MUTUAL SECURITY ACT EXTENSION TUESDAY, MAY 26, 1953 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS, SUBCOMMITTEE ON STATE DEPARTMENT ORGANIZATION AND PERSONNEL, Washington, D. C. The subcommittee met in room G-3, United States Capitol, at 9:45 a. m., Hon. John M. Vorys (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. Mr. VORYS. The subcommittee will come to order. The meeting was called while I was out of town, but at my suggestion, by Mr. Morton. We will have the statement of Under Secretary of State, Mr. Lourie. STATEMENT OF HON. DONALD B. LOURIE, UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE FOR ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF STATE Mr. LOURIE. It is about SRE. Mr. VORYS. I believe you have met Mr. Bentley. Mr. LOURIE. I believe Mr. Merchant can start off and give you the story much more thoroughly than I. STATEMENT OF HON. LIVINGSTON MERCHANT, ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE FOR EUROPEAN AFFAIRS, DEPARTMENT OF STATE Mr. MERCHANT. What we wanted to explain is the reorganization of SRE in Paris. The SRE, in its present form, was created by administrative action last January or February. At the time of the reorganization of the NATO setup, which was accomplished at the Lisbon meeting of the North Atlantic Council in February 1952, there was abolished the Council of Deputies which had been sitting in London, and created in its stead a Council of Permanent Representatives with headquarters in Paris and a staff under Lord Ismay as Secretary General. The members of the Council were asked to designate governmental representatives to be in permanent session. The SRE, therefore, represented the merger of Ambassador Spofford's shop in London with the regional office of the MSA, which had been set up at the time Mr. Harriman had the ambassadorship created under the first ECA Act. By letter of appointment from the President, Ambassador Draper, who had been appointed to the MSA membership, was designated as the United States permanent representative on the Council. The office of the SRE was set up, and is still set up, with three main operating divisions; the Political Section, which is staffed by the Department of State, which provides political and policy advice to the special representative, and the staff for the Council meetings; the Economic Section, which was the old OSR-MSA regional economic office, which provides the backing of Ambassador Draper as United States representative on the OEEC and discharges the regional responsibilities of the defense assistance phase of the mutual security program; and the Office of Defense, which is staffed by personnel from the Department of Defense and which is concerned with certain of the defense aspects abroad, including offshore procurement, infrastructure, and so forth. The form that the proposed reorganization will take is to strip the office in Paris of the functions which are not directly related to United States representation on regional international bodies with their headquarters in Europe. It is proposed that the two ambassadorships provided for under the MSA Act would be abolished, and that the Secretary of State, under the authority of the Foreign Service Act of 1946, would establish a diplomatic mission in Paris, the chief of which would have the rank of ambassador in his capacity as United States permanent representative on the North Atlantic Council. He would report to the Secretary of State in contradistinetion to the present terms of reference for Ambassador Draper, under which he reports to four members of the Cabinet as well as to the President. He would also serve as the United States representative on the Ministerial Council of the OEEC, and he would discharge such other representational functions to multilateral organizations as were delegated and assigned to him. He would have three principal advisers or assistants nominated by other departments or agencies. There would be 1 appointed by Governor Stassen, as his economic adviser or deputy, 1 appointed by Secretary Wilson for defense affairs, and 1 appointed by Secretary Humphrey for such responsibilities as the Treasury had in that general field. The chief of this new mission would be the only one in the organization with the rank of Ambassador. He would be concerned only with representation on international multilateral bodies in Europe. He would have no supervisory or coordinating responsibilities as regard the country teams. He would deal only through our Ambassador to a particular country, except insofar as he was dealing through, say, the French representative on the North Atlantic Council on matters arising in the Council itself. I think that is enough of a sketch. It fills in the main points. STATEMENT OF HON. THRUSTON B. MORTON, ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE FOR CONGRESSIONAL RELATIONS, DEPARTMENT OF STATE Mr. MORTON. I think it ought to be pointed out that the function as Regional Administrator for MSA, which has been a part of the phase in Draper's shop, will not be a part of the new mission. STATEMENT OF HON. C. TYLER WOOD, DEPUTY TO THE DIRECTOR FOR MUTUAL SECURITY Mr. Wood. I don't think I have anything to add. I think one of the products of this reorganization is expected to be a very considerable decrease in the size of the organization. The organization is pointed toward this multilateral representation, rather than toward the supervision, as it has been in the past, of the country teams. Mr. MORTON. What is your net reduction? It is pretty high, is it not? Mr. MERCHANT. Yes, from over 700 a year ago. It is not thought that this reorganization would affect David Bruce in his present capacity. Mr. VORYS. Has the person been selected yet? Mr. MERCHANT. John Hughes, whose name you may have seen in the papers, is the one who is in the process. I brought along a functional chart of the office as it now is. Mr. BENTLEY. This is the present setup? Mr. MERCHANT. It gives the internal structure of the shop. Mr. BENTLEY. Do you know what the personnel decrease would be, approximately? Mr. MERCHANT. No, sir; I don't know numerically. It would be substantial. My impression is that it is a little over 500, and it is in the process of being cut. My impression is that with the cuts already instituted it is in the process of going down to about 450. That is in comparison with the figure that I recall of a little over 700 when the various organizations were put together a year ago last March. In addition to the above personnel, there is a staff in SRE, paid from program funds, carrying on productivity and technical assistance programs on April 30, 1953, this staff numbered 91. Mr. BENTLEY. Does this follow along the lines, Mr. Merchant, of several of the recommendations I saw in the team evaluation setup? Mr. MERCHANT. The only one I have read, sir, is the overall one of the teams. I think it is in substantial agreement. Mr. WOOD. Several of the evaluation reports made the specific recommendation that the office be changed from one