13 April 1951
SECRET
I thank you for your April 13[2] which fortunately came in just before I leave for Tokyo. We are now in position to make high level statement within a few days which would contain in relation to our problem the following language:
‘The Governments of Australia and New Zealand, in connection with the reestablishment of peace with Japan, have suggested an arrangement between them and the United States, pursuant to Articles 51 and 52 of the United Nations Charter, which would make clear that no one of the three would be indifferent to an armed attack upon the other in the Pacific; and which would establish consultation to strengthen security on the basis of continuous and effective self help and mutual aid. The possibilities of such an arrangement were fully explored by Mr. Dulles at Canberra, Australia, and Wellington, New Zealand, and have since been informally discussed with appropriate subcommittees of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House.
I have now asked the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defense and Mr. Dulles, as my special representative in relation to the Japanese peace settlement and related matters, to pursue this matter further concurrently with the prosecution of the other negotiations necessary to bring the Japanese peace settlement to an early and satisfactory conclusion’.
We reserve our position with respect to detailed drafting of treaty but principal point raised here is that final sentence Article 8 Canberra draft[3] seems too broad in that it seems to imply active participation in military planning under the Rio Pact[4] and North Atlantic treaties which would be impractical and which, in any event, is beyond the power of the United States alone to assure. However, since obstacles to tripartite arrangements are now overcome here, we feel confident that you will find acceptable such language revisions not affecting fundamentals as we shall want to take up with you.
_1 Conveyed by the United States Embassy in Canberra in Memorandum 243, dated 16 April. A preliminary copy of the message had been handed to Spender the previous day.
2 Document 81.
3 Document 50.
4 The object of the Rio Pact (the inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance), which came into force in the United States on 3 December 1948 (having been signed on 2 September 1947), was to provide for effective reciprocal assistance to meet armed attacks against any American state. The signatories were Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Trinidad, and Tobago, the United States, Uruguay and Venezuela. The provisions of the Rio Treaty were incorporated by reference into the Charter of the Organisation of American States adopted at the Ninth International Conference of American States held in Bogota, Colombia, in 1948.
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[NAA : A1838, TS686/1, i]