ATOMIC ENERGY                          559

751.001/5-550: Telegram
The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Kirk) to the Secretary of State

CONFIDENTIAL                           Moscow, May 5, 1950--7 p. m.
   1291. Judging by tenor and content articles currently appearing
Pravda Izvestiya et al Frenchý Government has dealt resounding blow
in expelling Professor Joliot-Curie from post in atomic research.'
Such anguish and pain show clearly hurt done.
   Personally I am immensely gratified this action French Government
as have long considered the professor a serious menace in scientific
circles not only in France but also and perhaps more dangerously in
Belgium.2
  Sent Department 1291; Department pass Paris 188, London 178,
Brussels 10.
                                                               KIRK

  1On April 28, Premier Georges Bidault-dismissed Dr. Joliot-Curie as High
Com-
missioner for Atomic Energy. Bidault justified ,the action on a recent sitaltement
by Joliot-Curie that no truly progressive scientisit would allow his scientific
knowledge to be employed in a war against the Soviet Union.
  SAdmiralAlan G. Kirk was Ambassador to Belgium, 1946-4949.


Department of State Atomic Energy Files
     1ifemorandwm   of Conversation, by the Secretary of State

TOP SECRET                                  [LONDON, May 16, 1950.]
ME,[ORANDUTMX OF CONyERSATION HELD MAY 16, 1950 AT MR. BEVIN'S
           APARTMENT, No. 1 CARLTON GARDENS, LONDON'
  At: Mr. Bevin~s-request I met at his-apartment at Carlton Gardens
with him, Mr. Attlee,2 Mr. L. B. Pearson. There were also present
Sir Roger Makins, Mr. Patrick Gordon Walker,4 and one other person
whom Mr. Pearson was supposed to know.5
  Neither Mr. Pearson nor I knew that any officials were to be present.
Mr. Pearson had not been told -the subject of the meeting. I had been
told that it:was to review the present status of our atomic discussions.
  Mr. Attlee, speaking from some papers given him by Sir Roger
Makins, stated that the British Government was placed in a difficult

  Secretary Acheson was in London for a meeting of -the North Atlantic Council,
May 15-18. While in London, he also engaged in separate tripartite meetings
with British Foreign Secretary Bevin and French Foreign Minister Schuman.
  Clement R. Attlee, British Prime Minister.
  I Lester B. Pearson, Canadian Secretary of State for External Affairs.
  British Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations.
  The phrase "one other person whom Mr. Pearson was supposed to know"
is
a handwritten addition on the source text.