Foreign Relations of the United States, 1949, The Far East: China, Volume VIII

701.4193/1–2749

Memorandum of a Telephone Conversation, by the Chief of the Division of Chinese Affairs (Sprouse)

[ Washington ,] January 27, 1949.

Mr. Graves²⁸ telephoned this afternoon to inform me that the British Embassy had just received a message from the Foreign Office stating that instructions had been issued to the British Ambassador at Nanking to remain at that city and send the British Counselor to Canton with the Chinese Government. Mr. Graves added that the sense of instructions was similar to those he had discussed with Mr. Butterworth and me yesterday. Mr. Graves also said that the Foreign Office had informed his Embassy that the “Brussels Treaty²⁹ Ministers”, now meeting in London, had issued similar instructions to their Ambassadors at Nanking. By way of clarification, he said that these were the Belgian, French and Netherlands Ministers.

28. Hubert A. Graves, Counselor of the British Embassy.
29. Treaty for collaboration in economic, social, and cultural matters and for collective self-defence signed at Brussels, March 17, 1948; United Nations Treaty Series, vol. xix, p. 51.