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INCOMING TELEGRAM Department of State 6-B TELEGRAPH BRANCH 983 Action Control: 8541 SS Rec'd: September 21, 1950 FROM: New York 12:05 a.m. Info DCR TO: Secretary of State NO: SECTO 36, September 20, 11:14 p.m. DECLASSIFIED OF ence 335 PRIORITY BUNLIAH NARS, Date 11:22:29 PERSONAL FOR THE PRESIDENT FROM ACHESON. Since my telegram to you of September 14, we have kept you informed of developments from day to day both on NAT and the meetings of the three Ministers and the GA. This telegram attempts to give you some impressions of my own from these various meetings. 1. In the first place in the NAT Council our discussion there, as I thought would happen, did not end on Saturday and had to go over to Monday. Out of these discussions came these general conclusions, one of which at least represents a change of position. The French throughout the meeting merely reiterated views which I reported to you before, and I think made clearer than before the fact that the difficulty lay in Paris and, specifically in the Socialist Party and even more specifically with Moch. As a result of the discussions and the views of all the other Ministers, Moch will be here tomorrow. The British are also bringing Shinwell, who because of his Socialist convictions has influence with Moch. The British did change their position as a result of communica- tion with London. They are now prepared to accept the principle of German participation in a united defense force and to work out the details as speedily as possible. So far as the rest of the countries were concerned, although we started out with varying degrees of hesitation, I think we ended up with very little doubt indeed that all of these countries accepted the principle and would join in its application. However, as the discussion went on, it became clear that in some cases, Norway and Denimark, for instance, and Portugal to a minor extent, the implications of a united force hau to be very carefully considered. Their geographic position made it REPRODUCTION OF THIS GPO 16-62262-1 pone 335 MESSAGE IS PROHIBITED