Memorandum, State Department Summary of Telegrams

NLT (Navel Aidel350 OFFICE OF DECLASSIFIED THE SECRETARY OF STATE E.Q. 12065, Sec. 3-402 WASHINGTON Guidelines, March 6, 1982 State By Depl. DEB NLT, Date 9-T-85 April 17, 1952 TOP SECRET SECURITY INEORMATION SUMMARY OF TELEGRAMS AUSTRIAN TREATY The Secretary's recent proposal to postpone the Western reply to the latest Soviet note on Germany pending the despatch of another Western note to the Soviets asking for a reply to our March 13th note on the Austrian treaty has evoked the following preliminary observations from the British Foreign Office: 1) Mr. Eden had understood that after the March 13th note the Austrian problem would re- main quiescent and had not felt that the West should take a further step un- less clearly required to do so by Austrian public opinion; 2) since the Ger- - man and Austrian questions are linked in the text of our proposed note, would the Soviets try to make a deal, perhaps offering to discuss both questions at a four-power conference ?; 3) from a propaganda point of view the Department's proposal would have definite merits. No reactions have yet been received from Embassies Paris or Vienna. GERM WARFARE We have informed Embassy New Delhi that the recent, y CHARGES vaguely-phrased suggestion of the Chinese Communist Foreign Minister, Chou En-lai, reported by India's Ambassador Panikkar, that perhaps the Chinese would accept an investiga- - tion of their germ warfare charges by Burma, India and Indonesia does not strike us as an acceptable alternative to the International Red Cross, and we do not wish to encourage such a suggestion at this time. The Depart- ment believes that the ICRC as a competent international body is the best organ to carry out the investigation; the ICRC indicated that it intended to include Asians among the experts; and the ICRC offer is still open. The continued Communist refusal to accept the patently fair ICRC offer has been our best propaganda weapon and we would not wish to detract from its propaganda value by a new proposal. A report meanwhile from the British Charge in Peking which the Foreign Office passed on to Embassy London states that on April 5th Chou En-lai indicated to Panikkar that the Indian Cultural Mission headed by Madame Pandit, which is about to leave for China, might investigate the charges, but Panikkar rejected this as beyond the scope of the mission. The British Charge says that Panikkar appears impressed by Chou's apparent conviction of China's ability to prove the charges. TOP SECRET SECURITY INF ORMA TION