694.001/10–2350
Memorandum of Conversation, by Mr. Robert A. Fearey of the Office of Northeast Asian Affairs
Subject: Japanese Peace Treaty
| Participants: | Mr. Daridan, French Embassy1 |
| Mr. Fearey, NA |
Mr. Daridan called at my suggestion in connection with a Japanese treaty. I explained that Mr. Allison had hoped to see Mr. Daridan while in Washington this morning but, having had to return to New York earlier than expected, had asked me to hand him the statement of tentative U.S. views which Mr Dulles and Mr. Allison had been giving representatives of the FEC nations in New York, and to explain our background thinking on a treaty.
Mr. Daridan expressed approval of the desire of the U.S. Government to get forward with a treaty as rapidly as possible, and with the necessity for maintaining U.S. and possibly other friendly Allied forces in Japan in the post-treaty period. At the same time he stated that the assumption by Japan of a growing measure of responsibility for its own defense must be anticipated and that any other proposal would be unrealistic in light of present and prospective world conditions. In answer to his question whether our position on Formosa did not constitute a departure from the terms of the Cairo Agreement2 I replied that the circumstances had changed greatly since that time, and that the results of the General Assembly’s consideration of the Formosa problem would doubtless have an important bearing on our and other countries’ final position on the question. Mr. Daridan said that he planned to send the U.S. memorandum to Paris and hoped to be in touch with us again in the matter shortly.
- Jean Daridan, Minister Counselor of the French Embassy.↩
- Text of the Communiqué released to the press at the close of the First Cairo Conference held November 22–26, 1943, between the Heads of Government of China, the United Kingdom, and the United States, is printed in Foreign Relations, The Conferences at Cairo and Teheran, 1943, pp. 448–449.↩