Office of the Historian

134. Letter From the Representative at the United Nations (Lodge) to the Secretary of the Treasury (Humphrey)1

New York, November 25, 1955.

Dear George: As you know, the proposal for an International Development Fund has been under consideration by the United Nations for several years. The Economic and Finance Committee of the Tenth General Assembly2 has had under consideration a proposal to establish an Ad Hoc Committee to analyze comments of governments with reference to the proposal, and the United States has been serving on an informal sub-committee to draft acceptable language.

The enclosed draft resolution3 is the result of the work of this [Page 344] sub-committee and it is the opinion of our Delegation4 that the language does not contravene in any respect the position of the United States. Consequently, since a decision had to be made immediately, I assumed responsibility, upon the recommendation of Congressman Brooks Hays, for acceptance of this language, but only on condition that the record reflect, as it now does, that Member States are not committed in any way and that no authority exists in the resolution for the drawing of a statute to establish an international fund.

For our Government to have withheld approval of this resolution, which merely authorizes continued studies as above outlined, would have constituted a retreat from the position outlined by President Eisenhower in his speech5 on April 16, 1953, in which he stated: “This Government is ready to ask its people to join with all nations in devoting a substantial percentage of the savings achieved by disarmament to a fund for world aid and reconstruction.” I hope you will agree that it would have been unthinkable for our Government to show any weakness in our adherence to this significant statement of the President.

In view of the facts set forth above, I became convinced that the Delegation’s judgment was correct. A reading of the enclosed statement by Congressman Hays, our Representative on the Economic Committee, clearly establishes the United States’ understanding in agreeing to this procedure for collating information on various proposals pertaining to a fund for economic development of underdeveloped countries.

I very much regret that the time element prevented full consultation with you, which normally I would always do on any matter affecting the Treasury.

The lack of time plus the damaging effect of our failure to accept the language, plus the fact that Brooks Hays is a man of principle in whom I have much confidence, made me feel justified in making this quick decision.

Sincerely yours,

Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr.6
  1. Source: Department of State, Central Files, 398.051/12–755.↩
  2. The 10th session convened on September 20.↩
  3. Not found with the source text. The text of the draft resolution on SUNFED was transmitted to the Department of State in Delga 308, November 17 (Department of State, Central Files, 340/11–1855), and Delga 326, November 21 (ibid., 340.3100/11–2155).↩
  4. A list of the U.S. Delegation is printed in Department of State Bulletin, September 26, 1955, p. 489.↩
  5. The President’s address before the American Society of Newspaper Editors was broadcast to the nation over radio and television. For text, see ibid., April 27, 1953, p. 599.↩
  6. Printed from a copy which bears this typed signature.↩