This afternoon I called on General Marquat the S.C.A.P. Deputy
Chairman of the Allied Council. I told him that my call was
unofficial, and I wanted to tell him privately of some of my
personal reactions to General MacArthur's speech at the opening of
the Council session. [1] I said-
(1) that in view of F.E.C. resolution of March 20th [2] I was
surprised that MacArthur had not mentioned that the draft
constitution must be passed by F.E.C. before adoption and that
MacArthur had made no reference to F.E.C.

(2) that I was interested to notice that while MacArthur had
suggested that free public discussion might produce 'changes in
form and detail' in the draft constitution he had not suggested
the possibility that alternative drafts may be produced and that
such alternative drafts should be treated with the same
seriousness as the present draft so long as they conformed to the
governing principles of the occupation policy.

(3) that I had noticed that the local press had played up
MacArthur's statement that the functions of the Council would be
advisory and consultative. I said that I felt MacArthur's
statement on the powers of the Council failed to give a complete
picture since paragraph 6 of the Allied Council's terms of
reference [3] did appear to me to impose some limitations of
S.C.A.P.'s executive powers and that some reference to these
limitations might have been desirable in order to give the public
a complete picture of the Council's functions.

General Marquat expressed friendly surprise at the points which I
raised. He gave no indication that he had any knowledge of F.E.C.

resolution of March 20th and said he had not understood that
paragraph 6 of the terms of reference implied any restrictions on
S.C.A.P.'s executive discretion. He implied that his understanding
of the terms of reference was that the last sentences of paragraph
5 overrode the provisions of paragraph 6. Will you please tell me
whether you approve of my having raised these questions with
General Marquat and wire me whether to pursue them.