740.5/3–3054
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Counselor of the Department of State (MacArthur)1
Subject:
- Announcement of UK Assurances re EDC
Participants:
- The Secretary of State
- Sir Roger Makins, British Ambassador
- Douglas MacArthur, C
In the course of a call on the Secretary the British Ambassador showed to him and Mr. MacArthur a telegram which had just been received from Mr. Eden. In essence the telegram repeated the information contained in London’s 4213, March 29,2 to the effect that H.M.G. believes that it is imperative to release the text of its assurances to the French regarding EDC by April 5. Mention was made of the fact that the budget will come out on April 6, which is a major news story; that there is mounting parliamentary pressure in the UK to ascertain the substance of the UK assurances; that Ambassador Harvey in Paris believes that early release of the UK assurances may assist Bidault in obtaining a definite date for the debate etc. The message also stated that the UK would greatly prefer to have the US and UK assurances released at the same time but if this were not possible for the US, the UK would understand and go ahead and release their assurances on April 5.
Secretary Dulles mentioned that he had been away in Caracas when we had consulted with the Congressional leadership regarding the US assurances and asked Mr. MacArthur to outline the considerations [Page 922] which our Congress had had in mind. Mr. MacArthur said that although he had not attended the consultations with the Congressional leadership, he had understood that it had been firmly agreed that the US assurances would only be released when the French Government had set a specific date for the EDC debate. It was his understanding that this did not mean that the French Parliament would have had to agree to that date but the government would have made an official request for debate on a certain date. Mr. MacArthur gave the personal view that if we now went back on the Congressional leadership and asked them to agree to the release of the US assurances before the French Government requested a date, the whole question might be reopened with the Congressional leadership. He added, however, that he was not qualified to talk on this point and it was agreed that he would make a report to Mr. Merchant who would in turn discuss this matter with the Secretary. It was also understood that in due course we would get in touch with the British Embassy on this.