893.01/11–2349
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs (Merchant)
Mr. Graves of the British Embassy came in by appointment this morning to tell me “in confidence” that the Embassy had received this morning from London a telegram stating that the High Commissioner of India in London had informed Mr. Bevin of Nehru’s decision to recognize the Chinese Communist Government sometime between December 15 and December 25, but in no event prior to the end of the General Assembly.
Mr. Graves then discussed the good news of Angus Ward’s release and asked what we proposed concerning the multilateral démarche which we had set in motion. I told him that no decision had been reached on this but that our preliminary thinking was that we should dispatch a circular telegram to the original recipients telling them that we had received word of Ward’s release from prison but that we remained of the opinion that an expression of the concern with which the other governments viewed this matter was still in order, particularly in view of the fact that we had no information as to the treatment or trial of Mr. Ward, nor in fact do we have any assurance that he and his staff would in fact be permitted to depart from Mukden. I assured Mr. Graves that as soon as a decision had been reached on this matter by us we would communicate it to him.