Foreign Relations of the United States, 1950, East Asia and the Pacific, Volume VI

493.119/7–1650

Memorandum of Conversation, by the Secretary of State

top secret

[Washington,] July 16, 1950.

Participants:	Sir Oliver Franks, British Ambassador
	Secretary of State Acheson, and
	Mr. George W. Perkins, Assistant Secretary

[The first part of the conversation dealt briefly with developments relating to the situation in Korea, for documentation on which see volume VII.]

Sir Oliver stated that he had favorable word on my request concerning stopping of oil shipments to Communist China and informed me that the British Government had decided to requisition all oil supplies as the quickest and least troublesome way of stopping shipments. His Government also raised the question of including oil in the 1–A list so far as East-West trade was concerned and indicated that it felt that this should be discussed by the East-West trade people in Paris. Finally, his Government requested that the Department maintain the greatest secrecy concerning these oil measures. I questioned what this meant and how the requisitioning of oil stocks in Hong Kong could be kept secret. Sir Oliver agreed and said that he would seek further clarification on this point.