840.20/4–2248
The British Ambassador (Inverchapel) to the Acting Secretary of State
Dear Bob: I naturally reported to Mr. Bevin the substance of our conversation on the 19th of April, when the French Ambassador and I called upon you to deliver the message from Mr. Bevin and M. Bidault to Mr. Marshall on the subject of Western European defence and security. In my report I gave due weight to your emphasis upon [Page 100] the importance which the United States Administration attach to receiving early and tangible evidence that the signatories of the Five-Powers Treaty are making real progress with their own military planning.
I am now asked by Mr. Bevin to assure you that the British Government fully understand that the five Powers must make every effort to proceed rapidly on the basis of the recent Paris agreement.1 The British Government are hopeful indeed that a decision to hold immediate staff talks may be taken in the course of the next few days. There is, of course, a lot of ground to be covered and Mr. Bevin fears that it may be physically impossible to have ready even a preliminary answer to the various questions which you raised before ten days or even a fortnight from now. But I am asked to assure you that the British Government fully grasp the necessity for producing some document as early as is humanly possible and that, although they cannot promise this, they think that there may be some chance of sending you something which would be of real use to you at an early stage of the proposed quadripartite talks in Washington.
- Agreement reached April 17 by the Foreign Ministers of the Brussels Treaty powers concerning organization of the Consultative Council and the early initiation of military conversations. For provisions of the agreement, printed from telegraphic text of communiqué published by the French Foreign Ministry April 18, 1948, see Department of State Bulletin, May 9, 1948, p. 602.↩