74. Telegram 478 to Geneva1
478. For Johnson. Your 428.
1. Agree form should be unilateral simultaneous declarations and our 466 was designed to suggest the form of such a declaration.
2. QTE If desired by C.P.R. UNQTE can be deleted at your discretion. We proposed it with a view to creating a situation such that in the C.P.R. Declaration the Government of the United Kingdom would not be obligated to seek the return of American turncoats in China whom we do not want to get back.
3. See no objection to insertion in 2(a) of words QTE if it deems such a complaint valid UNQTE as precondition to intervention on civilians’ behalf. Some such language would conform to your original presentation which is unobjectionable.
4. 90-day clause was designed to permit of subsequent modification if conditions change. We do not want to be committed in perpetuity to a situation where Chinese Communist spies could operate in this country, knowing that if caught there would never be any penalty other than their [Facsimile Page 2] prepaid first-class ticket to China. However, possibly it is sufficient to drop out reference to 90 days and merely provide that the Declaration shall be valid until notice of termination given or possibly nothing need be said explicitly about termination as long as it is understood that it is not necessarily in perpetuity but subject to reasonable termination.
[Typeset Page 84]5. We do not understand what you mean as the Declaration referred to includes of course the whole Declaration, including paragraph numbered one which the Chinese could not subscribe to and continue hold Americans. In other words the Chinese Communists do not get benefit of Indian participation unless and until they have declared that all American nationals in Communist China who desire to return to the USA are entitled to depart.
We do not suggest you should submit counterproposal until in your judgment this is appropriate or until otherwise instructed. At some point, however, we feel it may be necessary to submit a concrete proposal in form which could be subsequently made public in the event that no agreement is reached.
At your meeting tomorrow, we think it of utmost importance that you should firmly reject the objectionable features of the CHICOM proposal (your 402 Depts 470). We doubt whether you should be stating that you are QTE still studying UNQTE giving the impression that we are uncertain and open to persuasion. It seems to us that a firm negative reaction will probably be more productive.
- Source: Department of State, Central Files, 611.93/8–1255. Secret; Priority. Drafted by Dulles; cleared by Robertson and McConaughy.↩