Foreign Relations of the United States, 1952–1954, China and Japan, Volume XIV, Part 1

396.1 GE/9–3054: Telegram

No. 310
The Acting Secretary of State to the Secretary of State, at London¹

top secret

Washington, September 30, 1954—9:31 a.m.

Tedul 12. Eyes only Secretary. Reference Tedul 4 September 28.

1. Lodge’s reaction most favorable and he feels you should be congratulated on ingenuity your proposal.

2. We would welcome your views about timing and particularly whether we should aim for a Security Council meeting prior to November elections.² We anticipate an unfavorable reaction once ChiNats learn of proposal and realize its full implications and this would be almost certain to generate considerable emotion in certain domestic political circles. Accordingly if an early SC meeting desired it might be advisable for President to tip off one or two influential Congressional leaders such as Senator Knowland regarding proposal. In view of danger of possible leak this might be a wise precaution in any event.

3. In your Dulte 1³ you state Taipei should be concurrently informed. We assume that for time being at least this means that only our Embassy Taipei should be informed. Question nevertheless remains as to when (perhaps not until eve of request for SC meeting?) Chinese government should be brought into the picture.

4. Our present thinking is that the detailed petition to SC and other necessary preliminaries should be worked out in collaboration with U.K. and New Zealand here rather than in New York.

5. Your Dulte 9,⁴ the President has been informed.

Smith

1. Drafted by Key and approved by Smith.
2. Congressional elections were scheduled for Nov. 2.
3. Document 304.
4. See footnote 1, supra.