460.509/6–551
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Economic Affairs (Linder)
Subject: Battle Report and Proposed Legislation1
Congressman Battle told me this afternoon that the House Foreign Affairs Committee decided this morning to authorize the Subcommittee to publish their report as a Subcommittee report. He indicated that most of the changes we suggested will be incorporated in the report.
As to the Committee print, that, too, was submitted, unfortunately as originally drafted, to the full Committee which decided to refer it to the State Department for comment and a report. Battle felt that there was a disposition on the part of the Committee to look into the matter carefully and finally to propose legislation with which we could live.
I told him that the reference in the President’s letter2 expressing the hope that the Congress would enact new legislation in place of the [Page 1085] Kem Amendment was written with the Battle Committee work in mind.
- For information concerning the Battle Report and the Mutual Defense Assistance Control Act of 1951 (Battle Act), see the editorial note, p. 1176.↩
- A copy of the President’s letter was not found in Department of State files. The President’s desire for new legislation to replace the Kem Amendment was also expressed in his statement to the press on June 2 when he signed the Third Supplemental Appropriation Act; for the text of this statement, see the Department of State Bulletin, June 25, 1951, pp. 1027–1029.↩