793.5/3–2054
No. 267
Memorandum by the Assistant
Secretary of State for European Affairs (Merchant) to the
Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs (Robertson)1
top secret
[Washington,] August 30,
1954.
In reply to FE’s memorandum of August 262 requesting clearance on the transmission of your memorandum to the Secretary recommending the negotiation of a Mutual Defense Treaty with Nationalist China, EUR withdraws its earlier objection on the following assumptions:
- (a)
- Negotiations looking toward such a treaty will not be initiated until after the Manila Conference;
- (b)
- All of our partners in SEATO will have been confidentially informed in advance of our intention in this regard; and
- (c)
- The treaty itself will be drafted in such form as to avoid the implication that we are allying ourselves with the Nationalist Government for the purpose of extending by force the territory under its present control.
- Sent to Secretary Dulles as an attachment to Document 262.↩
- Reference is to a memorandum from Waddell enclosing Robertson’s Aug. 25 memorandum and requesting the concurrence of interested bureaus; a copy is filed with Smith’s Sept. 1 memorandum in PPS files, lot 65 D 101, “China”.↩