Memorandum of Conversation with Secretary of State Dean Acheson, Prime Minister of the Netherlands Dr. William Drees, Ambassador of the Netherlands S. Herman van Roijen, George W. Perkins, United States Ambassador to the Netherlands Selden Chapin, and Joseph W. Scott

470 MA 3685 DEPARTMENT OF STATE 23 Memorandum of Conversation Conf - DATE: January 21, 1952 SUBJECT: Netherlands Vieve on European Defense Force and on Relations with Indonesie. DECLASSIFIED PARTICIPANTS: The Secretary STATE DEART. LTR. 5.5-23 Assistant Secretary George W. Perkins Ambsssador Selden Chapin Project NLT 82.4 was - Joseph W. Seott By NLT- He NARS, Date 6-3-23 Prime Minister of the Netherlands, Dr. Willem Drees COPIES TO: Ambeesador J. H. van Roijen of the Netherlands Copies to: S PSA G WE EUR Amembasey, The Hague RA u. s.° GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 16-61120-1 After an exchange of courtesies, the Prime Minister said that he vould like us to have his Government's vieva on the Turopean Defense Force. He snid that the Netherlands Government had not originally been ehthusiastic about the XDF. This was not becanse they minded relinguishing sovereignty to a supranationel authority; they vere doing that in the Schuman Plen. They did, hovever, have a number of serious vorries about the XDF; and the Prime Minister thought that the Netherlands could particinate only on the following conditions. 1. The Netherlands must remsin a member of NATO in full and good standing. 2. For symbolie reasons, it vas important that the XDF treaty and the NATO treaty should remain in force for the eame period of time. 3. In defense matters, the Netherlands is not prepared to accept the decisions of one man. What they vent is a collegial structure along the lines of the Schuman Plan. Its members, hovever, need not be under govern- mental instructions. 4. The Netherlands cannot accept a common budget as conceived in the original French plan. As long as there was no real political federation of Europe in which there was a supranational authority which would have total responsibility and corresponding authority to raise taxes, etc. the Netherlands eannot allow outsiders to deternine military expenditures and thus ION