790.5/4–1654
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Director of the Office of British Commonwealth and Northern European Affairs (Raynor)
Subject:
- Secretary’s Talks in London;1 Arrangements in the Pacific
Participants:
- Sir Roger Makins, Ambassador of Great Britain
- Mr. L.T. Merchant, Assistant Secretary, EUR
- Mr. H. Raynor, Director, BNA
Sir Roger Makins called today and Mr. Merchant gave him a fillin on the various matters discussed with Eden in London along the line of the telegrams sent to the Department.
[Page 427]Sir Roger said that he had received a message from London making four points with respect to arrangements for the Pacific which might be worked out as follows:
- 1.
- The arrangements should not be purely ad hoc and directed solely to Indo-China but should be of a more general and enduring nature.
- 2.
- They should be in accord with the Charter.
- 3.
- It is very important to carry the Asian States along and they should be given every opportunity to associate.
- 4.
- Mr. Eden is not absolutely convinced that no concessions should be made to the Communists in the area especially should there be some security arrangements developed. In other words, Sir Roger said that U.K. agreement to complete rigidity on negotiations should not be assumed.
He later explained that he did not interpret this to mean solely at Geneva but in connection with the area of the Far East in general.
Mr. Merchant replied that there was complete agreement at London; that the UN would be brought in or informed on this matter at the earliest appropriate moment. He said he thought there was also agreement that neither by composition nor otherwise should the arrangements be developed so that they would be regarded as a white coalition. Mr. Merchant said that Mr. Eden had raised the question of India and the Secretary had urged that the less said on this point the better because it would raise problems for us in connection with Formosa and South Korea. He felt, therefore, that the more limited the geographic grouping the less difficulties would be created for all of us.
Mr. Merchant added that he thought Mr. Eden’s mind was closer to a decision than was the Secretary’s that the form of arrangements should result in a Pacific NATO. He felt the Secretary thought this in all probability might be the result but that he still was open-minded on it. Mr. Merchant raised the question if this approach was suitable to deal with the urgent nature of the immediate problem, he felt the Secretary thought we needed something urgently to deal with a problem we are facing now and that it would take at best considerable time to work out a NATO–type structure.
As to Sir Roger’s fourth point, Mr. Merchant said we did not have a negative position on Geneva but on the contrary felt that the creation of some form of machinery such as the Secretary had in mind would mean the creation of an asset for us at Geneva and thereby increase the prospects for negotiation.
With respect to the question of an ad hoc as against a permanent NATO–type organization, Sir Roger expressed the view that the two concepts were not necessarily contradictory. If we create a group to [Page 428] work here in Washington on the permanent organization this group would also be able to deal, he thought, with immediate problems also as they arose. He said that in his view perhaps a way to set up the Washington group would be a working group perhaps at Minister level.
- Secretary Dulles was in London Apr. 11–13; for documentation on his talks with Eden, see vol. xiii, Part 1, pp. 1307 ff.↩