Minutes of the Forty-sixth Meeting of the Committee (Deputy Directors (O and S)), Held in Conference Room "H", at the Ministry of Defence, S.W.I, on Friday, 5th May, 1950, at 10.45 a.m.

2. SERVICE ATTACHE REPRESENTATION IN SECRET HIS MAJESTY'S MISSIONS BEHIND THE IRON CURTAIN AND IN THE SOVIET AND SATELLITE MISSIONS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM. (Previous Reference: J.I.C. (50) 33rd Meeting, Minute 4). THE COMMITTEE considered a minute+ by the Secretary covering a report by a Working Party, consisting of the Service representatives on the Service Attaches Sub-Committee, set up to consider the question of Service Attache representation in His Majesty's Missions behind the Iron Curtain and in Soviet and Satellite Missions in the United Kingdom, with a view to recommending a policy which would result in our getting the maximum benefit from our representation abroad and would, on the other hand, limit as far as possible Service representation in Soviet and Satellite Missions in this country. MR. CAREY-FOSTER said that the Foreign Office had studied the report by the Working Party and did not consider that the proposals contained in it were practicable, with the exception of the main conclusion, namely that we should freeze Soviet Service representation in this country at its present level immediately after the arrival of the new Soviet Assistant Naval Attache. The Foreign Office were of the opinion that the suggestion in paragraph 8 of the report that an attempt be made to secure formal agreement with the Soviet and Satellite Governments to the general principle that every country should be prepared to accept from every other country one Service Attache from each of the three Services, would be an infringement of the basic Foreign Office principle which, on balance, worked to our advantage, that the host Government should not seek to dictate the composition of a foreign diplomatic Mission. Moreover, this suggestion seemed hardly feasible or likely to achieve the end which the Committee had in view. The Satellite Governments could hardly be expected to agree, since the only effect of such agreement would be to hamper them if they wished to reduce our Service representation in their countries, as they well might. Nor was it likely that the Soviet Government would accept this proposal. As they already had 13 Service Attaches in the United Kingdom, they could hardly be expected to agree that the replacement of all but three of them should be a matter of negotiation between the two Governments. They would claim that it was a matter for the Soviet Government to decide for itself. As we should gain nothing by making this approach and might indeed worsen our position in the Satellite countries by drawing attention to our great preponderance in numbers, the Foreign Office considered that the suggestion should be abandoned and that we should simply use such administrative devices as were open to us to restrict Soviet Service Attache representation in this country to the present figure of 13. In regard to the recommendation in paragraph 10 that consideration should be given to limiting or reducing the size of the Soviet Trade Delegation in this country, MR. CAREY-FOSTER recalled that the Committee had discussed this matter at their meeting≠ the previous week, and he had then stated the Foreign Office views on this problem. He suggested that this matter should not be discussed further at this stage but should be dealt with as a separate issue. + J.I.C./719/50. ≠ J.I.C. (50) 43rd Meeting, Minute 4. -2-