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  4. Document 126

700.001/2–2450: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Embassy in France 1

confidential
Washington , February 24, 1950—8 p. m.

811. With view prevent propaganda initiative falling wholly to Commies, fol FYI only are Dept’s plans handling question Peace Partisans delegation to US:2 We will brief key members Congress [Page 271] for statements next week against admitting Peace Partisans group on grounds (1) proposed visit a brazen propaganda stunt alien to US democratic procedures (2) repetition meaningless “peace” proposals, and (3) UN is proper forum. We do not propose enter into detailed polemics over visa or other technicalities. Subsequently Dept will take same line to public and visa applicants.3 Paper being prepared for Members of Congress will describe organization, sponsorship, purpose, delegation members and Dept’s and field’s recommendations.4

Acheson
  1. This telegram was repeated to Rome, London, Brussels, Bern, and Moscow. It was drafted by Joseph N. Greene, Jr., of the Office of Western European Affairs.↩
  2. In mid-February the Embassy in France reported that the Communist-dominated “World Congress of Partisans of Peace” had announced in Paris that delegations would shortly visit Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, France, the United States, Mexico, Guatemala, and the Soviet Union for the presentation to the parliaments of those countries of a petition calling for the cessation of the armaments race and the prohibition of atomic weapons. The delegation scheduled to visit the United States included Spanish painter Pablo Picasso; Reverend Hewlett Johnson, Dean of Canterbury; Belgian atomic scientist Max Cosynx: and a number of other British, French, Italian, and Swiss political figures, savants, and artists, all of whom were reported to be Communists or Communist sympathizers.↩
  3. Regarding the statement issued to the press on March 3 concerning the Department of State’s decision to refuse entry into the United States of the delegation representing the “Partisans of Peace,” see the editorial note, p. 273.↩
  4. The paper under reference here has not been further identified.↩