Foreign Relations of the United States, 1951, Asia and the Pacific, Volume VI, Part 1

890.00/1–1351

The Secretary of State to the British Ambassador (Franks)

confidential

Washington, January 26, 1951.

Dear Mr. Ambassador: I thank you for your letter dated January 13, 1951¹ in which, on behalf of the Governments of Australia, Canada, Ceylon, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, and the United Kingdom, you extended an invitation to the Government of the United States to participate fully, subject to the understandings previously set forth by the Government of the United States, in the future discussions and activities of the Consultative Committee on South and Southeast Asia, including the activities of the Council for Technical Cooperation.

I note that the Commonwealth Governments represented on the Consultative Committee have agreed on the desirability of a further meeting of the Committee at the official level, and that the Government of Ceylon will shortly extend an invitation to this Government to attend a meeting, starting at Colombo about February 12.

The Government of the United States appreciates the invitation of the Commonwealth Governments to participate in discussions and activities of the Consultative Committee and intends to accept the formal invitation to be represented at the Colombo meeting.²

The Government of the United States will have to give further consideration to its position with respect to participation on the Council for Technical Cooperation.

Sincerely yours,

Dean Acheson

1. Not printed.
2. In a statement released to the press on January 24, Secretary of State Acheson announced that the United States had accepted the invitation. For text, see Department of State Bulletin, February 5, 1951, p. 234. The Colombo Plan officially went into effect on July 1. For a statement on the subject released to the press by the Department of State on July 3, see ibid., July 16, 1951, p. 112. For information on the functioning of the plan in 1951, see Great Britain, The Colombo Plan, the First Annual Report of the Consultative Committee on Economic Development in South and South-East Asia, Karachi, March, 1952 (Cmd. 8529) (London: His Majesty’s Stationery Office, May, 1952).