Foreign Relations of the United States, 1949, National Security Affairs, Foreign Economic Policy, Volume I

Department of State Atomic Energy Files

Memorandum of Conversation, by the Legal Adviser (Fisher)

top secret

[Washington,] October 14, 1949.

Sir Derick Hoyer Millar came in today, and stated that he was extending an official invitation from the British Government for two persons to visit the U.K. atomic energy project. He said, that he understood that General Nichols would be one, and expressed the hope that the other would be Carroll Wilson.

I stated I would let him know right away, and asked if there would be any objection to having a third visitor, Mr. Arneson. He replied that this would be completely acceptable.

Sir Derick then said he had read in the newspapers that there had been a discussion with the Joint Committee,¹ and was wondering if anything of particular interest had occurred. I took the opportunity to inform him in considerable detail of the nature of the Secretary’s statement before the Joint Committee. I emphasized the part of the discussion that dealt with the interest of the U.S. in the nature of the U.K. program and the necessity for each country to satisfy itself as to what was in the mind of the other. I said that the Secretary’s statement before the Joint Committee was in the nature of an interim report and that there was apparently no objection from the point of view of the Legislature to our continuing these discussions.

He then asked what was the next move. I replied that after General Nichols and his party had come back and had had a chance to discuss the matter here, and after the people in London had made up their own minds, I assumed that I would get in touch with him or he would get in touch with me, and we would arrange for further exploratory discussions.²

1. On the morning of October 13, representatives of the Executive Branch appeared on Capitol Hill to brief the Joint Congressional Committee on Atomic Energy on the progress of tripartite negotiations. The Department of State was represented by Secretary Acheson, Gross, Fisher, and Arneson; the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission by Commissioners Dean and Smyth, General Manager Wilson and others; and the Defense Department by LeBaron and General Nichols. The Committee was assured that no binding agreements had been concluded and that none would be concluded without prior Congressional approval. The stenographic transcript of proceedings, 42 pages, is not printed. (Department of State Atomic Energy Files) Immediately after his appearance before the Joint Committee, Secretary Acheson described the meeting to President Truman in the following terms: “The Atomic Energy Committee had listened to our report of the discussons with the British and believed those discussions had been conducted in complete good faith and in accordance with the statements of the President and the Secretary of State at recent meetings with the Committee and agreed to our proceeding with further exploratory discussions along the lines indicated.” (Memorandum by the Secretary of State of Conversation with President Truman, October 13, 1949, Department of State Atomic Energy Files)
2. The report of November 21 by General Nichols, Arneson, and George L. Weil of the Division of Reactor Development of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, on their 2-week visit to the United Kingdom, is described in Hewlett and Duncan, pp. 307–308.