DEPARTMENT OF STATE Assistant Secretary
March 28, 1949
S - Miss Asbjornson
I attach a copy of the memorandum which Mr. Allen wrote to Mr. Rusk concerning the Secretary's meeting with the National Conference of Christians and Jews. The draft resolution which Mr. Allen mentions has since been redrafted twice, and I understand a final version is due in this office sometime today.
P - Mrs. Vandenberg
[See attachment, next]
March 22, 1949
MEMORANDUM TO: G - Mr. Rusk
At a meeting in the Secretary's office this morning a delegation (consisting of Dr. Everett R. Clinchy, President of the National Conference of Christians and Jews, General William Donovan, James H. Rosenberg, Chairman of the Human Rights Committee, NCCJ, Mr. Allen Dulles and Edward J. Heffron, Secretary, NCCJ) representing the National Conference of Christians and Jews read to the Secretary the attached draft of a resolution which the conference proposes to adopt at a meeting on March 28 and to present to the Secretary on March 29, if the Secretary approves.
You will note that the resolution as presently drafted calls for an investigation by the Economic and Social Council of religious freedom in Hungary and Bulgaria. The Secretary referred to the resolution which has already passed the House calling for action on this subject in the General Assembly. He said he saw no objection to the attached resolution, although he would like to obtain the views of certain key officials in the Department. He promised that he would let the committee have the Department's reaction within the next day or two.
I informed the committee, following my brief talk with you in the Secretary's outer office, that the question of religious liberty was already on the General Assembly Agenda and would be debated. The committee is anxious to present its memorandum anyway, and wishes to obtain our views as to whether the resolution should call for action by the Assembly or ______________. The committee is inclined to include a reference to both.
George V. Allen
cc: PA - Mr. Russell OII - Mr. Free POS
P:GVAllen:mbv 3/22/49