500.A15a4/665
Memorandum by the Under Secretary of State (Castle) of a Conversation With the British Ambassador (Lindsay)
The British Ambassador came in to tell me, on instructions from his Government, that the British Government was strongly opposed to any postponement of the Disarmament Conference and asked whether this also was the American attitude. He said that there had been so much loose talk of postponement that his Government wanted to make quite clear that they did not approve and also they wanted to be sure we agreed. I assured the Ambassador on that point.
He then said that his Government’s idea of procedure was that, during the first few days, the various Governments would make clear their various positions on the whole subject of disarmament, choosing these opening sessions to make such propositions as they might wish to make. After this it was the idea of the British Government that the Conference should resolve itself into committees to study the various suggestions made and to try to work out specific plans for submission to the Conference when it should later reassemble as a whole. I said that, so far as I knew, we had supposed some such procedure as he had suggested would take place. I said that the only thing that I had personally against it was that it might be unfortunate to have France, for example, put itself publicly on record at the very beginning against any real reduction. The Ambassador said that this danger was, of course, realized, but that his Government saw no way to avoid these public statements at the beginning.
I asked the Ambassador how long he thought the committees’ work would last and he said it very likely would be made to last until after the French elections, since it was perfectly obvious that, prior to these elections, it could hardly be hoped that France would make any real proposition or would be likely to reach any serious compromise with the propositions made by others.