Office of the Historian

845A.411/10–3052

Memorandum by the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for United Nations Affairs (Sandifer) to the Deputy Under Secretary of State (Matthews) and the Acting Secretary of State

secret
[Washington,] October 30, 1952.

Subject:

  • Position on South African Race Conflict Item

At the request of Mr. Bonbright, and with the approval of Mr. Hickerson who is in New York, I am sending you a draft paper1 on the question of our position on the South African Race Conflict item.

This paper reflects the consensus, as recorded by Mr. Bancroft, of a staff meeting held in New York yesterday, in which Ambassadors Jessup, Gross, and Cohen, and Mr. Sprague participated. Ambassador Gross is charged with handling this item and Mr. Sprague is charged with handling the case of the Indians in South Africa. The paper in this form has not specifically been considered by the group in New York.

The paper was discussed in the course of a meeting on this subject in Mr. Hickerson’s office yesterday afternoon in which the following people participated: Mr. Hickerson, Mr. Sandifer, Mr. Fisher, Mr. Tate, Mr. Bancroft, Mr. Raynor, Mr. Wainhouse, Miss Brown, and Mr. Kotschnig.

Mr. Hickerson plans to discuss this matter with the Secretary and with the above-mentioned group in New York today and tomorrow. He asked me to say in sending this to you that he did not agree with the approach set forth in the attached paper. His position as stated in the meeting yesterday afternoon was that the basic emphasis should be put on the reference to the Court, with the United States taking the initiative on this question. Mr. Raynor also disagreed with the paper. I believe that the others present approved the general approach.

Copies are also attached of the position paper on this subject which [Page 967] the Secretary has had under consideration.2 It is paragraph 4(c) of this paper to which reference is made in paragraph 3 of the attached paper.

  1. Not printed. The draft paper is entitled “Outline of United States Position on South African Race Conflict Item.” With some minor editorial changes, it was forwarded as a substitute position paper to the U.S. Delegation in New York; see telegram Gadel 35, Nov. 4, p. 971.↩
  2. Reference is to SD/A/C.1/395, dated Oct. 5, 1952, p. 938.↩