800.796/672
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Assistant Secretary of State (Berle)
The Soviet Ambassador called to see me at my request. I said I wished to bring him up to date in connection with the forthcoming air conversations, and proceeded to give him the substance of the Department’s cablegram of today to Moscow.65 I told him that so far as I could see the only change proposed was a shift from joint conversations to bilateral conversations, and that we were doing this merely as a matter of convenience. By doing so, we avoided hurting the feelings of a number of countries who would like to be present at the first conference.
I told him that, by a note dated March 11, Molotov had raised some question on this point with Ambassador Harriman, and that we were cabling the full situation to Harriman along with a statement of the facts which had led up to the change from the joint conversations to bilateral. I told the Ambassador that I hoped to inform the Chinese Government of the situation shortly.
I said that if the Soviet Government wished to discuss matters here, Mr. Grew would be available, and he would no doubt wish to associate with him the Chairman of the Civil Aeronautics Board.
[Page 419]I likewise told him that the Canadian Government had handed us last Saturday66 a tentative draft of a convention establishing an international air authority. This had not received any consideration here; but owing to the fact that an enterprising newspaper man had obtained it, the Canadian Government was making it public in Parliament this afternoon.
I further told him that at present tentative arrangements called for my going to London via Canada, though a date had not been set. It could not be earlier than the end of next week and might be somewhat later.
The Ambassador thanked me for the information, which he said would be useful to him.
The Soviet Ambassador seems to think the outline of arrangements here quite all right since they involve a departure in form but not in principle from the one in which Moscow had said they were interested. He observed that there would be no necessary reason why the bilateral conversations, if held simultaneously, might not eventuate in a joint meeting at some time. I told him I saw no objection, though that would depend on whether there was a common point developed in the course of exploration. We could settle that when the time came.