Foreign Relations of the United States, 1952–1954, China and Japan, Volume XIV, Part 2

693.94/2–1952

No. 522
The British Ambassador (Franks) to the Acting Secretary of State

confidential

Washington, 19 February, 1952.

Dear Mr. Acting Secretary of State: On the 9th January during the visit to Washington of the Prime Minister and Mr. Eden, Foster Dulles handed to me an informal memorandum¹ summarising recent exchanges on the subject of Japan’s relations with China.

I understood that this document was prepared primarily for use within the Department of State, and was only given to me because it was thought that Mr. Eden, who had of course played no direct part in the earlier negotiations, might find it convenient to have this summary by him. At a later stage, when it was possible to look more closely at the details of the document, we found it contained statements which, in varying degrees, differed from the Foreign Office record and omitted or touched lightly on considerations which had, in fact, loomed large in the formulation of the attitude of His Late Majesty’s Government.

I send this letter not in any desire to enter into controversy but, because policy towards China remains the subject of acute public interest and much public discussion in both our countries, I think it wise to place on record the fact that our absence of comment on the memorandum does not imply that it corresponds in every respect with our own record, or recollection of the events, or our outlook upon them.²

Yours sincerely,

Oliver Franks

1. Document 466.
2. A covering note dated Feb. 28 reads: “Return to FE—Mr. Allison. Noted. JFD”.