120.3 Conferences/10–2849: Telegram

The Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs ( Perkins ) to the Secretary of State

secret

4277. From Perkins.1 The staffing patterns for our satellite missions were discussed by our satellite mission chiefs. It was their strong consensus that the size of our staffs should be held to the lowest minimum consistent with existing requirements and responsibilities. The group felt very strongly that in selecting personnel, Department should place emphasis on quality rather than quantity and that in determining requirements, the estimate of the chief of mission should be the governing factor.

Re Deptel 3808, October 22,2 the group does not at this juncture believe it advisable and practical to withdraw American employees not enjoying full diplomatic immunity. It does, however, recommend that in future, clerks proceeding to Iron Curtain countries as replacements should have diplomatic passports. The question of whether or not they will be on the diplomatic list will be decided by the chief of mission, depending on circumstances.

It was also the very strong belief of the mission chiefs that the NME staffing patterns for service attaches are unrealistic and that the [Page 36] number of such attachés should be reduced. Furthermore, it was the consensus that such attaches should be selected on the basis of experience in the intelligence field with a view further to utilizing their services in this field when their tour of duty is completed (rather than the present system whereby a number of service attaches are selected for duty in the satellite countries as a result of answering a general appeal for volunteers rather than on the basis of intelligence experience, and when their tours of duty are completed, they return to duty with their service branch instead of being further Utilized by intelligence).

The group also recommends the Department study the possibilities of prompt and effective retaliatory action against the arbitrary restrictions and expulsions and arrests of personnel to which our missions in Eastern Europe are increasingly subjected. It is suggested that the possibility of concerted retaliatory measures be explored with foreign offices of Western states whose missions in the area are exposed to similar hardships.

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Perkins
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  1. Assistant Secretary of State Perkins, who served as chairman of the London Conference of U.S. Chiefs of Mission to the Satellite States, October 24–26, transmitted this telegram through the facilities of the Embassy in London. For the Report on the Conclusions and Recommendations of the Conference, see p. 28.
  2. Not printed; it observed that the problem of the status of United States missions in Eastern European countries was becoming ever more pressing, and it expressed the hope that Perkins would explore the situation with the chiefs of mission, particularly the advisability and practicability of withdrawing all American employees not enjoying full diplomatic immunity (120.3 Conferences/10–2249).