Office of the Historian

790.5/7–1051

Memorandum by the Secretary of State to the President

top secret
Washington, July 10, 1951.

Subject: Security Treaty with Australia and New Zealand

Mr. Dulles has completed or will complete in a few hours the negotiations on the Australian and New Zealand security treaty. With minor changes, the draft follows that which was discussed with you in April.1

A copy of this revised draft2 is attached for your consideration. I will appreciate it if you will review this proposed treaty and give me an opportunity to speak with you about it tomorrow at the NSC meeting.3

Dean Acheson4
  1. Record of conversation on this topic held in April between the President and Mr. Acheson has not been found in Department of State files.↩
  2. Not printed. In it, Articles VII and VIII are worded as they appear in Secretary Marshall’s letter of July 20 to Mr. Acheson, p. 226. The remainder of the draft is identical to that of February 17 (p. 172) except for very slight alterations in style and punctuation.↩

  3. There follows in entirety a memorandum of July 11 by Lucius D. Battle, Special Assistant to the Secretary:

    “The Secretary told me on his return from NSC today that he had discussed the security treaty with Australia and New Zealand with the President.

    “The President has approved the draft submitted to him by the Secretary’s memorandum of July 10, 1951. I have informed Mr. Dulles.” (Lot 53D444)

    The draft treaty was made public on July 12. For text, see Department of State Bulletin, July 23, 1951, p. 148. For the accompanying statements by Messrs. Berendsen, Dulles, and Spender, see ibid., pp. 147–148.

    ↩
  4. At the bottom of the source text is this handwritten notation: “Approved 7/23/51 Harry S Truman”.↩