Office of the Historian

890.20/3–2849: Airgram

The Secretary of State to the Chargé in the Philippines (Lockett)

Washington, April 16, 1949.

A–158. Reference is made to the Embassy’s confidential despatch No. 344 of March 28, 1949 and the Department’s secret airgram No. 281 of April 11 to the Embassy at Rome1 and repeated to Manila, concerning the proposed Pacific Pact.

If newspaper reports cited by the Embassy are correct, it would appear that Ambassador Elizalde has been guilty of deliberate misrepresentation. The Department would therefore appreciate being informed as to what information the Embassy has given to President Quirino on the actual views of the Department concerning this question, and of his reactions thereto. If President Quirino is laboring under any misapprehensions concerning the attitude of this Government it would seem desirable that he be appropriately and discreetly advised of the true state of affairs.

Acheson
  1. Not printed; it repeated substantially the Secretary of State’s telegram 372, March 23, to Manila, p. 1126; the Philippine Chargé at Rome had made inquiry of the American Embassy regarding the U.S. attitude toward a Pacific Pact.↩