I went to see Bevin this morning to discuss with him Evatt's
recent cables with regard to non-consultation with the Dominions
[1] and particularly Evatt's idea that Australia should be
included as a Member of the Foreign Secretaries Committee which
was established at Potsdam.

I told Bevin I had merely come to ascertain what his reaction was
to Evatt's views and to see if there was any method of handling
the matter without friction.

Bevin was quite outspoken in his views on Evatt's suggestion for
the inclusion of Australia in the Foreign Secretaries Committee
and emphasised this by saying that he had had to return a flat
refusal to Stalin's suggestion for the inclusion of Poland in that
Committee.

The upshot of the discussion on the particular point I had gone to
see him on, namely Evatt's cable [2], was that he is getting a
reply drafted which will be quite sympathetic towards Australia's
desire for consultation, but will be quite frank on the subject of
Evatt's specific proposals as to how it should be brought about.

To make sure that this draft cable would be done on the right
lines, after I had left Bevin I went and had a word with Cadogan,
and explained the position to him.

Although I had only gone to see Bevin for 5 minutes he entered
into a discussion of ways and means for Empire consultation which
resulted in our discussing the matter for some time. Bevin showed
himself completely sympathetic to greater consultation with the
Dominions and has various ideas in mind, such as fairly frequent
meetings between the Dominion representatives and himself, and
also close contact between the Secretary of State for the
Dominions, Secretary of State for the Colonies and India, and
himself.

While all Bevin's ideas are down perfectly sound lines some of
them, I fear, will be a little impractical in practice. We left
the question on the basis that when he gets his desk a little
clearer, we would have a long conversation, when I would give him
some of the background of development over the last few years
which I touched upon lightly in the course of our conversation.

Bevin also gave me some impressions of the Potsdam meeting, where,
incidentally Lawford [3] told me before I went in to see Bevin,
that Bevin had done extraordinarily good job of work.

From what Lawford told me the fact that Attlee and Bevin had
turned up and picked up the threads exactly where Winston and
Anthony had laid them down, had greatly impressed the Russians and
to a lesser extent the Americans.

From what Bevin told me I gathered that he brought a much more
forthright atmosphere into the Conference than had existed before
his appearance. He told me of one episode with Molotov, which left
the impression on my mind that Bevin had taken exactly the right
line, namely, that of amiable toughness.

I was very considerably impressed by our conversation and I think
the Foreign Office is going to get a very much needed shaking up
under Bevin's direction.