330/11–2350
The British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (Bevin) to the British Ambassador (Franks)1
Please convey the following message to Mr. Acheson in reply.
Begins. I have given careful consideration to your message of November 21st2 and I have also had the advantage of a talk with Mr. Holmes who amplified it in response to my enquiries. I was particularly glad to receive his assurance that you had not changed your general attitude to the proposals and that what you had in mind was that 1 should instruct Sir Gladwyn Jebb as a matter of tactics to delay making them public at the moment.
2. I agree that it is not necessary to make these proposals public immediately. As I said in a recent telegram to Sir Oliver Franks, “I think there is a lot to be said for deferring Sir Gladwyn Jebb’s statement until after the Chinese arrive and talks have started with them”.3 I did however make the qualification that if any Delegation on the Security Council should press the resolution to an early vote, I should want Jebb to outline my suggestions before that vote was taken. We should however be able to overcome this without any undue difficulty [Page 1218] if both our Delegations act together in New York to ensure that no member of the Council ends the debate precipitately.
3. In general I still feel most strongly that my suggestions for a demilitarised area offer the best chance of bringing the conflict to a speedy conclusion and that despite the obvious difficulties involved, we ought to pursue them with the utmost vigour, even if for the moment they are not made public.
4. I sincerely hope that you will be able to agree with these views. Meanwhile I am instructing Sir Gladwyn Jebb that he should not make these proposals public until I instruct him as to the exact timing. Ends.