Office of the Historian

611.93241/11–2454

No. 409
Memorandum by the Deputy Under Secretary of State (Murphy) to the Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs (Robertson)1

top secret
[Washington,] November 24, 1954.

There was very active discussion at the OCB informal meeting today regarding the Americans sentenced to imprisonment in Red China. It was agreed on General Cutler’s urgent suggestion that the President be prepared to make a public statement on this subject. Apparently the White House has been bombarded by a number of inquiries from families and others. Mr. Dulles made a report regarding the CIA personnel involved and Secretary Anderson reported the thinking which has been generated in Defense. He read from a memorandum prepared by Defense certain suggestions of possible courses of action. I obtained from him the attached copy. It was the consensus that State and Defense should make an immediate and careful study into possible courses of action with especial reference to the blockade question. It was thought that the sentiment throughout the country would favor some form of concrete [Page 950] action in addition to whatever protests and notes might be sent via channels. I reported on my conversation with you regarding the action taken via Geneva and stated the personal opinion that we should also proceed through the regular channel, as you and I had discussed this morning, of the British Chargé in Peiping, who is now Charged with representation of American interests.2

It was agreed that a working group should be set up immediately, consisting of representatives of State and Defense.3 I suggested that you would take Charge of this as a matter of urgency. General Cutler was particularly insistent that a study be made of precedents again having special reference to the question of blockade. I told him that I thought Mr. Phleger had this matter under consideration but that I would bring this to his attention immediately.

  1. Filed with the memorandum, supra.↩
  2. The text of a message sent through British channels to the Chinese Chargé in London and to the Foreign Ministry in Peking is printed in Department of State Bulletin, Dec. 6, 1954, pp. 856–857. Telegram 2556 from London, Nov. 29, reported that both messages had been returned with covering notes stating that the verdicts on the 13 Americans had been based on irrefutable testimony and that the U.S. message was found unacceptable. (611.95A241/11–2954)↩
  3. The report of the Ad Hoc Working Group, which consisted of representatives of the Departments of State and Defense and the Central Intelligence Agency, with a covering memorandum of Nov. 30 by the chairman, Walter McConaughy, is filed with the memorandum supra. The report concluded that the only proposal which offered any real possibility of resolving the problem was an offshore naval blockade, to be imposed only after obtaining authority from Congress and specifically exempting Hong Kong and Soviet flag vessels destined for Port Arthur and Dairen.↩