Repeat London, NATO Paris (Information).

The representatives of NATO countries in Washington were asked to attend a meeting in the State Department this afternoon at which Mr.Burke Elbrick, Assistant Under Secretary of State, presided. He did not take the meeting through the whole of the Declaration of Common Purpose⁴⁶ but went straight to the last two sentences of paragraph 5 of PartII.

2. He emphasized three points in this passage:

   1. the need for a wider understanding of the nature and potentialities of new weapons;

   2. the rather cryptic reference to their availability in case of need meant that the USA would be ready to develop the concept of atomic stock piles in NATO countries;

   3. the undertaking by the USA, and as relevant by the UK, that the new weapons would not be used for purposes other than individual and collective self-defence, as authorized by the Charter of the UN.

   
   
   These sentences contained propositions of policy on which the President and the UK Prime Minister had agreed and which they hoped would commend themselves to the other countries of the free world.

3. That was why the President and Mr.Macmillan, after discussion with M.Spaak, had felt that the December meeting of the Council of NATO would be the most appropriate place and occasion for examining and developing the implications of these policy positions on which the UK and the USA were already agreed.

4. Iunderstood from Mr.Elbrick that the USA representative in the Permanent Council of NATO was today formally raising with his colleagues the desirability of making the December ministerial meeting one at which Heads of Governments would be expected to attend. It was assumed that members of NATO Council would wish to consult their governments on this point and it was hoped that replies will be received to permit the Council to take a definite decision in this sense on Wednesday.

5. TheNetherlands representative (Van Roijen) said that his government cordially welcomed the Anglo-American Declaration of Common Purpose and wondered if the sentences in paragraph 5, Part II, of the declaration to which Elbrick had especially drawn our attention would, in fact, constitute the agenda for the special meeting of NATO that was in contemplation. He thought his government would also welcome a discussion at a high level of the possibilities of progress in weapons standardization. He thought too the December meeting should consider whether anything more could be done to improve diplomatic consultation between members of NATO. He thought his colleagues around the table appeared to agree that this summer's NATO discussion of disarmament policy had been the most effective exercise in consultation yet undertaken.

6. The Italian representative (M. Brosio) wondered whether in view of the importance of the questions to be discussed at the December meeting and of the fact that Heads of Governments were likely to attend, it might not be desirable to set up some special preparatory body quickly, to make sure that the policy implications of the questions on the agenda were fully studied in advance of the meeting so that the Heads of Governments would take the requisite decisions when they met in Paris.

7. Elbrick said that the USA was fully aware of the amount of homework which would have to be done between now and any useful meeting in Paris in December. He said the USA had assumed that the Permanent Council of NATO would be used to coordinate national preparations required for the special meeting but would see that Brosio's suggestion of an ad hoc preparatory body received consideration.

8. Brosio wondered whether the situation in the Mideast should be considered at the December meeting. In principle he thought it should, but he recognized that from a tactical point of view it might be undesirable to develop a public NATO position on Mideastern problems.

9. The German Ambassador took advantage of the meeting to convey to the USA government his government's grateful appreciation of the reaffirmation in the Anglo-American declaration of the NATO position on the reunification of Germany.

[N.A.] ROBERTSON

⁴⁶ Pour le texte de la Déclaration d'objectif commun, voir United States, Department of State, Bulletin, VolumeXXXVII, No.959, November11, 1957, pp.739 à 741.
For the text of the Declaration of Common Purpose, see United States, Department of State, Bulletin, VolumeXXXVII, No.959, November11, 1957, pp.739-741.