Office of the Historian

793.00/11–554

No. 383
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs (Merchant)1

top secret
[Washington,] November 5, 1954.

Subject:

  • Off-shore Islands

Participants:

  • The Secretary
  • The British Ambassador
  • Sir Robert Scott
  • Livingston T. Merchant

Sir Roger called at his own request on the Secretary this afternoon. He opened by saying that Sir Anthony Eden was anxious concerning the situation of the off-shore Chinese islands in light of the flare-up in fighting and that he was most anxious to see as early as possible the statement which we proposed to make concerning the negotiations of a treaty with the Chinese Nationalists.

The Secretary said that we were in the process of drafting such a statement but that he was not aware of its status at the moment. He agreed that the increase in fighting was disturbing and he mentioned the damaging aspect of the story on the Treaty in the Washington Post this morning. He said that he would hope to expedite the preparation of the draft statement and get it to the British as early as possible.

The British Ambassador went on to say that Eden wanted to be sure that there was some reference in a general sense that Formosa would not be established as a protected base for attacks against the mainland. The Secretary explained the difficulties in this respect, particularly since it was only from Formosa that the defense of these off-shore islands could be supported as long as they were under attack. He suggested that it might be better to omit any reference to this in the initial public statement but leave this point to be dealt with by the U.S. representative on the Security Council. He went on to say, however, that the British might be authorized to cover this point in their private communications to Moscow and Peiping which would be made just prior to the initiation of action in the Security Council.

Sir Roger mentioned that Eden desired to attempt to carry India along with the action in the Security Council by informing them in advance. The Secretary expressed the hope that any such notification [Page 867] would not be appreciably in advance of actual action in the Security Council because of the increased risk of leakage.

  1. Approved by Secretary Dulles, according to a handwritten note by O’Connor on the source text.↩