396.1–GE/5–254: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Department of State
Dulte 43. Eyes only Acting Secretary. Eyes only Secretary Wilson and Admiral Strauss. I met briefly with Eden yesterday afternoon at his request. General Smith was with me. Caccia and Merchant were also present. This was in continuation of the discussion I had had two weeks ago with Eden concerning the possible feasibility of a moratorium on further hydrogen experiments.1 Eden told me that he had had their scientists look into matter and that they could now say that they considered it feasible. With an upper allowable limit set at 50,000 tons TNT equivalent they felt one observatory was sufficient to detect an explosion of this magnitude and that with two observatories it would be possible to locate site [Page 1419] of explosion. For this purpose one in Scandinavia and one in Switzerland would probably suffice, but there would be advantages in having one in Europe and one on North American continent.
Eden said that if Russians accepted, there would be a disadvantage directly to UK and that he hoped under such circumstances we would be “as kind to UK as possible within US laws”. Eden added that Makins was informed on this subject and available for further discussion in Washington.
- The memorandum of conversation, Apr. 12, is not printed. (Conference files, lot 60 D 627, CF 287)↩