740.0011 PW (Peace)/5–1148
The Director of the Office of Far Eastern Affairs (Butterworth) to the Counselor of Embassy in the United Kingdom (Dickover)
Dear Dickover: Reference is made to your letter of May 11, 1948 discussing, among other subjects of decided interest to the Department, [Page 774] the proposed trip of Mr. Dening to Australia. I refer in particular to, those paragraphs of the letter expressing the view that the British may feel dissatisfied over the “failure of the U.S. Government to keep the Allies adequately informed of the reasons behind the visits of various missions to Japan, including the two Strike Missions, George Kennan’s, Draper’s and that of General Noce”.
The two Strike reports have, of course, been made available to the Far Eastern Commission, while the full text of the Johnston Committee Report, compiled by Mr. Draper’s senior advisers during his trip to Japan, was released to the press on May 19. General Noce’s Mission was concerned solely with administrative matters. As for the Kennan Mission, I understand from George that he conferred in close confidence and at considerable length with the British representative in Tokyo, Sir Alvary Gascoigne, as well as with the Australian and Canadian representatives there. George acquainted Sir Alvary with the background and purpose of his visit, and there was a frank exchange of views, particularly with reference to the timing and procedure for a peace treaty.
As you suggest, it is highly important that we do not keep our Allied friends in the dark, as to any major changes of policy we have in mind, and we fully propose to discuss these matters with them at a high diplomatic level as soon as substantive agreement on the State Department’s policy proposals (based on the Kennan Report) is reached between the various interested agencies in Washington. This, I believe, will be fairly soon.
With further thanks for your letter,
Faithfully yours,