740.00119 FEAC/5–1448
Memorandum by Mr. Hugh Borton, Special Assistant to the Director of the Office of Far Eastern Affairs (Butterworth), to the Director
Subject: Far Eastern Commission Meeting of May 13, 1948
Lord Inverchapel’s Retirement
Lord Inverchapel came to pay his respects to the Commission prior to his return to England and in his informal remarks stated that he hoped the Commission would press for an early decision on the Level of Industry paper and that the United States Government would have a firm position on the matter in the near future.
Attendance at Inter-Governmental Conferences
General McCoy presented FEC 300/7, the new U.S. position on the paper, as a substitute for our previous paper (FEC 300/6), which provided for both SCAP representation or attendance as observers at conferences. The Australian Ambassador read a statement to the effect that there was already a large body of support for the earlier New Zealand paper, that it was disappointing that the United States had retreated from a position which it had held in the past, and that the Australian Government was unable to support any position which stated or implied that SCAP could attend a conference in any capacity other than that of an observer. It was the view of the Australian Government [Page 757] that if a case arose where representation might be advisable, then the FEC should consider the matter on the merits of the case. Canada supported the new U.S. position and asked that a final vote on the matter be postponed. The New Zealand representatives agreed with postponement and no action was taken by the Commission on the paper.
No other important action was taken by the Commission, but Mr. Liu informed me that the Chinese had firm instructions on the Inter-Governmental Conference paper which would prevent them from approving any policy which went beyond restricting SCAP attendance to observers and restricting the conferences to technical ones.