2. Proceedings of the Session and related apers

Editorial Note

At noon on Saturday, November 24, 1951, the opening meeting of the Eighth Session of the North Atlantic Council was begun in the Foro Italico in Rome under the chairmanship of Lester B. Pearson, Secretary of State for External Affairs of Canada. At his invitation, Alcide de Gasperi, Prime Minister of Italy, welcomed the delegations of the NATO powers, including the observers from Greece and Turkey. More than 300 delegates attended the Council meetings representing the 12 countries that belonged to NATO. The leading representatives of the NATO countries were as follows:

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Belgium	Paul van Zeeland, Minister of Foreign Affairs Jean van Houtte, Minister of Finance Colonel E. R. V. G. A. DeGreef, Minister of Defense Andre de Staercke, Council Deputy
Canada	Lester B. Pearson, Secretary of State for External Affairs Brooke Claxton, Minister of National Defense Douglas C. Abbott, Minister of Finance L. Dana Wilgress, Council Deputy
Denmark	Ole Bjørn Kraft, Minister of Foreign Affairs Thorhil Kristensen, Minister of Finance V. de Steensen-Leth, Council Deputy
France	Robert Schuman, Minister of Foreign Affairs René Mayer, Minister of Finance Georges Bidault, Minister of National Defense Hervé Alphand, Council Deputy
Iceland	Bjarni Benediktsson, Minister of Foreign Affairs Gunnlauger Pétursson, Council Deputy
Italy	Alcide de Gasperi, Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Guiseppe Pella, Minister of the Budget Randolfo Pacciardi, Minister of Defense Alberto Rossi-Longhi, Council Deputy
Luxembourg	Joseph Bech, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Defense Andre Clasen, Council Deputy
Netherlands	Dirk U. Stikker, Minister for Foreign Affairs Johannes R. M. van den Brink, Minister of Economic Affairs A. R. Tammenoms Bakker, Acting Council Deputy
Norway	Halvard Lange, Minister of Foreign Affairs Jens Hauge, Minister of Defense Dag Bryn, Council Deputy
Portugal	Joao Pinto da Costa Leite, Minister of the Presidency Paulo Cunha. Minister of Foreign Affairs Ruy Ennes Ulrich, Council Deputy
United Kingdom	Anthony Eden, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs R. A. Butler, Chancellor of the Exchequer Lord de L’Isle and Dudley, Secretary of State for Air Frederick R. Hoyer-Millar, Council Deputy
United States1	Dean Acheson, Secretary of State John W. Snyder, Secretary of the Treasury Robert A. Lovett, Secretary of Defense Charles M. Spofford, Council Deputy
Greece	Evanghelos Averoff, Observer
Turkey	Huseyin Regip Baydur, Observer

Following the pattern set during the Seventh Session of the Council in Ottawa, meetings were scheduled to begin on Saturday, November 24, with a break on Sunday which would allow for informal meetings between delegations, and then meetings beginning Monday of the following week and continuing until Wednesday, November 28. While the Council meetings were in progress, Secretary of State Acheson also held bipartite and tripartite meetings with the Foreign Ministers of France and the United Kingdom, as well as with other European officials. A record of several of these meetings is included in the compilation that follows.

The telegraphic reports of all the meetings of the North Atlantic Council are printed in the following compilation with the exception of the first formal opening ceremony. The main indicator series for telegrams were Secto and Tosec which were normally sent from and to members of the United States Delegation. Actel and Telac were occasionally used for telegrams sent by and to Acheson himself or his personal staff. Depto and Todep were the indicator series for telegrams from and to the United States Deputy Representative on the North Atlantic Council. The United States minutes of the Council meetings are not printed but are in the Conference files, lot 59 D 95, CF 98, and the CFM files, lot M–88, box 159, Rome. Both of these files also contain the preparatory papers which were written as background [Page 716] papers for the United States Delegation by a Steering Group within the Department of State.

An attempt has been made in the following compilation to identify document numbers and titles that were discussed by the Council or received for information; all formal Council actions are accounted for as well.