Office of the Historian

112. Memorandum of a Conversation Between Secretary of State Dulles and the British Chargé (Coulson), Department of State, Washington, April 19, 19561

Washington, April 19, 1956

SUBJECT

  • East-West Trade

The Secretary handed Mr. Coulson a letter replying to Selywn Lloyd’s recent communication on the subject of the China trade controls. After reading the letter Mr. Coulson thanked the Secretary and said he was very glad to note that a concrete proposal had now been made.

The Secretary said that he was sorry that we had not been able to communicate our views on this subject to the British before this, [Page 345] but as Mr. Coulson was aware, this whole question is receiving a lot of attention and there is a great deal of opposition to any relaxation of controls. He referred particularly to the activities of the McClellan Committee and said that there are some members of Congress who would be glad to seize upon any suggestion of a relaxation of controls as an excuse to reduce or eliminate our foreign aid program.

The Secretary said that he had worked very hard on this reply with many members of the Cabinet and that he had discussed their final decision, as embodied in the letter to Selywn Lloyd, with the President. The Secretary said that the final paragraph of the letter might appear to be phrased in a rather tentative way but, he explained, he had not had an opportunity to discuss the question with Mr. Hoover and Mr. Hoover is to appear tomorrow morning before the McClellan Committee on the subject of East-West trade. The tentative nature of the final paragraph of the letter was due to his desire not to embarrass Mr. Hoover in any way. He could assure Mr. Coulson, however, that it is our firm intention to go through with this proposal if the British Government so desires.

Mr. Coulson said he assumed that the proposal would have to be discussed eventually on a multilateral basis. The Secretary agreed but asked that the British Government hold it very closely and take every precaution to prevent any “leaks” until we have had an opportunity to discuss it again on a bilateral basis. Mr. Coulson said he would emphasize this point in communicating the proposal to his Foreign Office.

  1. Source: Department of State, Central Files, 450.60/4–1956. Confidential. Drafted by Elbrick.↩