310.2/7–654
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Secretary of State
Memorandum of Conversation with Senator Knowland
Senator Knowland said he wanted to talk with me about the China situation and the possibility of having some testimony before the Foreign Relations Committee on the legal aspects of Chinese Communist admission, e.g., whether it took a two-thirds Assembly vote and whether it was veto-able in the Security Council. He asked whether Cabot Lodge was qualified to testify on this matter. I said that while undoubtedly he could be so qualified, the legal work and policy decisions were primarily taken in the State Department.
I discussed the probable British position and indicated that there was at least some hope that the British would go along with us in trying to postpone the issue at the next United Nations Assembly. I said that I thought that the recent despatches from London probably did not reflect the talks which Churchill and Eden had had with the President and me because Churchill and Eden were not yet back in London.
Senator Knowland referred to his recent proposals on China and said that they had received overwhelming support—over 90% favorable. I said that I saw no objection to Congressional action to make clear that the Senate took this matter very seriously. I did question, however, the desirability of a threat to cut off our payment of expenses to the United Nations as long as we were a member. I said this would itself be a violation of the Charter, and that our case against the Chinese Communists would be much better if we came into the United Nations with clean hands. Senator Knowland said he recognized that so long as we were a member we would have to pay a share of the expenses and that he would not try to prevent this. I said that it would, of course, be entirely possible to raise the question of continuing U.S. membership in the United Nations, and I discussed with him the Charter understanding with reference to withdrawals. I gave him a copy of a portion of a memorandum on this point, which I had dictated the day before.1 It referred to the hearings before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 1945.
[Here follows a brief discussion concerning United States representation at Geneva “for the further development of the Indochina phase of the Conference”.]
The Senator in leaving expressed the hope that he and I could keep closer together and have informal talks from time to time, perhaps in [Page 736] the evening. He said that, in general, there was harmony between his views and those of the Department and he wanted to keep it that way.
- Not found in Department of State files.↩