500.A15A4 General Committee (Arms) /50: Telegram
The Adviser to the American Delegation (Mayer) to the Secretary of State
[Received November 17—1:55 p.m.]
943. Reference my 942, November 13, 8 p.m.,1 and Davis’ 39, November 15, 7 p.m., from London. In a conversation with Aghnides today, he indicated that those delegations he had seen favored dealing with the regulation of the manufacture and trade in arms and the establishment of a Permanent Disarmament Commission in separate protocols as Henderson’s statement of November 52 had suggested. In view of our desire to have these two subjects in one protocol, Aghnides observed that much confusion could be avoided and our thesis more easily attained if we gave the Bureau something immediate and concrete to consider. Entirely on his own initiative he strongly recommended that we place a text of such a protocol before the Bureau on Tuesday.
During the same conversation Aghnides told me confidentially that he had just received word from a source usually accurate that the Soviets had now decided to make certain démarches at the Bureau meeting which “would be very troublesome”.
Repeated to London.