840.48 Refugees/1697: Telegram

The Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Kennedy) to the Secretary of State

912. From Achilles. The Foreign Office is now sending out formal invitations for the meeting of the officers on the morning of July 19 and of the full Committee on the morning of July 20.

Winterton states that the Rhodesia report will shortly be made public and hopes that the Dominican and Philippine reports will have been released before the meetings. If the Philippine report is not completed in time, it would be helpful if we could make public a substantial indication of its conclusions.

He states that confidential discussions are in progress among the private groups and in the interested branches of the Government here concerning the financing of settlement in British Guiana, and that he hopes that a point will have been reached where definite plans can be announced at the time of the meeting, he holds that private groups in England and the United States must make a beginning by raising at least the $1,500,000 estimated to be necessary for experimental settlement in Guiana and Rhodesia and that all questions of large scale financing may await the outcome of trial settlement in these and other areas.

Winterton desires to hold a formal press conference at the Foreign Office on the morning of the 18th with Emerson and perhaps Mr. Taylor for the British and foreign correspondents. He indicated that the principal point to be stressed would be the increased flow of persons from Germany. It is impossible however that some announcement concerning British Guiana which would prove embarrassing to us is contemplated and in any event it seems advisable that contact with the press at that point be informal and unobtrusive. [Achilles.]

Kennedy