Memorandum of Conversation with Secretary of State Dean Acheson, Ambassador of the Philippines Joaquin Elizalde, Carlos Romulo, and Richard R. Ely

5134 37 5/ S CONFIDENTIAL DEPARTMENT OF STATE A&D SERVICE* 155 Memorandum of Conversation DATE: June 23, 1950 SUBJECT: Visit of Secretary of Foreign Affairs and Ambassador of the Philippines at 2:30 P.M., Friday, June 23, 1950. Secretary of State PARTICIPANTS: Brigadier General Carlos Romulo, Secretary of Foreign Affairs of the Philippines. Ambassador Elizalde of the Philippines R. R. Ely, Deputy Director, Office of Philippine and Southeast Asian Affairs COPIES TO: FE - Mr. Rusk PSA - Mr. Lacy ARA UNA FE - Miss Bacon Embassy Manila opo 1-1493 General Romulo and Ambassador Elizalde brought up a number of subjects as follows: 1. War Damage Legislation: General Romulo raised the question of the Philippine War Damage Legislation, saying that he understood that the groups which had been supporting the so-called Catholic Church bill had been instructed by Cardinal Spellman, at the request of Romulo, to agree to accept the Philippine War Damage Bill instead and Romulo hoped that the Department would be able to get action on the War Damage Bill. I told him that I knew that the House Foreign Affairs Committee's calendar was very crowded and that the Chairman, Representative Kee, was not in good health and the Department had no idea when the bill would be reported out. I told him we would look into the situation and see what if anything could be done. 2. Adverse Philippine Publicity in the United States: General Romulo spoke at some length on the great amount of unfavorable Philippine news appearing in the United States press in recent DECLASSIFIED CONT IDENTIAL E. O. 11652, Sec. 3(E) and S(D) or (1) 12-25-25 D.p. of State letter, By NLT HC NARS