Foreign Relations of the United States, 1955–1957, Western Europe and Canada, Volume XXVII

299. Letter From Prime Minister Macmillan to President Eisenhower ¹

London, June 12, 1957.

My Dear Friend: I think it is perhaps time that I should write you a few words on general matters, as I promised to do.

I am happy to see that the divergence of policy between us about China trade does not seem to have stirred up much trouble either in Congress or in the Press. It was certainly very helpful of you to speak as you did for I am sure it has done a lot to keep things quiet.²

In this secular struggle between the Communists and the free world there is a continual change of tempo and the spotlight seems to come now in one place, now in another. Some years ago it was all on the Far East, and then it changed to the Middle East. Now I feel that the Russians may be a little bit uncertain of what to do next. They are certainly very conscious of the harm which their brutality in Poland and Hungary had done. It is for this reason I think that they are so anxious to find some kind of cover of respectability, either by visits or letters, or in your case by television programmes.

But of course the real test is disarmament. On this I was very grateful to you for your reply to my last letter.³ Very soon I shall be writing to you again on this for it is time, I think, that we gave it a lot of careful thought. The Russians will try to play us off one against the other and we must not allow this to happen.

I must tell you very frankly that I was terribly disappointed at the decision reached on the wool textile tariff.⁴ Of course, I realise the pressures of some of your industrial interests. But we have to fight very hard for our exports, because we cannot live without them, and when one of our trades really makes a good show it is pretty disheartening to be cut down in this rough way. I do not know whether this decision is perpetual or whether it could be reversed in due course. It makes me feel very pessimistic about the growth of liberal concepts in the world. If countries with enormous surpluses and vast wealth resort to protection how can we expect countries in difficulties like Britain and France to move towards the freeing of trade.

This leads me to the position about Europe. The fall of the French Government is a setback, but I am hoping that a good government will soon be formed.⁵ We have thought it wise not to press the negotiations for the European Free Trade Area too hard until the Rome agreements have been ratified.⁶ I do not want to see a repetition of what happened over E.D.C. I and my colleagues are very strongly in favour of this whole European concept, and we would like to see the six ratify the Rome agreements and then move on firmly towards working out the plans for the larger area. I am sure we shall have support from Germany over this. The French have a lot of difficulties but we may have to treat many of them as exceptional cases. The important thing is not to let us all slide back into insularity and protectionism just because of the pressure of this or that industry. We are having plenty of this at home and so are all the other Governments in their own countries but we must resist if we are to make progress.

Although we have quite a lot of political problems abroad, I really feel that things are settling down and becoming more normal. I am so delighted that everything has been arranged about The Queen’s visit.⁷ It will surely do a lot of good.

We like our new Ambassador⁸ very much and I find it a great help to talk with him on things at large.

I was disturbed by the alarmist reports of your indisposition, and am very glad to hear that you are recovered and back at work.

Yours ever

Harold Macmillan

1. Source: Eisenhower Library, Whitman File. Secret. Transmitted to the President by Ambassador Caccia with a covering letter of June 13.
2. On May 30, the United Kingdom adopted the same list for control of trade with the People’s Republic of China as with the Soviet Union, thereby ending the China differential. The President, at his news conference on June 5, admitted that he did not think there was much advantage in the United States maintaining the differential, although he did not advocate its complete elimination; for text of his remarks, see American Foreign Policy: Current Documents, 1957, pp. 1122–1123.
3. Regarding Macmillan’s letter of June 3, in which he complained that Governor Stassen had given the Soviets disarmament proposals without prior consultation with the British, and the President’s reply, see vol. XX, pp. 589–590.
4. On May 24, the United States imposed quota restrictions on imports of woolen and worsted fabrics; see Department of State Bulletin, July 8, 1957, pp. 84–85.
5. On May 21, the coalition government of Guy Mollet resigned following its defeat on a vote of confidence; Bourgès-Maunoury succeeded in forming a government of Radicals and Socialists on June 12.
6. Agreements were signed at Rome on March 25, 1957, creating a European Economic Community.
7. In a June 5 letter to the President, Macmillan advised Eisenhower that the Queen would accept an invitation to visit the United States in October 1957. (Eisenhower Library, Whitman File) The President’s official invitation, contained in telegram 8628 to London, June 8, was delivered on June 11 and immediately accepted. (Department of State, Central Files, 741.11/6–857)
8. John Hay Whitney was appointed Ambassador to the United Kingdom on February 11; he presented his credentials on February 28.