840.20/6–1049: Telegram
The Chargé in the United Kingdom (Holmes) to the Secretary of State
priority
2232. For FASC and FACC from ECC. Personal for Webb, Johnson, Hoffman from Douglas, Harriman, Huebner and Taggart.
The following general views of relationship between Western Union and the non-Western Union Pact countries are presented for your information in considering various proposals submitted from time to time by ECC. These views were unanimously agreed at the ECC meeting on June 2.
It is self-evident that Western Union is the hard central core of Western European strength. The United States must therefore maintain the integrity of Western Union and foster its fuller integration. At the same time, the US must correlate the needs and capabilities of the peripheral non-Western Union Pact countries with those of Western Union. In so doing, the US must, while avoiding any inference that the peripheral countries are “orphans of the storm,” realistically appraise their capabilities and in so far as possible combine such capabilities with those of Western Union, for the greatest benefit of all. We should also promote and facilitate mutual aid among Western Union and non-Western Union Pact countries.
This must inevitably lead to consideration of attendant problems within the Western Union organizations, initially perhaps informally by US presentation, but eventually by the peripheral countries themselves through some relationship not yet established. The US must not assume as its prerogative the position of middle man. At the same time, we presumably would not wish to establish a permanent, complicated arrangement which might prejudge the Atlantic Pact organizations. If MAP is to follow the logical, long-range precepts laid down in its basic concept, there will and should be an increasingly intimate relationship between the hard core countries and the peripheral pact countries. We should therefore, quietly and unobtrusively encourage such relationship.
Sent Department, repeated Paris for Bruce 411, Rome for Dunn 81, Oslo for Bay 26, Copenhagen 16 for Sparks, Brussels 118 for Millard, The Hague 103 for Baruch. [Douglas, Harriman, Huebner, and Taggart.]