855.01/59
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Assistant Secretary of State (Berle)
The Belgian Ambassador and M. Theunis called today, at their request, to ask whether we could not take advantage of the recent appointment of Schoenfeld as Chargé d’Affaires to the Belgian Government,72 to reiterate the fact that we continued to recognize the Government of Belgium.
M. Theunis said that there was a general impression that the Government of Belgium had dissolved; that we no longer recognized that there was such a government; and that it would be a very great service to the morale of Belgians everywhere and of the Belgian Government, if we could use the appointment of Schoenfeld as an occasion for saying that we continued to recognize the Belgian Government. He thought the time was appropriate, since the Prime Minister of Belgium, M. Pier lot, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, M. Spaak, had finally escaped from Spain and had arrived in London. In consequence, there was a functioning Ministry at London. M. Theunis here was carrying on for the Belgian Government, and for the Government of the Belgian Congo.
I said I would take the matter up with the Department and advise.
The Belgian Ambassador asked particularly whether, if we decided to make such a statement, he could not be advised, so that it would be amply publicized. His conception was that the Secretary might say a few words on the subject in a press conference within a few days.
Note: I see no reason why this should not be done, and every reason why it should. Even the Treasury asked us, only a few days ago, whether there was still a Belgian Government and whether we recognized it.
There is such a government—perhaps hazy as to Belgium, but certainly very much a going concern as to the Belgian Congo. In the Belgian Congo there are some thirty thousand Belgian troops, a very considerable population, with considerable assets both there and here, actually covering a large territory. The Léopoldville Government actually functions in connection with the Belgian Government now operating from London. Our appointment of Schoenfeld obviously is equivalent to a continued recognition; and there is no reason why we should not make a short statement, say by way of an answer to a question in a press conference.
- On November 16 Mr. Schoenfeld was recalled to the Department for consultation, and Theodore 0. Achilles was appointed as Chargé in his absence.↩