Office of the Historian

841.85/10–1049

Memorandum of Conversation, by the Secretary of State

[Washington,] October 10, 1949.

British Naval Convoy at Shanghai

The President handed me the attached cable80 to the Chief of Naval Operations. The President noted the last sentence which reported that “reliable advice from Hongkong was to the effect that the Royal Navy would escort any British vessels bound for Shanghai and the territorial waters in the mouth of the Yangtze.”

The President expressed his surprise and felt that this was, if true, a most undesirable development. I told the President that I doubted the truth of the report since Bevin81 had agreed that we would keep in close touch with one another in regard to our actions in China. However, I said that I would inquire about it and make a report to the President.

FE should follow up and prepare a memorandum to the President from me.82

D[ean] A[cheson]
  1. Not printed; it was a telegram from the Isbrandtsen Co., Inc., New York.↩
  2. Ernest Bevin, British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.↩
  3. See memorandum of conversation with President Truman on October 13, p. 1148.↩