Cablegram 1012 WASHINGTON, 30 July 1947, 5 p.m.
MOST IMMEDIATE TOP SECRET
On receiving your telegram number 908 [1] I went accompanied by Minister to see Norman Armour, Assistant Secretary of State, immediately after his return from seeing President.
2. I gave him a full account of our proposed procedure as set out in paragraphs 3, 4 and 5 of your telegram. Armour listened carefully. He told me his latest advices were that hostilities might end soon. He read me a telegram presumably from United States representative in N.E.I. saying that Van Mook had given opinion hostilities would end ‘within a couple of days’. General Spoor thought they would end by Monday next. ‘That, however’, Armour continued, ‘is only an impression’.
3. As regards Security Council he said, ‘Their tempers are high over the Greek situation and I don’t know how they will react to this new question being brought before them’. He referred to the likelihood of the U.S.S.R. exploiting the situation at the Council to suit their own purpose.
4. Morgan, Associate Chief of Division of Northern European Affairs, who was present, said that in informal discussions which the Dutch had hitherto had with the State Department the Dutch had taken the line that Article 17 of the Linggadjati Agreement only applied to arbitration in the future and not to a situation arising prior to finalisation of the Agreement.
5. I pointed out that in any case the Dutch clearly had no objection to the principle of arbitration and it behoved us all to try and get them to accept it at once and stop not only immediate bloodshed but further dangerous repercussions.
6. Armour instanced the stir in the Moslem world as a whole and in particular India.
7. Armour said they had themselves at first been inclined to use Article 33 and in this connexion I cited Prime Minister’s statement [2], again stressing desirability and advantages of invoking Article 39. He and Morgan seemed to be impressed with the point but gave no further indication of what United States attitude was likely to be. 8. Armour told me that Herschel Johnson was coming down from Security Council for discussions this afternoon.
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1 Document 194.
2 See Document 195.
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[AA:A3300/2, 441]