Cablegram, Canberra, 18 June 1951
120. IMMEDIATE SECRET
Pacific Security Pact Berendsen will no doubt have informed you of conversation between Dulles, Berendsen and Spender on 1st June during which Dulles suggested certain modifications of Articles 7 and 8 of the Canberra draft and handed over revised texts of these articles.[1] Spender tentatively suggested during the discussion a revision of Dulles’s new draft of Article 8.
2. We have now considered the matter here and Minister proposes, subject to your comments, to send the following telegram to Spender:-
Begins. In the circumstances I think we should accept the revised version of Article 7.
As regards Article 8, I agree we should continue to try to have at least a permissive reference in the treaty to possible consultation between the proposed Council and NATO. I would suggest following slight variation of your proposed wording for further discussion with Dulles:-
‘The Council established by Article VII may maintain a consultative relationship with states, regional organisations, associations of states, or other authorities in a position to further the purposes of this treaty and to contribute to the security of the Pacific area’.
Ends.
3. If New Zealand Government is in agreement with views of Australian Government, we would propose to inform United Kingdom Government urgently of Dulles’s suggestions and our proposed reply. I have booked telephone call to you for 4 p.m. this afternoon, New Zealand time, to discuss matter.[2]
_1 Cablegram 991 (1 June) from Washington had reported Dulles’s provisional statement that the Canberra draft Treaty (see Document 50) was acceptable to the United States Government except for ‘ ‘slight’modifications’ to Articles VII and VIII that had been recommended by the Defense Department. The proposed amendment to Article VII was to omit the reference to ‘subsidiary bodies’. The proposed amendment to Article VIII reflected the US wish that the pact should not at that stage ‘involve any commitment to ‘combine’Pacific planning with N.A.T.O. and the RIO Pact’. Spender, however, had ‘stressed that Australia was anxious to maintain a position where her views regarding the Pacific and other parts of the world could be conveyed to N.A.T.O. or other associations of states or authorities’.
2 Cablegram 110 (19 June) from Wellington reported that Doidge ‘entirely agrees with terms of telegram you propose to send to Spender, both as regards Article VII and wording you suggest for Article VIII. Berendsen is being informed accordingly’.
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[NAA : A1838, 532/11, iv]