consultative Council has no secretariat of its own, it was decided that the Secretary-General should act as secretary for the Consultative Council when in session. It was further agreed that meetings of the Ministers of the Five Powers, other than meetings of the Defense Ministers, should be convoked by the Permanent Commission, to whom reports of such meetings are submitted and who again supplies the secretariat.
“The Defense Ministers make their own decisions as to when to meet but keep the Permanent Commission informed of their activities, and the Secretary-General represents the Permanent Commission at such meetings. The Military Committee, the creation of which was provided for by the Paris communiqué of 17 April as the Working Party for the Defense Minister’s meetings (see below), functions under the control of the Permanent Commission with whom it maintains through the respective secretariats a close liaison. The Permanent Commission moreover supplies political guidance to the Military Committee and to meetings of Ministers or to any other meetings or bodies of experts it has been found necessary to convoke. It draws up [Page 145] the agenda for the Consultative Council meetings upon which reports of all Minister’s meetings automatically figure. The Permanent Commission also considers what other items are deserving of treatment and brings them forward in agreed form to the Consultative Council.
Security
“Side by side with the progress of military discussions comes the question of safe-guarding them with sufficient secrecy. As the whole fact of the pooling of plans, forces and weapons loses its cogency if known to other countries and particularly to potential enemy powers, the need for security is paramount. The Commission recognized two distinct questions: (A) The safe-guarding of the secrecy of the military and political talks in their present stage, and (B) the much wider aim of mutual cooperation against subversive activities and infiltration, it being recognized that both the safety of the five countries and the efficient safe-guarding of military secrets depended to a large extent on adequate action against these dangers particularly in government departments, services and industries. This aspect is also being studied, and it is hoped that Ministers will be able to take the necessary decisions at their meeting at The Hague on 19 July next.
“A system has been introduced, as from 26 May 1948, to keep the diplomatic representatives of the Five Powers in Paris, The Hague, Brussels, Luxembourg and Washington currently informed of developments in the Permanent Commission and its satellite bodies. In this way, the Foreign Office in the four capitals make available secret documents to the heads of the five diplomatic missions on the spot and the British Ambassador to the United States acts in the same way for the supplying of information to the Five Powers in Washington.
Publicity
“A subject which is closely allied to security is that of publicity. It has been agreed that, the very nature of the Commission precluding publicity on its military and political aspects which would lose their efficacy if known to all and sundry, publicity should be given to the activities of the Commission only when it is necessary in which case communications should only be made, either in London or in any of the four capitals, by the secretariat.
“The question of the publicity to be given to the military side of the Commission had been raised, it being queried whether some form of statement might act as a timely stimulant to the morale of the population of western Europe. Taking into account the fact that such a statement might be considered provocative by potentially hostile powers, the Commission decided to ask the Military Committee for its views. The Military Committee felt that any publicity about its work [Page 146] or about itself would be undesirable so it has therefore been decided that no publicity should at present be given to the military discussions, although in the future in connection with possible military talks in Washington, some publicity might be inevitable.
united nations assembly special committee
“The necessity was recognized by the Five Powers to set up a committee which would have regular meetings to follow up the Assembly and the Permanent Commission have approved the creation of a Special Committee, consisting of representatives chosen from the Five Power delegations to the Assembly to study and follow up questions of mutual interest raised in the Assembly in an endeavor to arrive at a common viewpoint.
“The Permanent Commission will attempt, as soon as the agenda for the Assembly is known, to discuss, after selection on broad lines the problems on the United Nations agenda which will be of interest to the Five Powers. A list of subjects which may figure on the agenda has already been circulated to the Commission for consideration.
Economic
“It was recognized that there was no present need for the creation of special economic or financial committees under the Treaty, as existing international organizations (such as the OEEC and ECE) upon which Five Powers were all represented provided adequate media for discussion at the present time.
