320/10–2451
The British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (Morrison) to the Secretary of State 1
Personal Message From Mr. Morrison to Mr. Acheson
As you know a considerable amount of work has been proceeding during recent months on working out proposals in regard to disarmament and there have been exchanges between British and American officials with the aim of producing a plan which we and the French might put forward Tripartitely at the outset of the forthcoming United Nations General Assembly. The thought behind this proposed move has been that the Soviet Government are likely to make some peace gesture (including disarmament proposal) for propaganda purposes at the Assembly and that the Western Powers should forestall this by taking the initiative themselves.
2. The official level exchanges have produced a large area of agreement though there are still some important points to be settled. Unfortunately, owing to our many other preoccupations, it has not proved possible to finalise our own thinking in time for Ministers here to consider the problem before the election, and you will understand that I cannot for the moment commit His Majesty’s Government on [Page 565] so important a matter. This means inevitably a further delay of about a week which leaves very little time before the Assembly opens.
3. It would be very helpful to know how you see the situation in these circumstances, and in particular to know whether you remain of the opinion that an initiative on this subject is desirable at the Assembly. It has been suggested to us that it might entail the risk that Soviet propagandists would seize on it to develop the line that the strain of rearmament is beginning to tell on the Western countries. This in its turn might have a depressing effect on those countries themselves. There is also the possibility that non-communist countries, especially in the Middle and Far East, might themselves conclude that this action is proof of our general weakness. Such arguments are of course in no way conclusive or unanswerable and may well be outweighed by the desirability of forestalling a Soviet initiative. But I should be very glad to have your views on this, and as to how we are to get over the difficulties involved by the shortage of time, particularly since no approach has yet been made to the French. I feel that it is very important to consult them in time. It seems to me that it will be very difficult to settle a Tripartite declaration by the three heads of governments before the Assembly.
4. We are meanwhile continuing to try through the official channels to harmonise our respective points of view on the detailed proposals now under consideration.
- This communication was presented to John D. Hickerson, Assistant Secretary of State for United Nations Affairs, by Gerald Meade of the British Embassy on October 24.↩