800.2553/9–352
Memorandum by Jeffrey C. Kitchen of the Executive Secretariat
secret
Washington, September 3, 1952.
In his call on the Secretary last evening, Sir Oliver Franks spoke on the subject of “International Oil”—the recent Federal Trade Commission report. Sir Oliver’s remarks were essentially a review of his recent conversation on the same subject with Acting Secretary Bruce.1 In general, he made three points:
- (1)
- He wondered whether it might be useful for the British Government to present a high-level request to the American Government that the investigation to be undertaken by the Justice Department be quashed. The Secretary said that he told Sir Oliver, as Mr. Bruce had previously, that this would not only be harmful but useless.
- (2)
- Sir Oliver wondered whether the Grand Jury procedure would be pushed and concluded before the elections or whether the procedure might extend over a considerable period of time. The Secretary said he did not know but he expected that the proceedings would take a considerable period. He thought it was a question of the state of preparedness of the material which would be examined and that therefore the Grand Jury operation might extend over a longer period of time than that mentioned by Sir Oliver. The Secretary said he was quite certain that the proceedings as a whole would extend over quite a long period of time.
- (3)
- Sir Oliver inquired whether any thought had been given by any other departments or agencies in the Government other than the Justice Department to the propriety of revealing certain documents which might be subpoenaed. The Secretary replied that this problem was under active consideration and that he felt quite certain that something would be done in this regard.
- This conversation has not been further identified.↩