Memorandum of Conversation with Secretary of State Dean Acheson, Ambassador of Great Britain Sir Oliver Franks, and Henry Labouisse

515 SECRET astrorison DEPARTMENT OF STATE 33 290 Memorandum of Conversation DATE: January 24, 1950. SUBJECT: Outstanding problems with the British. coff PARTICIPANTS: The Secretary Sir Oliver Franks, British Ambassador Henry R. Labouisse, BNA COPIES TO: s/s EUR - Perkins E - Thorp BNA NEA - MeGhee RA - Martin 1-1493 Sir Oliver Franks eame in at his own request. He said that the principal purpose of his visit was to enquire whether the Secretary had anything further to say on the Spaak question. The Ambassador wished to advise Gripps before the latter's departure tomorrow for Paris. The Secretary recalled that at his meeting on Friday with Sir Oliver he had indicated that he would give further considera- tion to the British request that we ask Spaak to withdraw his can- didacy for the OEEC position; he said he had subsequently spoken to Mr. Hoffman and it had been agreed that Mr. Hoffman would see the Ambassador to convey the joint views of the Secretary and Mr. Hoffman; and he concluded that he understood Mr. Hoffman had in- formed the Ambassador that we did not consider it appropriate for us to raise. this question with Spaak. Sir Oliver said that Mr. Hoffman had so informed him but that he had not understood that Mr. Hofiman was also speaking for the Secretary. However, he now considered his question answered. The Secretary emphasized that we still wished a strong polit- ical personage to steer the OEEC, but that we continued in the view that the exact nature of the position as well as the personality to fill it were matters for the European countries to determine. DECLASSIFIED Sir Oliver E. O. 11652, Sec. 3(E) and 5(D) or (E) Dept. of State letter, 12-29-15 SECRET By NLT- HC NARS Date 6-1-76