Memorandum of Conversation with Secretary of State Dean Acheson, Ambassador of Great Britain Sir Oliver Franks, and John H. Ferguson

891 TOP SEPRET COPY 3 OF 14 COPIES S/S DEPARTMENT OF STATE 440 250 Memorandum of Conversation August 20, 1951 DATE: Study of Disarmament Proposals; San Francisco Conference SUBJECT: Sir Oliver Franks, British Anbassador cof PARTICIPANTS: Secretary of State Dean G. Acheson John H. Ferguson - S/P S - Mr. Battle UNA - Mr. Hickerson s/s FE - Mr. Rusk COPIES TO: S - Mr. Dulles EUR - Mr. Perkins S/A - Mr. Jessup G - Mr. Matthews TRUMAN C - - Mr. Bohlen S/AE- Mr. Arneson ARCHIVES **NATIONAL SERVICE* RECORPS ANO 1 u. s. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 16-61120-1 The Secretary had called in Sir Oliver in order to discuss with him the British Aide Memoire and report by the official committee on disarnament. The Secretary told Sir Oliver that we had read these papers with interest and that the U.S. Government had also had a working group addressing itself to these problems dur- ing the past few months. He said that we had felt that it was necessary to be in a position to put forward proposals which could be used at the meeting of the General Assembly in the fall, and he indicated that it might be a good idea to advance the proposals before or at the General Assembly in order to wrest the initi- ative in the matter from the Soviet Union. The Secretary told Sir Oliver that the British and U.S. working groups had dealt with many of the same points in the course of their studies and he gave Sir Oliver a modified copy of the report of the U.S. Work- ing Group, together with a brief memorandum which dis- cussed the manner of advancing the proposals. The Secretary pointed out that we felt that consideration also had to be given to the political problems in the world on which we would need to move forward as we moved forward on this question of disarnament, and Sir Oliver DECLASSIFIED STATE DEPT MEMO P-1-24 Project NLT 82-4 By NLT- AU NARS, Date 9-5-44 TOP. SEGRET