795.00/6–3050
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs (Merchant)
Subject: Military Situation in Korea
| Participants: | Mr. H. A. Graves, Counselor, British Embassy |
| Mr. Livingston T. Merchant, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Far Eastern Affairs |
Mr. Graves called at his request this afternoon. He asked if I could inform him generally on the military situation in Korea, which I did. He then asked if I felt that the American public was prepared for the possibility of bad news on the military front in Korea for several days or a longer period. I told him there was no doubt as to the resolution of the public or the Congress on the matter. He then asked rather apologetically if I had any comment on a rumor which he thought foolish but which nevertheless had been picked up in New York by the Embassy to the effect that there was strong feeling in the Government in Washington that American military forces were being sent into Korea against the wishes of the Government under compulsion of the Security Council action. I replied that it was fantastic on the face of it and told him that the obvious answer was that we had taken the initiative in presenting the two Security Council resolutions.
Mr. Graves then observed that the line of defense in the Far East would obviously be strengthened by the specific inclusion and public mention of Hong Kong. I told him that it had always been our understanding that they were confident they could look out for Hong Kong themselves.
Next, Mr. Graves asked me whether we contemplated any change in attitude toward the Nationalist Government and called my attention to the reference in the President’s statement to the “Chinese Government on Formosa”. I told him that no change was intended or implicated and that the phrase he referred to was merely compression of the phrase, i.e., “the Government of the Republic of China now located on Formosa”. At this point Mr. Graves, smiling cryptically, said that he thought the whole question of establishing diplomatic relations with Peiping must now be very carefully reviewed.
I asked Mr. Graves if he had received word yet from London regarding our request that Shell be asked immediately to suspend all shipments of petroleum products to China and emphasized again the urgent importance we attach to this request. He said he had telegraphed London immediately upon our request but that he had not [Page 269] yet heard. He said he would try to expedite a reply. I then told him of our instructing the Department of Commerce to suspend action on all export licenses for 1B items to Communist China and said that I trusted London was giving the most urgent consideration to our request in the matter of trade between Hong Kong and Communist China, which should be immediately reviewed with a view to eliminating exports of any strategic implication to mainland China.2
- The time is that assigned in Korean Conflict.↩
- For documentation on this subject, see vol. vi, pp. 619 ff.↩