Telegram from Ambassador Warren Austin to Secretary of State Dean Acheson

NLT (KORE7/50)382 117 TELEGRAM Department of State DUPLICATE IN W. P. FILE TELEGRAPH BRANCH 25-M-X MOR Action Control: 7916 Rec'd: December 16, 1950 UNA FROM: New York 3:04 p.m. Info TO: Secretary of State SS G NO: DELGA 444, December 16, 2:30 p.m. EUR FE DECLASSIFIED DCR PRIORITY. VIT Authority FROM GROSS. By DEBNLT Date 2-26-05 Re Korea - cease-fire On Thursday night I had a brief conversation with Younger in which I outlined to him in very general terms our thinking re a cease-fire and in particular our ideas re machinery for supervising such a cease-fire; arrangements for a demilita- rized zone; and arrangements for withdrawal of the forces behind the zone. Jebb called on me today to give certain comments which Bevin wished to make re certain points. Bevin agrees to the principle of the demilitarized zone which in his view should be patrolled by UN observers. With regard to a supervisory commission, Bevin thought it should include representatives of the UC, the Chinese Commies and the NK and ROK. He felt it was particularly important that the Chinese Communists should be represented on the commission and on any other machinery set up for observing the cease-fire. I told Jebb that in our meeting with the cease-fire group we had already stated that we accepted the principle that representatives of the opposing forces would participate in the cease-fire machinery at the observer level. Bevin had also commented that the Chinese Communists might oppose the principle of unrestricted access of the cease- fire commission to the whole of Korea. suggested that I might be wise not to press this point at this stage and suggested language along the following lines: "The commission is appointed to supervise the cease-fire and shall be given such powers as the commission considers necessary to secure this objective. I pointed out that this principle was an indispensable one because it was essential to the security of our forces that the Chinese Communists should not be permitted to bring in reinforcements SECRET (over) REPRODUCTION OF THIS MESSAGE IS PROHIBITED 41-4