840.50/844: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Chargé in the Soviet Union (Henderson)
Washington, December 5, 1942—6
p.m.
394. Your 480, November 20, 9 p.m.
- 1.
- Litvinoff has raised two questions (a) as to whether the Director General would have to obtain approval of the Government concerned before undertaking relief operations in any country and (b) as to whether the Director General would also be a member of the Council. With respect to (a) he was advised that the sentence in Article IV reading “in arranging for the procurement, transportation and distribution of supplies and services he and his representatives shall consult and collaborate with the appropriate authorities of the United Nations and shall wherever practicable use the facilities made available by such authorities” had been phrased with a view to the many different circumstances which would be confronted in many parts of the world. In the case of the Soviet Union we anticipated that all relief would be distributed by agencies of the Soviet Government. In other areas there might be questions as to what Government if any [Page 155] was in control of the area in question and in such cases the “appropriate authorities” might he the commanders of the reoccupying forces. With respect to (b) he was advised that theoretically there was no reason why the Director General should not be a member of the Policy Committee but that in practice he would need administrative independence, his duties would absorb his full time and he would require different qualifications from the members of the Policy Committee who would be representatives of their Government.
- 2.
- The Chinese Government has advised us of its willingness to accept the proposed agreement as it stands. It nevertheless made two suggestions one of which was the same as Litvinoff’s point (a) and the other was that the agreement should be amendable by a simple majority vote of the Policy Committee and of the Council.
- 3.
- For your strictly confidential information. The preliminary views of the British Government have been received indicating that the broad lines of the proposal are acceptable. The British Government makes one suggestion, that the Policy Committee be expanded to seven members with a view to making the proposal more acceptable to the smaller states. It suggests that Canada as a major potential supplier of relief goods have one of the three additional representatives. The British Government wishes to permit the Soviet Government to express its views before formally communicating to us its own and accordingly nothing should be said to the Soviet authorities concerning the British Government’s views other than that it has given us informally to understand that it agrees in principle.
- 4.
- If the proposal is acceptable in principle to the Soviet Government we wish to submit a draft to other governments with a view to convening a United Nations conference to discuss the matter at an early date. Please accordingly again ask Molotov for an indication of the Soviet Government’s views as soon as possible. I am discussing it again with Litvinoff.
Hull