Office of the Historian

Conference files, lot 60 D 627, CF 192

No. 404
Minutes of a Meeting of the Tripartite Working Group, Berlin, February 2, 1954, 10:30 a.m.1

secret
BER MIN–9
February 2, 1954
  • Present
    • United States
      • Mr. MacArthur
    • France
      • M. Seydoux
    • United Kingdom
      • Sir Frank Roberts
1.
Tactics for Today. It was agreed that Mr. Dulles should speak first today after pointing out that he had not had an opportunity to speak yesterday. M. Bidault will then touch upon the points in Mr. Molotov’s speech which particularly affect France. Mr. Eden wishes to speak briefly in an attempt to bring the discussion back to Molotov’s comments on the UK proposal and on his and M. Bidault’s speeches of yesterday.
2.
Preliminary 2:30 Meeting. It was agreed that there would be no meeting of the three Ministers today but that they should meet on Wednesday.2
3.
Letter from Chancellor Adenauer.3 To balance the East German approach to the conference, Chancellor Adenauer has sent through Blankenhorn a letter which can be published. The letter expresses the appreciation of the German people for the skill of the western ministers in bringing the discussion of the four ministers to bear on the German problem. Mr. Eden will acknowledge this letter.
4.

Restricted Meeting on a Five-Power Conference. It was agreed that if Molotov raised this matter the three powers should request that the restricted meeting be held on Thursday. Unless Mr. Molotov takes the initiative, the three powers will not raise this subject today.

Mr. Eden has agreed that there should be five delegation members on a side for restricted sessions while M. Bidault prefers to have a more restricted meeting with perhaps merely the minister, an interpreter and one adviser.

5.
Discussion on the Soviet Proposals on a Disarmament Conference. The experts working on this subject suggested that during the restricted session M. Bidault should speak on his counter-proposal and that Mr. Eden should attack the Soviet proposal. Mr. Dulles would give general support to the comments of the other two ministers. When the general line of argument to be taken by the other two delegations has been worked out, the U.S. will prepare its supporting material.
6.
Austria. The British expressed the desire to have a meeting on Austria as soon as possible in the Working Group. It was suggested that the differences between the positions be defined by the experts for consideration of the problem at the Working Group tomorrow.
  1. Secretary Dulles did not meet with the U.S. Delegation on this day.↩
  2. For a record of this meeting, see the memorandum by MacArthur, Document 411.↩
  3. Not found in Department of State files.↩