April 13, 1949
Senator Tydings talked by telephone with the Secretary re the arms implementation proposition.
Senator Tydings said that he could understand that the Secretary would want to feel his way with the Foreign Relations Committee. Senator Tydings said that he was a member of both committees. In the Armed Services Committee this morning, Knowland of California and others, thought they should be consulted about arms services implementation before anything is agreed to. They feel that the committee dealing with it should be notified before it is made a fait accompli.
The Secretary said that we think this is the question obviously for the Senate leadership to decide. We don't think the State Department ought to be influencing it one way or another. To which Senator Tydings said that the State Department was already talking with the Foreign Relations Committee.
The Secretary said there are two questions.
The first was to which Committee will the bill be referred. The Secretary thought that this is something which Senator Tydings and Senator Connally and the Vice President ought to work out.
Senator Tydings said that he would work out that with them.
The second question was whether Senator Tydings' committee would like to talk with our people about it, as the Foreign Relations Committee did.
Senator Tydings asked the Secretary whether the State Department or the Pentagon will work up the Arms Implementation Act. The Secretary said that we are charged with being Chairman of the Interdepartmental Committee by the President who has designated us to head it - and we are doing it with the Army.
The Secretary explained that when our people ask the Foreign Relations Committee about the possible date for the commencement of hearings on the treaty (which was sent up at noon yesterday) the committee then begins to question us about military assistance. Although we are pressing the committee to set a date for a hearing in the near future, Senators Vandenberg, Lodge, Hickenlooper, Connally and some of the others insist they are not going to set a date for hearings on the Pact until they have some idea what the Implementation Act involves.
The Secretary said that the implementation would be in the form of a bill which the Vice President will refer to one committee or the other. He emphasized again that the immediate problem is to work out in advance the committee referral with Connally.
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