ATOMIC ENERGY


  Dr. Donges, the South African Minister of Interior, accompanied
by Ambassador Jooste called on me today. Dr. Donges began the
conversation by referring to the recently concluded contract nego-
tiations between representatives of the United States, The United
Kingdom and South Africa on uranium procurement.2 He said that
during these negotiations South Africa had purposely refrained from
introducing the question of a special position for South Africa in
the atomic energy field. He said that he would not go into details but
that briefly South Africa was seeking not necessarily "membership
in the club" but perhaps an "associate membership". Dr. Donges
added
that he had had a conversation on this subject with Mr. Perkins and
would be seeing Mr. Gordon Dean before leaving Washington. It
was his hope that the Atomic Energy Commission would be able to
indicate what the United States could offer South Africa and that
discussions could then proceed from this point. I expressed our grati-
fication that the contract negotiations had been successfully concluded
and said that I was certain something could be worked out on the
problem mentioned by Dr. Donges.
   [Here follows discussion of various issues before the United Nations
 which involved South Africa.]
 2 On November 23 a memorandum containing Heads of Agreement was signed
 in Johannesburg by representatives of the Combined Development Agency and
 the South African Atomic Energy Board. The memorandum, which dealt with
 contractual arrangements, is not printed. (Department of State Atomic Energy
 Files)


 Department of State Atomic Energy Files
 Memoranduv by Mro R, . Gordon Arneson to the Secretary of State

 TOP SECRET                      [WASHINGTON,] December 14, 1950.
 Subject: Belgian Atomic Energy Negotiations
   While you are in Brussels,' the Belgian Foreign Minister, Mr. Van
 Zeeland, may very well bring up the subject of the American-Belgian-
 British atomic energy discussions. At this stage of the negotiations,
 we feel it is up to the Belgians to make the next move. Therefore, it
 should not be necessary for you to take any affirmative step other than
 to listen sympathetically or perhaps clarify our present thinking on
 one or two points.

 Background
   The following summarizes the background and present status of
 these negotiations:

   Secretary Acheson attended the Sixth Session of the North Atlantic Council,
 Brussels, December 18--19.


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