Office of the Historian

180. Memorandum of a Conversation, Department of State, Washington, August 3, 19551

Washington, August 3, 1955

SUBJECT

  • Alpha

PARTICIPANTS

  • The Secretary of State
  • Sir Roger Makins, British Ambassador
  • Mr. R. W. Bailey, Counselor, British Embassy
  • W. Barbour, EUR

The British Ambassador called by appointment made at his request. He handed the Secretary the following letter:2

“My dear Secretary of State: You will recall that Mr.Macmillan undertook to seek the authority of his Cabinet colleagues to make a statement on Alpha the day after your statement is issued. Draft texts for both these statements were discussed and provisionally agreed by Mr.Russell and Mr.Shuckburgh in London.3

“The Cabinet have now agreed that if your statement is on the lines of this draft Her Majesty’s Government should issue a supporting statement, subject to assurances by the United States Government4 on:

(a)
their ultimate adherence to the Turco-Iraqi Pact; and
(b)
their readiness to make a substantial financial contribution towards the supply of British tanks to Iraq. I understand that this point has already been discussed by the President and the Prime Minister.

“The Cabinet also invited Mr.Macmillan to suggest two amendments to your draft statement. The first of these would be to omit the words “in every respect” after the phase “not designed to be permanent frontiers” in Section 3 of the draft. The second would be to restore to Section 1 some reference to the possibility that some [Page 336] of the Arab refugees who formerly lived in Israel might be allowed to return to their homes. Yours sincerely,Roger Makins”.

In supplementing orally the above letter Sir Roger referred to condition A and said that the British do not expect that US assurance on this point would be communicated to anybody else at this time nor obviously referred to in the US statement except possibly by general inference. He added that we might, of course, subsequently wish to inform the Iraqiis either generally or specifically. The Secretary assumed that the British understood that no assurance on this point could be given except subject to US constitutional requirements, i.e., Senatorial ratification.

With regard to the last paragraph concerning suggested amendments to the US draft statement Sir Roger thought that the first is only a drafting change. The second was designed to fill a gap which the British felt existed in the US draft, namely, the omission of any reference to the return of refugees to Israel. The Secretary said he did not recall the exact language of the statement which he would look at again, but it was his impression that the point was covered at least by inference if not specifically. Sir Roger said Macmillan is sympathetic to the apparent US concept that the statement should be general rather than specific but it was their impression that there are some specifics mentioned and, in the circumstances, this apparent omission might raise questions. The British also contemplated a broadly drawn statement but believed that if any details were included, all of them should be mentioned. In this connection Sir Roger said the British have a particular preoccupation with the problem of Arab lands outside villages.

Finally, Sir Roger turned to requested assurance B, and remarked that he thought the President had a letter from the Prime Minister on that subject.5 The Secretary was not sure of the status of that problem but said he would look into it.

  1. Source: Department of State,S/S–NEA Files: Lot 61 D 417, Alpha Volume 6. Top Secret; Alpha; Limited Distribution. Drafted by Barbour.↩
  2. The original of Makins’ letter, August 2, isibid.↩
  3. See the enclosures to Document 169.↩
  4. According to telegram 413 from London, August 3, the British Cabinet reached these decisions on July 28. (Department of State, Central Files, 684A.86/8–355)↩
  5. See footnote 2, Document 171.↩