Memorandum, State Department Summary of Telegrams

MLTCNAVAl Aide)152 OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY OF STATE the WASHINGTON DECLASSIFIED E.O. 12065, Sec. 3-402 State Dept. Guidelines, March 6, 1982 January 11, 1951 By DEB NLT, Date 9-4-85 T.OPSERET SUMMARY OF TELEGRAMS BRITISH COMMONWEALTH Embassy London has been informed CONFERENCE on a confidential basis of the high- lights of the discussions in the current Commonwealth Conference being held in London. With respect to China and Korea no final conclusions were reached, although all Prime Ministers were concerned over the prospect that the US might force open warfare with the Chinese Communists. Concern was also expressed over the military situation in Korea and the possibility that UN forces could not hold a beachhead in Korea. With the exception of Indian Prime Minister Nehru, all the delegates agreed to the necessity of postponing final disposition of the Formosa question throughneu- tralization or demilitarization. It was generally agreed that efforts should be made to slow down the tempo of UN action in order to per- mit more time for consideration of the situation by the individual governments. With respect to Japan, the Prime Ministers expressed the view that an early peace treaty with Japan was needed although there are different views as to whether Japan would remain in the non-Communist camp and on the details of a possible treaty. They felt the situation in Japan was serious, ex- pressed doubt as to the genuineness of Japanese democracy, argued against too many "paper controls" on Japan, but did not explore the specific features of any treaty. In a general but inconclusive dis- cussion of the Middle East situation it was generally felt that the general social and economic conditions in the area were most unsatis- - factory. In the separate discussions on defense of the Middle East, the UK estimated that while in the short term the Suez Canal Zone could be defended, there was not enough strength available to hold the entire area against a strong Russian attack. While no final decisions were taken on this question the UK considered that the TOPSERET