693.419/11–2849
The Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Douglas) to the Secretary of State
London, November 28,
1949.
[Received December 5.]
No. 1888
Sir: A copy of the draft of a note which the
Foreign Office proposes to discuss with the Department of State through
its Embassy in Washington and thereafter to send to its Embassies in
Paris, Brussels and The Hague has been forwarded to this Embassy
together with a transmitting note giving additional explanations.
Although it is understood that the draft note is being communicated to
the Department of State, it is felt that the Department might wish to
have it incorporated in a despatch and the text of the additional
explanations may be found useful if the British Embassy conveys them to
the Department orally. Both documents are therefore enclosed.
Respectfully yours,
For the Ambassador
F. P. Bartlett
First Secretary of Embassy
[Enclosure 1]
Draft British Foreign Office Note
His Majesty’s Government and the United States Government, in the
course of recent discussions, agreed to the desirability of taking
steps to ensure that Western trade with China should not result in
any increase in the military strength of the Chinese Communist
administration; and it was considered that one essential measure
would be the imposition of controls over the export or re-export to
China of goods of potential strategic significance.
His Majesty’s Government already control the export from the United
Kingdom of many such goods to a wide variety of destinations
[Page 898]
including China. The
French, Netherlands and Belgian Governments will recall that
meetings were convened in Paris on October 12th and November 14th by
the French Government to consider with certain other Governments the
adoption of a common policy for the denial to certain Eastern
European countries of goods to be included in an agreed list.
Provided that the other Governments most directly concerned were
prepared to take similar action, H.M.G. would be prepared to extend
this denial to cover the whole of China and to arrange with the
Governments of Singapore and Hong Kong to prevent the transshipment
in those ports of any item on the agreed list from whatever source.
H.M.G. make this proviso because they consider that the controls
envisaged would be ineffective without the necessary cooperation
among interested Governments and would not be maintained by Colonial
Governments without the assurance that effective controls were being
enforced in neighboring territories.
H.M.G. accordingly have the honour to express the hope that
- 1.
- the French Government, in respect of both their Metropolitan
and Far Eastern Colonial territories
- 2.
- the Netherlands Government, in respect both of their Far
East-tern and Colonial territories
- 3.
- the Belgian Government
will be prepared to agree in principle to impose controls over the
export or re-export to China of goods in the agreed list referred to
in the second paragraph above.
H.M.G. and the U.S. Government are also agreed on the desirability of
watching closely and exchanging information on the export to China
of a separate selected list of items considered to be of especial
importance to the Chinese economy. A suggested list is now under
consideration and it is proposed that its exact composition should
be the subject of later consultation and decision.
It is understood that the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers in
Japan is already controlling strategic exports to China, and that
the U.S. Government are prepared to obtain the cooperation of the
Government of the Republic of the Philippines.
A similar communication is being addressed to
- 1.
- the Netherlands Government, who are being invited to
cooperation in respect of their Metropolitan and their Far
Eastern Colonial territories, and to the Belgian
Government,
- 2.
- the French Government, who are being invited to cooperate in
respect of their Metropolitan and Far Eastern Colonial
territories and to the Belgian Government,
- 3.
- the French and Netherlands Governments, who are being invited
to cooperate in respect both of their Metropolitan and their Far
Eastern Colonial territories,
[Page 899]
and the following members of the
Commonwealth are also being approached ….74
[Enclosure 2]
The Assistant Head of the Far Eastern Department
of the British Foreign Office (Tomlinson) to the First Secretary of the American Embassy in the United
Kingdom (Bartlett)
[London,] 22 November, 1949.
Dear Fred: As I promised you the other
day, I am now sending you the text of a Note for eventual
communication to the Belgian, Netherlands and French Governments
which we have sent to our Embassy in Washington by air. We have
asked our Embassy to communicate this draft Note to the State
Department for any comments they may wish to offer, and we have also
asked them to make the following additional explanations.
- (a)
- We should prefer to deal with the Macao question by inviting
the cooperation of the Portuguese Government, and we would
propose to address to them a Note on the same general lines as
the attached draft, with the necessary consequential amendments
to take account of the fact that the Portuguese Government have
not been associated with the negotiations for denying an agreed
list of goods to certain Eastern European countries.
- (b)
- We are perturbed to learn that the United States proposal
“does not preclude the licensing of 1A exports to Chinese
Nationalist areas …74 under conditions that
serve the national interest of the cooperating Governments.” We
consider that the risks that supplies consigned to Nationalist
China will eventually fall into Communist hands are now so great
that the effectiveness of any system of control will be gravely
prejudiced unless it is applied to China as a whole.
- (c)
- We assume that the State Department will be letting us see the
texts of the Notes they themselves propose to communicate to the
Governments concerned, and we should be glad to have an
indication of the State Department’s views on timing.
You remember that we discussed the question of the list of 1B items
whose movements is to be watched. I have let the section of the
draft which deals with this question stand as it was for the time
being, since I have not been able to clear the point with
Gresswell75 who, as you
know, is at present inaccessible.
Yours sincerely,
