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  4. Document 11

740.5 MAP/1–3150: Telegram

The Chargé in the United Kingdom (Holmes) to the United States Special Representative in Europe (Harriman),1 at Paris

[Extract] secret
priority
London, January 31, 1950—10 p. m.

156. For Harriman from Breithut.2

1.
PWS NAT DFEC meeting entire day January 31 approved on ad referendum basis following priority work projects:
a.
“To ascertain the total approximate defense expenditure in the budgets of each North Atlantic Treaty country for the latest periods for which information can be made available from time to time; in this connection consideration should be given at the outset to the question of what categories of expenditure should be included under the heading defense, and to the question of whether some defense expenditures should be segregated as not applicable to the defense of the North Atlantic area.”
b.
“To ascertain what financial and economic resources can be made available for purposes of military production and mutual assistance in each North Atlantic Treaty country for the defense of the North Atlantic area in the light of (such) information (as may be available) from the military committee and the military production and supply board regarding each country’s equipment deficiencies and physical production possibilities, and regarding possible transfers of equipment among the North Atlantic Treaty countries.”
c.
“To develop formulae and criteria designed to indicate the financial and economic burdens of defense in relation to the capacity of the respective NAT countries to support them.”

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Sent Paris 156; repeated Department 556. [Breithut.]

Holmes
  1. W. Averell Harriman, as Special Representative in Europe for the ECA with headquarters in Paris (OSR), was ECA representative on the European Coordinating Committee (ECC) of the MDAP and served also as U.S. Representative on the North Atlantic Treaty—Defense Financial and Economic Committee (NAT DFEC). For a summary of the organization of the North Atlantic Council, see Department of State Bulletin, May 22, 1950, p. 794.↩
  2. Richard C. Breithut, Senior U.S. Representative on the Permanent Working Staff of the DFEC.↩