having supervisory responsibilities over European aid operations to one primarily responsible for representing the United States multilateral organizations. They also said there were too many Ambassadors in Paris. In both those respects, this reorganization is very definitely moving in the direction proposed in the report. A third recommendation was based on the belief of the teams that the office was too large and that there were too many Americans in Paris. In that respect, also, the reorganization is in line with these recommendations. Finally, there was a considerable amount of opinion among the evaluation teams that the work in the regional oflice should be more directly under the Secretary of State. In that respect, also, since this man will report to the Secretary of State, I think it may fairly be said that the change moves in the direction of the recommendations of the evaluation team. Mr. BENTLEY. This person's new job in Paris would be somewhat similar to that of Mr. Lodge's in New York, as far as representation in the multilateral organizations and reporting to the Secretary; am I correct on that? Mr. MERCHANT. Yes, I would say so, except he will be a United States representative on more than one international organization. Mrs. KELLY. Mr. Merchant, is the Ambassador going to have policy and operational responsibility? Mr. WOOD. I should think a quick answer would be yes. He would certainly have policy responsibility as the representative of the Secretary of State in respect of the work that is done in the Council of NATO, and in the Council of the OEEC. I would think, also, he would be charged with operational responsibilities, but not, however, in respect to the supervision of operations in the country mission. Mrs. KELLY. That is the point. He is going to report directly to the Secretary of State? Mr. Wood. That is right. Mrs. KELLY. This new reorganization will result in expansion of responsibility, as I see it. The Secretary of State reported that he desires to reorganize and establish the situation as far as his Office is concerned, to have him be responsible for just policy. He hoped there would be an agency established for operation. You are bringing in the duties of one man under the Secretary of State; is that right? Is he going to be the one man who will have the entire operational supervision over there, because the field missions report, at this time, to the Ambassador, and also to the Secretary of Defense? So, you have a division of authority, insofar as the field missions are concerned. That is what you want to cut out. The field missions should report to the Ambassador of the country and the Ambassador of the country, either through or with this Ambassador, to the Secretary of State, because the Secretary of Defense gets reports from the field prior to the Secretary of State getting reports from NATO countries. That is where your problem is. There is a mixed responsibility. What I think the chairman, and several others in another committee, wanted was direct responsibility for operation and policy from our European source; is that not correct, Mr. Vorys? Mr. VORYS. Yes. I don't quite get the status of this man. He is to be our representative on some sort of a permanent deal on NATO and on OEEC, and what else? I didn't catch that. Mr. MERCHANT. It is anticipated, sir, he would also provide the representation to ECE, which is in Geneva, as you know. He would have, as SRE now has, the responsibility for the multilateral negotiations on East-West trade. He might well get responsibility, which is now carried by the Embassy in Paris, to the Central Rhine Commission. Someday it is conceivable, and I think quite possible, that representation to the Steel and Coal Community might be there. But the principal job is built around our membership on the Council of NATO. Mr. VORYS. Was that at Lisbon, where they disposed of the deputies? Mr. MERCHANT. Yes, sir. Mr. VORYS. Did they set up a permanent organization there? Mr. MERCHANT. Yes, sir. Mr. VORYS. What is it to be called? Mr. MERCHANT. It is called the North Atlantic Council in permanent session. Mr. VORYS. Do the other members have permanent members there? Mr. MERCHANT. Yes, all with the rank of ambassador, and all with their delegations. Mrs. KELLY. I don't see how one person can wear as many hats as they are giving this one. It seems he is wearing twice as many as before. Mr. MERCHANT. No. This is a marked reduction in the responsibilities. Mrs. KELLY. How can he have charge of East-West trade supervision, represent the present Director for Mutual Security Mr. WOOD. That is the old chart. Mrs. KELLY. Where is the new one? Mr. VORYS. Could I ask whether it would be your purpose to have section 504 of the MSA repealed? It provides that there will be carried out the functions conferred by sections 502 and 503. It is really a transition from the administration of ECA. In any case, the act continues, there shall be a special representative in Europe, and a deputy special representative in Europe. It states that the deputy special representative in Europe shall be appointed by the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate, and it outlines his duties. It is that provision of law which I think has been found by evaluators and members of our own committee, and no doubt your own people, to be unsatisfactory. Those functions in the act as to deputy or special representative of the Mutual Security Director are to be abolished? Mr. MERCHANT. Yes. Mr. VORYS. Then, would it be your purpose to have that provision of law amended or repealed? Mr. MERCHANT. The thought, I believe, sir, was to include a reference in the reorganization plan for the abolition of those two positions, but to have a proviso which would not abolish them before the actual effective date of the resignation of Ambassador Anderson and Ambassador Draper and their departure. I will go back to Mrs. Kelly's point. I would answer that by saying he will be in policy and operations only to a comparable extent to an ambassador to a country, or Ambassador Lodge. He would have under him what, in effect, is the equivalent of a country team on the operational side, including a defense segment, which would be comparable to a MAAG. Mrs. KELLY. They wanted to do away with MAAG. Mr. MERCHANT. No, I don't think so. He would have an economic staff under an appointee of Governor Stassen, who would handle day-to-day operations directly with MSA, and would handle operations relating to the committees of OEEC. Mrs. KELLY. Aren't you trying to make them report directly to the ambassador in the country? You say just now they are going to report directly to Washington. Mr. MERCHANT. On operational matters. The Ambassador is in charge of his organization there in Paris. The point I was making was that he is not involving the Secretary of State in operations which the Secretary of State wishes to be divested of. Mrs. KELLY. The teams are not going to report to an ambassador of a country; is that correct? 33064-53-43 |