Memorandum of Conversation with Basil Jarvis, David McNicol, George Laking, U. Alexis Johnson, and Harold Shullaw

NLT (ROREA/SD) 570 ECU ITY INFORMATION DEPARTMENT OF STATE 36 Memorandum of Conversation DECLASSIFIED E.O. 13526 Authority RAC 3/14/12 NLT-KOREANWAR-53-BILO DATE: December 26, 1951 NARA so Date 2/5/13 SUBJECT: Procosed Statement by Sixteen Powers Having Forces in Korea. PARTICIPANTS: Mr. Basil Jarvie, Chargé d'Affaires, South African Embassy) Mr. David McNicol, First Secretary, Australian Embassy (Individually) Mr. George Laking, Counselor, New Zealand Embassy ) Mr. Johnson, FE Mr. Shullaw, BNA COPIES TO: FE S/S UNA EUR BNA U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 16-61120-1 In response to my request, Mr. Jarvie, Mr. McNicol and Mr. Laking came in individually this afternoon to receive the revised text of the proposed statement to be made by the 16 powers having forces in Korea. I explained that after consultation with the Commonwealth countries, we had made certain changes in the last two sentences of the last paragraph of the proposed statement. These changes were intended (1) to sharpen the statement so that it would clearly apply only to Korea, (2) to make it apply only to the period of the armistice rather than to the in- definite future, and (3) to avoid giving any implication through the use of the words "renewal of aggression" that a further UN finding would be necessary before action could be taken. I said that we would appreciate very much having a reply from the Commonwealth governments as soon as possible since the status of negotia- tions in Korea gave added urgency to the proposed statement. I added that we were taking up the question of the statement through the respective capitals in the case of Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, France, Greece and Turkey. Greece and Turkey, I said, had already given their approval to the previous version of the statement, while Belgium and the Netherlands had indicated their attitude would be largely influenced by the position of the United Kingdom. In response to a question from Mr. McNicol, I said that we had not yet approached the Philippines, Thailand, Columbia or Ethiopia. With TOP SECRET SECURITY INFORMATION