Editorial Note
On March 31 British Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin arrived in Washington to participate in the final phase of the negotiations culminating in the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty on April 4. Bevin had also come to Washington for meetings with Secretary of State Acheson and French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman on various German problems. On March 31 Bevin, accompanied by a number of advisers, held a meeting with Secretary Acheson given over almost exclusively to German matters. According to Secretary Acheson’s memorandum of conversation, the following remarks regarding Greece were exchanged toward the conclusion of the meeting:
“Mr. Bevin suggested the advisability of bringing the Greek question to an issue within the next year, if no settlement is achieved with Russia in the meantime. He handed me a copy of a report from General Slim [see the note of March 31 from Bevin to Acheson, infra]. The British would try to do more by furnishing additional Spitfires and by increasing Greece’s drawing rights on the UK from 10 to another 14 [24?] million dollars in sterling. He had advised the Greek King to take more forceful action and he thought the present Greek Government was doing much better. Mr. Bevin said there had been a certain rapprochement between Tito and the Greeks, who were now companions in trouble.
With reference to Mr. Bevin’s remark that the US might become weary of the Greek problem, I mentioned in this specific connection, as well as with reference to other problems, that the US Government was finding it increasingly difficult to get appropriations for foreign programs and that we had to be careful in what we decided to do from now on.” (CFM Files: Lot M–88: Box 140: File—Minutes of Tripartite Meetings, Washington, April 1949)
Following the meeting Secretary Acheson and Foreign Secretary Bevin issued a brief joint statement explaining that they had had a general exchange of views on Germany and Greece but that no decisions were taken. For the text of the statement, see Department of State Bulletin, April 10, 1949, page 459.
For documentation on the Washington Tripartite Meetings on Germany of April 1949, see volume III, pages 156 ff.