1. At the Commonwealth meeting this morning Addison circulated
copy of article from the Washington Post of 13th May, a summary of
which is contained in my immediately following telegram. This
article, which is believed to reflect the views of the State
Department suggests that composition and voting procedure of the
Far Eastern Commission are likely to be adopted in setting up a
conference for preliminary discussions of Japanese Peace
Settlement. The article was interpreted by the United Kingdom and
Canadian representatives as meaning that members of Far Eastern
Commission would be used as a nuclear body for conference.

2. Neither Addison nor McNeil favour this idea, as they do not
regard the status of the Commission as being sufficiently high for
such a role and it is thought there might be difficulties over the
question of whether F.E.C.'s terms of reference were being
exceeded.

3. The Foreign Office and Dominion Office are concerned least the
State Department should make some pronouncement shortly giving
their views on the settlement. They consider it urgent therefore,
in order to forestall any such statement that the United Kingdom
Government be informed of British Commonwealth views.

4. The United Kingdom authorities have in mind informing the
United States that any consideration of the Peace Settlement being
made by the CFM [1] as at present constituted, or even with the
addition of one or two major participants in the war against
Japan, should be avoided. They are also considering suggesting
that all countries represented on the F.E.C. with the probable
addition subsequently of South Africa, be invited to attend a
preliminary conference to determine the procedure for the
settlement. Addison said he would like an early expression of the
views of the Dominion Governments on this suggestion before any
approach to the United States is made.

5. When I enquired about the British Commonwealth meeting which it
had been agreed should precede any general conference, Addison
said it appeared physically impossible for Ministers to meet in
the near future, either in Canberra or in London, and although
consideration had been given to the possibility of an early
meeting of officials in Canberra, this alternative seemed
unsatisfactory because only Ministers could make the broad
decisions which ought to be made at such a meeting. McNeil felt it
might be necessary to abandon the idea of a Commonwealth meeting.

Robertson seemed ready to acquiesce and Heaton Nicholls [2] stated
no South African Minister could go to Australia.

At my suggestion, however, it was agreed that Inverchapel should
request the United States authorities not to make any announcement
for the time being and Addison and McNeil are now giving full and
sympathetic consideration to the possibility of their attending
meeting in Canberra commencing last week in August. Jordan [3]
supported proposal for meeting in Canberra and eventually Heaton
Nicholls conceded there was much to be gained from such a meeting
and he would try and persuade Smuts to attend en route to
September meeting of UNO Assembly. Robertson said he would urge
Canadian Government to agree to a Canberra meeting.

6. When Heaton Nicholls enquired whether India would be invited to
Commonwealth meeting, Addison said that developments had taken a
more favourable turn recently and he thought the United Kingdom
Government would probably want to include India in the talks.

7. I should be glad of your early views on United Kingdom proposal
that countries who are members of F.E.C. be invited to General
Preliminary Conference.