Office of the Historian

Conference files, lot 60 D 627, CF 192

No. 424
Minutes of a Meeting of the Tripartite Working Group, Berlin, February 5, 1954, 10:30 a.m.

secret
BER MIN–12
Berlin, February 5, 1954, 10:30 a.m.
  • Present
    • United States
      • Mr. MacArthur
    • United Kingdom
      • Sir Frank Roberts
    • France
      • M. Seydoux

1. Tactics for Today. It was agreed that Mr. MacArthur would set forth at the Ministers 12:00 meeting the points raised in the discussion of the Working Group meeting.1

The question was raised as to whether Mr. Eden, as the author of the UK plan,2 should begin the discussion today or whether the Secretary should pass to M. Bidault so that two statements would be on the record before Mr. Molotov spoke and possibly reverted to other matters. The French and British would concentrate on Molotov’s rejection of the UK plan and the western position on free elections. The reasons for Mr. Molotov’s position and the unacceptability of his proposal would be made clear.

Mr. MacArthur noted the Secretary’s hope that M. Bidault and Mr. Eden would carry the burden of the argument with regard to Molotov’s proposal for the withdrawal of occupation troops.

Since there was danger that Molotov might have created the illusion that he accepted free elections in principle, the Secretary felt it was important to examine Soviet philosophy in relation to elections. He would also point out that Mr. Molotov had demonstrated their position was not dependent on the EDC.

Restricted Session. The British believed it would be important to be able to say that the Western ministers had done all they could to reach an agreement with Molotov including the discussion of Germany in a restricted session. Mr. MacArthur pointed out that any suggestion now of a restricted session would be bad since there would be implications that the Western Ministers might be making deals on Germany or compromises on the basis of the Molotov Plan.3 It would be preferable to keep our position flexible on the question of a restricted meeting.

[Page 964]

2. Five-Power Conference. The British suggested the deletion of the quotations around the Chinese People’s Republic on both pages of the draft proposal for a convocation of a Korean Political Conference.4 They considered whether it was necessary to include the last paragraph since this might well be done in the introductory speech. The British further considered the necessity of the statement in the penultimate paragraph regarding the condition that the Chinese People’s Republic disassociate itself from warlike activities beyond the borders of China. The French indicated that M. Roux was currently preparing another version of this paragraph.

3. Letter from the GDR of January 30. It was agreed in conversations just prior to the Working Group Meeting that this letter to the three ministers would not receive a reply but would merely be tabled.5

  1. Regarding the Foreign Ministers meeting, see Dulte 40, infra.↩
  2. FPM(54)17, Document 510.↩
  3. FPM(54)33, Document 514.↩
  4. For this draft proposal, see Dulte 35, Document 418.↩
  5. Regarding the German Democratic Republic letter of Jan. 30, see footnote 2, Document 396.↩