Social and Cultural
“As regards social and cultural matters a considerable amount of work has already been done by each of the five governments, and some of them have already handed in memoranda giving their views on the organization required in both these fields. When the views of the governments have been circulated, which it is hoped will be before 5 July, it is the intention to form sub-committees of experts to try to work out concrete recommendations in both the social and cultural fields for submission to Ministers at the next meeting of the Consultative Council. It is expected that when the plans have been approved there will be a considerable expansion of work involving the establishment of more committees and sub-committees, to say nothing of occasional meetings of Ministers.”
Special Progress Report for the Information of the US Ambassador in London
“The Military Committee of the Five Powers was set up by order of the Defense Ministers of the Five Powers on 30 April 1948. It was [Page 147] given as its first task the preparation of answers to set of questions which had been posed by Mr. Lovett.
“It produced the answers to these questions on 12 May.2
“2. These answers were necessarily in broad terms only and it is clear that before the many issues these questions raised can be settled, a great deal of work will have to be done by the Military Committee. The Military Committee, therefore, proposed to the Defense Ministers a charter to govern its work. This charter is comprehensive, it establishes the constitutional powers of the Military Committee and it indicates the ultimate object of its work. The charter has now been approved by some of the Five Powers and is under active consideration by the others.
main object of the committee
“3. The main object of the Committee is to propose methods of organizing and preparing jointly the building up and the eventual use in the field of the forces of the Five Powers for the defense of western Europe.
“4. In pursuit of this object the Military Committee has taken the following action:
“(A) Strategic concept and outline plan. The staffs of the Five Powers are now considering the strategic concept for the defense of Europe as far east as possible in Germany against the background of a world strategy. These studies will be compared and correlated by the Military Committee who hope to put forward a combined view to the Chiefs of Staff of the Five Powers by the end of August.
“The Military Committee then proposes to go on to examine an outline plan in support of the concept.
“(B) Organization of the Armed Forces of the Five Powers. The Five Ministers of Defense have now approved the establishment of three Service Advisory Committees who will report through the Military Committee to the Chiefs of Staff. These Service Advisory Committees will be mainly concerned with questions of defense policy and organization which are the special concern of their respective services. For example, the problem of standardization will be one of the main concerns of the Service Advisory Committees. The Military Committee will examine all reports from the Service Advisory Committees and will ensure that the inter-service aspects of all defense problems are covered.
“The Air Advisory Committee has in fact already made considerable progress. It has agreed [on] a common air defense plan, it has made arrangements for the training in the United Kingdom of selected flying and technical personnel and it has made some progress over the provision of equipment and aircraft. It seems probable also that agreement will be reached for the use of a common language—which will be English—for the operational control of fighter aircraft in the air.
[Page 148]“The other Service Advisory Committees will shortly make progress on the same lines.
“(C) Inventories. As a necessary adjunct to the work on the strategic concept and also to the work of the Service Advisory Committees, the Military Committee has set in hand a stock-taking of its actual and potential military forces and resources. These inventories have already been provided by some of the Five Powers for the information of the Military Committee and will be examined and compared by the Military Committee.
organization of the committee
“5. In pursuit of the above aims the full Military Committee meets weekly and there are also meetings of Steering Committees appointed by it to examine and clarify certain particular problems. In addition the Committee has frequent informal meetings at which it discusses defense matters of mutual concern and at which preliminary views are exchanged on subjects which will ultimately come to the Committee as formal resolutions.
“6. All delegations have offices in the Central Building at No. 36, Whitehall, and this ensures a constant exchange of views. All delegations equally have close contacts with their own staffs and pay frequent visits to their own capitals.
“7. For all its work the Committee has adopted a special system of security. This system is designed to safeguard the security of all documents.
“8. As the work proceeds and new problems emerge certain developments in the organization are likely to be required. For example, the Committee is now considering the possibility of recommending a Military Supply Board of the Five Powers which will deal with questions of production and procurement.”