Conference files, lot 59 D 95, CF 135
No. 374
Memorandum of Conversation, by the
Secretary of State
This afternoon at 4:00 o’clock the President received Prime Minister Churchill, who was accompanied by the British Ambassador, Sir Roger Makins. The President had with him the Secretary of State, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of Defense and the Director of Mutual Security, Mr. Averell Harriman.
The meeting was a social and most friendly one. Matters of international importance were touched on only in passing. The President and the Prime Minister recalled their meeting in Potsdam and the next meeting, which was the trip to Fulton, Missouri for Mr. Churchill’s speech.
The Prime Minister expressed his gratitude to the President for making the Independence available for his flight from New York to Washington and to Jamaica. He expressed his great appreciation of [Page 886] all the courtesies which the President had extended to him over the years and hoped that in the not too distant future the President and Mrs. Truman would visit England, where the Prime Minister assured the President of a very warm welcome. The President said that he hoped that he might make such a visit, but he would not wish to take any step now which might be misconstrued. The Prime Minister observed that he himself had been misconstrued for over fifty years and that no one had really found him out yet. The Prime Minister hoped that his visit to the United States on his way to Jamaica had not been inappropriate. The President assured him that it was entirely appropriate and hoped that his conversations with General Eisenhower 1 had been useful, expressed his high regard for the General and hoped that the Prime Minister and the incoming President would maintain the closest relations in the years to come.
The Prime Minister again expressed his great admiration for the President’s decision in regard to Korea and the subsequent program in the United States, which he believed had preserved the freedom of the free world. He expressed great interest in the new developments which had been reported to him of American air force and navy air force bombing in Korea, which represented vast improvements over World War II standards. The Secretary of Defense discussed this matter with the Prime Minister. He mentioned also the determined efforts of his Government to bring Great Britain in self-supporting balance with the rest of the world, and discussed briefly with the Secretary of the Treasury Mr. Butler’s efforts in this direction. He said that he was not very familiar with the conclusions reached by the Commonwealth Conference which had been left largely in the hands of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and with which Mr. Snyder was already familiar.
He spoke to the Secretary of State in sincere appreciation of what he described as the brilliant efforts which the State Department had made in bringing about a settlement of the oil situation and said he had heard from Mr. Eden in hopeful vein. The Secretary responded that he also had hoped that the matter might be brought to a successful conclusion and urged the greatest efforts to this end.
The remainder of the conversation was particularly personal, intimate and friendly, chiefly between the President and the Prime Minister, with occasional participation of the others present. The [Page 887] Prime Minister left at 5:20 and said he was looking forward to seeing the President at dinner at the Embassy this evening.2