768.00/5–250
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Officer in Charge of Balkan Affairs (Campbell)
Lord Jellicoe1 called today in order to deliver to the Department the Foreign Office’s reply to the points listed in the Department’s Aide-Mémoire which was handed to Sir Derick Hoyer Millar2 on December [Page 1411] 19, 1949.3 Attached to the British reply is a document giving the views of the British Chiefs of Staff on the subject of providing military supplies to Yugoslavia. It will be noted that the British views are in general agreement with ours but that, as regards economic aid, they feel that they have done all they can for the time being, and as regards military aid they would find it difficult to supply very much. However, their reply on military aid is not entirely negative. The British Chiefs of Staff indicate that some supplies for the Yugoslav Army, even though a very small part of what was required, might come from War Office stocks and new production. They say that “the supply of small arms would probably present no difficulties.” However, they would require a detailed list of Yugoslav requirements. The Foreign Office also suggests that any decision to make available arms to Yugoslavia should be made conditional on prior acceptance by the Yugoslav Government of “an American and/or British Service Mission” to study Yugoslav requirements and plans on the spot. Lord Jellicoe stated that in the British view such a mission would be of a purely ad hoc character and would not be permanent.
Lord Jellicoe added that it was the view of the British Government that further discussions on this subject should be carried on through diplomatic rather than military channels, since the foreign policy aspects were paramount. However, the British Chiefs of Staff would be kept fully informed and would study the military aspects on a continuing basis. British military representatives in Washington would be available to answer any questions which the US Joint Chiefs of Staff might have.
The Foreign Office, Lord Jellicoe said, approved the idea that the French should be brought into discussions of the general problem of western policy toward Yugoslavia and desired to pass on to the French, if we had no objection, a copy of their reply to our Aide-Mémoire of December 19. I said that, as they knew, we had already approached the French Government along the same lines of our approach to the British Government last December. However, our communication to the French had been in less detail and not in the same form as the Aide-Mémoire to the British.4 Accordingly, it would probably not be desirable to give the French the textual copy of the British reply to us which deals with a specific number of points corresponding to those of the Department’s Aide-Mémoire of December 19. However, [Page 1412] the Department might have no objection if the British supply the French with the substance of their comments to us, since these comments do cover in a general way the same points which were mentioned in our presentation of the problem to the French Government and their reply to us. I told Lord Jellicoe that we would let him know shortly whether there was any objection.
It may be noted that the British reply contains a proposal for the sending of a US–UK military mission to Yugoslavia, making no mention of French participation. Possibly the British may wish to leave this item out when giving the French the substance of their communication to us.
- Earl Jellicoe, Second Secretary of the British Embassy in Washington.↩
- Sir Frederick Robert Hoyer-Millar, British Minister in the United States, March 1948–October 1950.↩
- The Department of State’s memorandum of December 19, 1949, under reference here, not printed, summarized the principal conclusions and recommendations of document NSC 18/4, November 17, 1949, “United States Policy Toward the Conflict Between the USSR and Yugoslavia.” For text of NSC 18/4, see p. 1341. The British Foreign Office reply, dated April 1950 and its eight-page annex are not printed. The substance of the British reply is contained in telegram 2074, May 4, to London, infra.↩
- For the substance of the communication to the French Government under reference here, see telegram 179, January 13, to Paris, p. 1353.↩