Office of the Historian

Conference files, lot 60 D 627, CF 286

Memorandum of Conversation, by the Adviser to the United States Delegation (Bonsal)

secret
Geneva, June 17, 1954.

Participants:

  • Prince Wan, Leader of Thailand Delegation
  • The Under Secretary
  • Philip W. Bonsal

Subject:

  • Thailand application to the Security Council.

Prince Wan called on General Smith at 4:00 p.m. He stated that he is satisfied with the present draft of the resolution which will be submitted to the Security Council in connection with Thailand’s application. The Security Council meets tomorrow, June 18. It is probable that there will be no vote until Tuesday, June 22.

Prince Wan stated that he was leaving for Bern on June 23 and planned to leave Switzerland on June 26. He will proceed either to [Page 1173] Bangkok or to New York depending on whether there is to be a special session of the General Assembly.

Prince Wan speculated on whether Malik, the representative of Lebanon on the Security Council, would vote affirmatively on the Thai resolution. He recalled that last year Malik had expressed himself generally as being in favor of the Thai policy in this regard. (Later this evening, Prince Wan telephoned to say that he had been informed by Ambassador Sarasin that Malik will vote for the Thai resolution.)1

  1. Following the submission of the Thai appeal on May 29, the Security Council considered this question at its 672d, 673d, and 674th meetings, June 3, 16, and 18, respectively. On June 18 the draft resolution was put to the vote at the request of the U.S. Representative. It received 9 votes in favor, 1 against (Soviet Union), and 1 abstention (Lebanon). Since the vote against was that of a permanent member, the draft resolution was not adopted.

    On July 7 the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Thailand sent a letter to the Secretary-General stating that since the Security Council had rejected the request for observers, his government was now obliged to have recourse to the General Assembly. He requested that an item entitled “Request of Thailand for observation under the Peace Observation Commission” be placed on the agenda of the eighth session of the General Assembly. On Aug. 20 the Thai Foreign Minister informed the Secretary-General that he had been instructed by his government not to press for a resumed session of the General Assembly. No further request was received to place the question on the agenda of the ninth regular session.

    For information on the submission of the Thai appeal to the United Nations Security Council, see United Nations, Official Records of the Security Council, Ninth Year, 672d, 673d, and 674th Meetings; United Nations, Yearbook of the United Nations, 1954, pp. 60–61; and U.S. Department of State, US Participation in the UN: Report by the President to the Congress for the Year 1954, pp. 54–56. Voluminous unpublished material exists on the Thai appeal in the following files of the Department of State: 320.2 AB; 330; 396.1 GE; 751G.; and in the IO files—master files of the Reference and Documents Section of the Bureau of International Organization Affairs.

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