740.00119 Control (Korea)/9–547: Telegram
The Political Adviser in Korea (Jacobs) to the Secretary of State
urgent
315. Cite Zurc 1106. Joint Commission with Shtikov as chairman held 58th meeting September 4th to consider difficulties encountered by Subcommission in trying to reach agreement on joint report.
First half of meeting began 1530 hours and lasted 1¾ hours.
[Page 782]At that session American delegation stated its willingness to accept statement of Soviet position as drafted by that delegation but Soviet delegation consistently sought to revise American delegation’s statement of its position. As such revision would have emasculated the American statement of its most essential facts, the American delegation obviously could not agree. Soviet delegation then refused to have both statements of position transmitted by covering letter signed by the two Chief Commissioners. The only part of draft report that could be agreed upon was factual list of 12 joint decisions which had been reached during present session (numbers 7 through 18). That portion of the report is of little value as texts of these decisions are well known and are in both Moscow and Washington.
At second session of 58th meeting which began at 1930 hours September 4th, the Commission took up the draft of both delegations paragraph by paragraph, each side commenting and recording its approval or objections. This procedure continued for 6 hours when adjournment was taken until 1030 hours September 5th. At that time same procedure will be continued until both drafts have been completed.
Believe that it will be impossible to arrive at joint report unless Soviet delegation is willing to accept our proposal that each delegation’s statement of its own position be forwarded as such by covering letter signed by Chief Commissioners of both delegations.