Secretary’s Memoranda of Conversation, lot 64 D 199, “November 1954”
No. 716
Memorandum of Conversation, by the
Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs (Merchant)
Subject:
- Yugoslavia
Participants:
- Premier Mendes-France
- Ambassador Bonnet
- The Secretary
- Livingston T. Merchant
Mendes-France1 mentioned to the Secretary that French relations with Yugoslavia were on the whole good. He said that he had had feelers at different times regarding a visit to Paris by Tito and now that the Trieste matter had been settled they proposed to invite Tito to visit Paris in the near future. He also mentioned that there were some tentative plans for a state visit by the Italian President to Paris soon after the turn of the year.
The Secretary then took the opportunity to describe the current economic negotiations which we were having with the Yugoslavs. M. Mendes-France seemed interested and appreciative. He mentioned the difficulty they were having over the matter of the short term credit to Yugoslavia which is in private hands. He said the Yugoslavs were behind on their amortization and the French citizens holding the obligations were making it embarrassing for the French Government to continue its contribution to tripartite aid to Yugoslavia. The Secretary indicated generally that anything the French could do in the Yugoslav financial situation would be helpful.
- For documentation regarding the visit to the United States of French Premier Pierre Mendès-France, Nov. 17–20, see vol. VI, Part 2, pp. 1139 ff.↩