310.2/8–1754
Memorandum of Telephone Conversation, by the Assistant Secretary of State for United Nations Affairs (Key)
- Subject:
- Negotiations with UK on Chinese Representation Issue
Ambassador Lodge called this morning to urge that Mr. Murphy take a very strong position on the Chinese representation issue when he sees Mr. Scott, UK Minister. He pointed out that we should push the UK at least as hard on this as the Labor Party is pushing us, reminding me that Churchill had agreed with him that the Chinese Communists “could not be admitted to the UN so long as they are at war with the UN”.
Ambassador Lodge urged that Mr. Murphy point out to Minister Scott that the Chinese question is of greater concern to us than anything else on the Assembly’s agenda and that it is a very serious political issue in this country. He suggested that Mr. Murphy inform Scott that we prefer a vote on the substance of the issue. He recognized that the UK will not agree to this, but suggested that if we begin with this proposal it might be possible to reach agreement on a formula such as Dr. Tsiang has suggested, whereby the Assembly would decide not to consider the matter rather than merely to postpone consideration.
Ambassador Lodge further suggested that, if necessary, we point out to Scott that there is a great preponderance of opinion in this country that Cyprus should be turned over to Greece and that we will have to take this into account in our position on this question.
I replied that I fully shared his view as to the extremely serious political implications involved in the outcome of the Chinese question in the Assembly and agreed that we should make strong representations to the UK.