740.5/10–651
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Director of the Office of British Commonwealth and Northern European Affairs (Haynor)1
Mr. Hessellund-Jensen called on me this noon at his request under instructions to deliver a message received from his Foreign Office on this subject. The message in general paralleled that contained in Embassy Copenhagen’s telegram 283 of October 5 sent to London as Copenhagen’s 29.2 Specifically, he said that Denmark very much regretted her inability to promise to sign the Protocol before October 20. The message indicated that our desire to have it signed by the 10th of October could have been met if the Danes had known of this earlier. It pointed out that the Danish Foreign Minister had stated at Ottawa that it was necessary to place this matter before Parliament before they could sign as such a promise had been made by the Government. Parliament is now in its regular “study” recess. The Danes say that to assembly Parliament, in what would amount to an extraordinary session during the recess, would create the impression of American pressure and that they believe this would be very detrimental to U.S.-Danish relations. The message stated that Ambassador de Kauffmann who is at Copenhagen had been consulted and that he agrees with the foregoing.
They, therefore, feel unable to place this before Parliament until immediately after it reconvenes. It is expected that Parliamentary consideration thereof would take at least two days and, therefore, signature cannot be promised before October 20.
The message also indicated that the Government felt certain of a clear majority for the Protocol and felt there was no doubt whatsoever as to the outcome of the debate.
I stated that without consulting with Mr. Perkins on this matter I could reply only personally. On this personal basis I said I appreciated the difficulty the Danes found themselves in but that the information contained in the message was discouraging. I said this would almost certainly mean that our Congress could not act to ratify the [Page 591] admission of Greece and Turkey until January and that this delay would be serious because of various important ramifications flowing from the admission of Greece and Turkey to NATO. I added that I was delighted to hear that his Government felt there was no question of the outcome of the Parliamentary debate.
Note: I reported this conversation to Mr. Perkins who agreed that under these circumstances and also because of the doubt as to whether our Congress in any event could or would act before adjournment that we should not press the Danes further on this matter.3
G. H[ayden] R[aynor]