740.0011 LCC/23

Minutes of the London Political Warfare Coordinating Committee17

[Extracts]

Machinery for the Issue of Emergency Propaganda Directives Relating to the South-East Asia Area

L.P.C. (44) 5.

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The conclusions of the Committee were as follows:

(a)
That the London Political Warfare Coordinating Committee should be known as the London Political Warfare Coordinating Committee (Europe), (short title L.P.C.(E)), or as the London Political Warfare Coordinating Committee (Asia), (short title L.P.C.(A)), according to the nature of the business to be transacted.
(b)
That in the event the Soviet Government accepting the invitation to join the L.P.C., their representatives should become members of the L.P.C. (E).

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Invitation to the Russians to Join L.P.C.

Questions were raised in the course of the meeting of the Committee as to whether action had yet been taken by the Soviet Government in response to the outstanding invitation to join the London Political Warfare Coordinating Committee. It developed that no answer had been received.

It was pointed out that, because of the future development of operations in the European Theater, Russian participation would be increasingly necessary to ensure at least a minimum coordination of Russian and Anglo-American propaganda directives, particularly in relation to such emergencies as might arise.

The invitation has now been outstanding for a considerable time, and it was felt that the Russians should be urged to expedite their reply.

The conclusion of the Committee was as follows:

(a) That Sir Orme Sargent and Mr. Howard Bucknell should be invited respectively to draw the attention of the Foreign Office and the State Department to the importance which the Committee attached to an early reply being obtained from the Soviet Government to the invitation to join the London Political Warfare Coordinating Committee.

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  1. Transmitted to the Department by the Counselor of Embassy in the United Kingdom (Bucknell) in his despatch 14, 940, April 8, 1944; received April 17. Mr. Bucknell noted that the London Political Warfare Coordinating Committee attached importance to an early reply from the Soviet Union concerning participation in the work of the Committee.