840.00/3–1848
Joint Message by the French Minister of Foreign Affairs (Bidault) and the British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (Bevin) to the Secretary of State1
We discussed together in Paris your encouraging message2 about further steps which might be desirable to combat further extension of Communist dictatorship in Europe, with particular reference to the Anglo-French-Benelux Treaty which we are glad to say was signed in Brussels today. The text has no doubt by now been communicated to you.
After signature we had a full, frank and friendly conversation with our three Benelux colleagues and we thought it necessary to inform them in strict confidence of the general sense of your message. All of us have noted with great interest your statement that the results achieved in Brussels today “would appear to be an essential prerequisite to any wider arrangement in which other countries including [Page 56] the United States might play a part”. The Treaty having now been signed, we have provided for our deputies to meet early next week to work out its early practical implementation.
We have also read this evening President Truman’s impressive message to Congress and have noted in particular the passage in which the President stated, with reference to our Treaty, that the Soviet Government’s determination to prevent this development must be matched by an equal determination on the part of the United States to help the free nations of Europe to protect themselves. We welcome the intention in your message to us and in the President’s speech to Congress. We appreciate their importance in this serious and urgent situation which we on our side are doing our best to meet. We are ready, together with a Benelux representative, to discuss with you what further steps may be desirable, and we should welcome your views on the form these steps should take and on the time and place of such discussions. They might perhaps best be opened with your official representatives in Washington3 and we should, of course, be very ready to meet you personally as soon as this seemed advisable.
- The copy printed here shows no date, point of origin or signature, and is attached to a note in the Department files (840.00/3–1848) addressed March 18, 1948, to the Secretary of State from John Balfour, British Minister at Washington. The note, signed by Balfour and left by him with Hickerson on the 18th, reads as follows: “My dear Mr. Secretary, In the Ambassador’s absence, and on the instructions of Mr. Bevin, I send you herewith a joint message addressed to you by Mr. Bevin and Monsieur Bidault 2. This message was drawn up at the meeting of the five Foreign Ministers after the signature of the Brussels Treaty yesterday. I am instructed to inform you that it also represents the views of the Foreign Ministers of Belgium, The Netherlands, and Luxembourg. Yours sincerely.” The Minister Counselor of the French Embassy, Armand Bérard, left a similar letter and the same message in French (memorandum, Hickerson ta Ambassador Douglas, March 18, 1948: 840.00/3–1848).↩
- See telegram 784, March 12, 3 p.m., to Paris, and footnote 1, p. 50.↩
- Hickerson, in a memorandum to Douglas dated March 18, not printed, pointed out that the French text delivered to him by Bérard read in translation that the conversations should be opened “with you by our representatives in Washington.” Hickerson added that he assumed this was what Bidault and Bevin really meant (840.00/3–1848).↩