893.01/12–3049: Telegram
The Chargé in the United Kingdom (Holmes) to the Secretary of State
[Received December 30—8:26 a. m.]
5153. Following is text of letter dated December 29 addressed to me by William Strang20 in response to my letter of December 24 transmitting personal message from Secretary to Mr. Bevin (Deptel 4592, December 23).
“Dear Julius, Before he left, the Foreign Secretary asked me to send you a reply to your letter to him of the 24th December about the recognition of the Chinese Communist government.
Mr. Bevin asks you to thank Mr. Acheson for his message and to express regret that our two Governments have not found it possible to Keep in step on this question. For our part, we have done all we could to delay matters in the hope of being able to synchronise with the United States Government, but for reasons with which Mr. Acheson is already familiar, we have been unable to do so.
Although our two Governments are not able to agree in this instance, Mr. Bevin is very ready to keep in the closest touch with the United States Government on matters relating to China and the Far East, and he shares Mr. Acheson’s views about the necessity of stimulating the free peoples of that area to resist the spread of communism.
With regard to France, Mr. Bevin is very conscious of the difficulties of the French in Indo-China, and is doing his best to assist them [Page 258] in this matter. For Mr. Acheson’s confidential information, he hopes to discuss the Commonwealth attitude towards Vietnam at the forthcoming conference in Colombo.
Yours sincerely, signed William Strang.”
- Sir William Strang, British Joint Permanent Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.↩