Cablegram 349 WASHINGTON, 11 March 1947, 7.47 p.m.
MOST IMMEDIATE TOP SECRET
MOSCOW CONFERENCE
I have been urgently endeavouring to see the Under Secretary of State with reference to your telegram 284. Owing, however, to pressure of work due to the ‘Middle East Crisis’ [1] and the President’s forthcoming address to the Joint Session of Congress tomorrow, appointment for today has had to be postponed until Thursday morning.
In the meantime, the Minister has seen Hickerson (who in Matthews’ absence in Moscow is acting as Assistant Secretary of State for European and Far Eastern Affairs) and conveyed the Government’s view that there should be no discussion or decision at Moscow regarding Pacific settlement with Japan.
Hickerson’s reply was- (A) Our assumption was correct. The agenda did not contain any item regarding Pacific settlement;
(B) Marshall went to Moscow prepared to discuss Germany and Austria;
(C) Molotov’s raising of the China issue had taken the United States completely by surprise. Marshall had taken no Far Eastern experts with him and none were being sent. There had as yet been no telegram from Marshall today. Stirling asked Hickerson whether he could add that there would in fact be no discussion regarding the Pacific at Moscow. He said he would prefer to limit his reply to the above though ‘there would be none’. Meanwhile he would convey our views to Acheson at once. [2]
_
1 Martial law had been imposed on parts of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv on 2 March.
2 On 13 March Makin reported that he and Stirling had seen Acheson, who undertook to inform Marshall of the conversation.
_
[AA : A1068, E47/41/3/2]