Office of the Historian

583. Telegram From the Embassy in the United Kingdom to the Department of State1

London, November 17, 1956—noon.

2782. For the Acting Secretary. Macmillan asked to see me yesterday afternoon. He said that the meetings of the OEEC in Paris have been very satisfactory and that he felt that if the oil committee in the United States should be reactivated immediately to cooperate with the oil committee of the OEEC it would not be necessary for Great Britain to make any special representations to the United States in connection with its problems regarding oil. Two things which are principally preoccupying him are 1) the question of obtaining the funds available to Great Britain in the IMF and 2) the possibility of borrowing from the Federal Reserve Bank on the American Securities owned by the British Treasury which he said amounted to approximately $900 million in market value. He assumed [Page 1143] he could borrow about ⅔ of the market value of these securities and if he got $600 million from this source and another $400 million or $500 million from the Monetary Fund it would be sufficient to tide Great Britain over the difficult period ahead. He thought that he could not go the United States alone himself in this connection because it would create lack of confidence in sterling if he should do so and he felt that it would be better for him to wait until Monday2 before deciding exactly what he should do. At that time, Hammarskjold having returned from his mission to Nasser, it might be evident that the withdrawal of the British forces could begin pari passu with the introduction of the United Nations forces into Egypt, always presupposing that the UN forces would be so disposed in Egypt as to protect the canal and to assure that a satisfactory arrangement would be worked out for the future operation of the canal.

I am seeing Macmillan again Sunday afternoon. If the Department has any comments it would wish me to make at that time instructions will be appreciated.3

Aldrich
  1. Source: Department of State, Central Files, 841.2553/11–1756. Top Secret; Niact. Received at 8:39 a.m.↩
  2. November 19.↩
  3. The Department of State responded in telegram 3572, November 17, that it was not prepared to go beyond the information contained in circular telegram 411, infra, for Aldrich’s November 18 meeting with Macmillan.↩