151. Note From Foreign Secretary Lloyd to Secretary of State Dulles1
CHINA TRADE
During the course of the discussion on the Far East yesterday, you asked what our position was about Communist China and the United Nations.
We have up to now taken the initiative in putting forward the so-called moratorium procedure. We have some doubt how much longer this may be the way to handle the question of the claim of Communist China to a seat in the United Nations. We will study this sympathetically and keep in touch.
Meanwhile it would be easier for us to carry our own public with us on this question if in the meantime the question of the [Page 437] China differential had been disposed of quickly and without U.S. opposition.
As you will recall I said that we could not continue to go along with that differential for more than a very short period. I understand you will have a proposal to put forward within the next two weeks for the amalgamation of the China and Russian lists. We shall give urgent consideration to such a proposal and meanwhile only wish to urge that any co-ordinated list should be one which could command general respect. With this in mind the existing Russian list itself should be kept under revision and any proposal merely to add certain items from the China list to the Russian list would not in our view obtain general acceptance.
- Source: Department of State, Presidential Correspondence: Lot 66 D 204, UK Officials Corres. Secret. According to a handwritten notation on the source text, this note was handed to Dulles by Lloyd on March 23.↩