Office of the Historian

740.00119 Control (Japan)/10–148

Memorandum by Mr. John Foster Dulles, United States Delegation at the United Nations General Assembly, to the Secretary of State

secret
[New York,] October 1, 1948.

I dined last night with the Chinese Foreign Minister and Dr. Tsiang.1 He urged on me the idea which I think he had previously urged on you, namely, that the United States should consider making a treaty with China and some of the British Commonwealth states to guarantee for a long time the disarmament of Japan. He said that this would remove Chinese fear of Japanese economic recovery and permit of China going along on a program of Japanese economic revival which could be to the interest of the entire Far Eastern area if there was assurance that such revival would only be for peaceful purposes. I said I thought that the suggestion was an interesting one which it might be worth while to explore.2

J[ohn] F[oster] D[ulles]
  1. Dr. Wang Shih-chieh and Dr. T. F. Tsiang headed the Chinese delegation at the UN General Assembly meeting.↩
  2. Notation by the Secretary: “Digest this proposal, as made to me by Wang, and radio to Washington your comment. GCM”. Added notation (unsigned): “Done”. For Department comment on this question, see telegram Telmar 52, October 7, 6 p. m., p. 862.↩