1. Preparations for the Session, July–November 1951

Editorial Note

In telegram Depto 10 from London, July 3 (page 620), Spofford suggested that while Rome might be satisfactory as a location for the next planned session of the North Atlantic Council in September, it might better serve for the following meeting which was tentatively planned for November or December and could thereby be coordinated with the next meeting of the United Nations General Assembly. The Department of State responded in telegram Todep 51 to London, July 25 (page 623), with a recommendation that Ottawa serve as the location for the September session of the Council, which would follow immediately after preliminary meetings of the Foreign Ministers of the United States, United Kingdom, and France, planned for Washington, and that Rome would then be the location for the next session in late October or early November.

On the same day that the Department’s instructions were sent to London, the Council Deputies tentatively agreed that if a meeting were held in September it should be in Ottawa on September 15; this information was transmitted to the Department in telegram Depto 112 from London, July 26 (page 624). With the support of the Department, Ottawa was formally selected by the Council Deputies as the location for the next Council session during their meeting of August 1. When Spofford inquired concerning an opening date for the Rome meeting several days later, the Department recommended that no definite date be announced until the end of the Ottawa meeting where it could be included in the final communiqué (telegram Todep, 76 to London, August 4, 740.5/8–451).

During the last meeting of the Seventh Session on September 20, the subject of the next meeting was discussed. The British said that their elections would not allow them to meet for any international conferences until the middle of November. Acheson’s suggestion that Paris might serve as the best location for the next session since the General Assembly was meeting there in November was not accepted by the Council and the decision was made to meet in Rome although no date was set. The Council Deputies were instructed to make the arrangements for the time of the next session. For documentation concerning the Seventh Session of the Council held in Ottawa, September 15–20, pages 616 ff.

[Page 694]