Foreign Relations of the United States, 1952–1954, Western Europe and Canada, Volume VI, Part 1

741.13/6–853: Telegram

No. 412
The Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Aldrich) to the Department of State¹

top secret

London, June 8, 1953—3 p.m.

6444. Eyes only for Secretary.² This morning Prime Minister Menzies of Australia, whom I have known for several years, came in to tell me his impressions of Commonwealth conference which have been held during past few days.³ He said Churchill had made his statement that he hopes four-power meeting would result from Bermuda meeting without consultation with members of Commonwealth.⁴ Menzies and many other Prime Ministers had been much concerned for fear that there might come out of Bermuda a statement of specific points upon which the three powers were in agreement which would give impression of an attempt to gang up on Russians and present them with a program on a take it or leave it basis. He said that he himself would have preferred to postpone meeting with Russians until we were much more sure of their attitude but that inasmuch as Churchill had already committed himself (Comment: and incidentally all of us) he reached conclusion it would be hopeless to attempt to persuade him to change his position. He said that as a result of Commonwealth meetings Churchill had been persuaded as far as four-power meeting is concerned to limit Bermuda discussion to survey with the President of points which might either be brought up by Russians or by the Western powers for discussion at such meeting with object of reaching an agreement with President with regard to the position which would be taken by the US and Great Britain concerning these points.

Menzies said he thought the worst possible thing that could happen would be to have a meeting with the Russians at which matters might come up on which US and Great Britain were not in complete agreement. I said that I would be interested to hear what sort of a communiqué he thought should be issued as result of the Bermuda meeting because I believed this might give a better picture of his ideas of the result of the Commonwealth discussions which have just been held and he then gave me the following possible communiqué which I took down verbatim:

“The President and Prime Minister have met and have had friendly discussion with regard to the many problems with which the world is faced at the present time in the field of foreign affairs. The value which they have obtained from a full and frank exchange of ideas on various questions which affect the world’s peace has been so great that they have decided to seek further consultation with the USSR with the idea of eliminating such points of difference as may exist and of seeking some positive foundation for world peace”.

Menzies said that he hoped that there would not be any specific statement made of points which had been covered by the Bermuda conference. He added that a communiqué in form quoted above would create a new point of departure for the discussions with Russians and would avoid the embarrassment which Churchill was under because he had not consulted the Commonwealth Prime Ministers before his suggestion of the four-power conference.

I pointed out to Menzies that he had not up to that point mentioned the French and he said that he rather wished that the conference could be held without the French but that he realized, of course, that they were to be present at the Bermuda conference. However, the essence of the meeting was agreement by the US and Great Britain. He emphasized the fact that after the recent Commonwealth discussions Churchill had clearly in mind the absolute necessity of reaching agreements with the US on all points so that there would be no danger of Great Britain following a line not in agreement with the US in any talks with Russia. To do so would present great risk of bringing about the resurgence of isolationism in the US. In this connection see Embtel 6403, June 5.⁵

1. Repeated to Paris, eyes only for the Ambassador.
2. The source text indicates that Secretary Dulles saw this telegram on June 9.
3. The Commonwealth Prime Ministers, who were in London for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II on June 2, completed their meetings on June 9.
4. For documentation on the Bermuda Conference, see vol. v, Part 2, pp. 1710 ff.

5. Not printed; it reported that at the first Prime Ministers meeting on June 5 the main points were:

   • “1. Prime Ministers’ unanimous agreement that possibilities of Four-power meeting with Soviets should be explored and giving of their support to Churchill on this point or forthcoming Bermuda conference
   • “2. Insistence of all Prime Ministers present, led by Churchill, that at every step along way to such possible meeting there must be complete cooperation and closest possible harmony with US
   • “3. Fact that Nehru was at one with other Prime Ministers in this attitude vis-à-vis US, ‘behaved very well’, and has not advanced arguments independent position.” (741.13/6–553)