Office of the Historian

186. Message From Foreign Minister Lloyd to Secretary of State Dulles0

London, undated.

I have noted with interest the developments in the situation in the Formosa Strait over the last few days, and have been wondering how you now view the situation. I recall that in our conversation in New York on September 261 you thought that if there were some let-up in the Communist shelling of the islands for some days, it might be possible to get some of the Nationalist Forces out of the islands. I was also interested in your remark to Caccia2 that it seemed that the only way progress could be made was for the two sides to take unilateral steps on parallel lines gradually converging. Are you thinking of any further steps of this kind at this stage? It would be of particular interest to us, to have your views and to know whether we can help in any way.3

  1. Source: [As discovered during the digitization of this volume, the source information for this document was omitted in the original print edition of this volume.]↩
  2. See Document 130.↩
  3. On October 9; see Document 171.↩
  4. Printed from an unsigned copy.↩