800.00B/3–2549

Memorandum by the Chief of the Division of Eastern European Affairs (Reinhardt)

Subject: Peace Conference in Waldorf Astoria

Mr. Hooker1 telephoned this morning from New York to invite attention to the announcements in the New York morning press that [Page 819] metropolitan police had changed their previous plans to restrict picketing and demonstrating around the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel and had decided to remove all restrictions in this regard. Mr. Hooker added that the atmosphere was rather charged and that he feared that unless special measures were taken the demonstrations might well get out of hand and produce ugly incidents. He suggested that the Department should convey to Mayor O’Dwyer its concern in this regard.

I conveyed the foregoing to Mr. Allen who telephoned Mayor O’Dwyer of New York and informed him of the Department’s concern that no incidents be permitted to take place either in the vicinity of the hotel or within the meetings themselves. The Mayor replied that he fully understood the Department’s position and could give assurances that nothing untoward would happen outside the meetings. It was a little more difficult within the meetings themselves but he admitted that certain measures could be taken with a view to precluding any breaches of public order.

F. Reinhardt
  1. Robert G. Hooker, Jr., Associate Chief of the Division of Eastern European Affairs.