840.50/2276
The Belgian Minister for Foreign Affairs (Spaak) to the American Ambassador to the Belgian Government in Exile (Biddle), at London77
Dos. 134/23
Mr. Ambassador:
1. The Belgian Government has carefully examined the draft agreement for the establishment of a “United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration”, which Your Excellency was good enough to communicate to me in your letter of June 10 last. It has greeted with satisfaction the initiative taken by the United States Government and hastens to reply to the invitation which the latter has extended to it to collaborate toward the successful realization of the proposed action. To this end it will lend its full cooperation.
2. The Belgian Government has taken note of the fact that the document constitutes merely a proposal and a basis for later discussions. It understands, moreover, that the proposed agreement has the limited aim of “Relief” and “Rehabilitation”. Thus, the opinions which it is led to express may in no way prejudice the attitude it may take concerning questions which will arise when the United Nations enter upon the study of international cooperation in other fields.
Pursuant to the wish expressed by Your Excellency, I have the honor hereinafter to submit to you the suggestions resulting from the Belgian Government’s examination. In formulating them it has above all been moved by the care to give them as constructive a character as possible. In doing so, it has taken into account the explanations which have been furnished on different points during the semi-official exchange of views which took place at the State Department with its representatives.
3. By the terms of Article III, the Council is to constitute the “policy making body”. Moreover, it appears from the explanations furnished by the State Department that the Council constitutes the supreme authority; that all the other organs of the Administration, including the Central Committee, are only emanations from it; that the Director General alone has executive power; that, aside from the Director General, U.N.R.R.A. includes as essential organs the Regional Committees and the “Supply Committee”.
Such a conception is reasonable and the Belgian Government gives its full support to it. Certain provisions of the proposal, however, [Page 941] appear to contradict it, and it would seem to be desirable to establish a more exact harmony between those provisions and the fundamental conception with which they should correspond.
Thus, by the terms of Article III, Section 3, “in the intervals between sessions of the Council, the Central Committee shall exercise all the powers and functions thereof”. One might deduce from this that between sessions of the Council it becomes the “policy making body”. To avoid all ambiguity, the Belgian Government suggests that it be stated that action taken by the Central Committee shall remain within the limits of policy adopted by the Council or shall be justified by urgent considerations. In this case, the measures taken should be ratified by the Council. This should be done especially in so far as the admission of new members, as provided in Article II, is concerned. In the same spirit, a proposal put forward by a member, as provided in Article I–2–c, should be susceptible of being submitted for study when it has received the approval of the Council; the members of the “Committee on Supplies” (Article III, 4), the non-European members of the Committee for Europe, the members of the Committee for the Far East who do not belong to that part of the world (Article III, 5), and the members of the technical Committees provided in Article III, 6 should as a general rule be appointed by the Council on the motion of the Central Committee.
Furthermore, it is provided by Article III, Section 3, that the Central Committee shall convene the representatives of any member Government to those of its sessions at which measures of special interest to that Government are to be discussed. It appears from the explanations furnished by the State Department that any member expressing such a wish has the right to be heard by the Central Committee during the examination of questions of special interest to it but that it would have no deliberative voice. The Belgian Government considers that members who are present under such conditions should take part in the deliberations and in the votes on an equal footing with the permanent members of the Central Committee.
Article III, Section 5, defines the composition and powers of the Regional Committees. In order to ensure more rapid and effective decisions, it would be desirable that certain of the Council’s powers should be delegated to the Regional Committees.
Article III, Section 2, provides that the Council shall be convoked at the request of a majority of its members. The Belgian Government proposes that such a meeting take place at the request of a quarter of the members of the Council.
In case it were not possible to define the respective powers of the Central Committee and the other organs of U.N.R.R.A., in accordance with the above advanced observations, it would be necessary to [Page 942] consider enlarging the Central Committee by the addition of supplementary members chosen from among the Governments of the then occupied countries.
4. By the terms of Article I, Section 2, the activities of the Administration within the territory of a member State will be carried out in consultation with and with the consent of that Government. The Belgian Government considers that from the time when a legal Government in fact exercises its authority over national territory, it must clearly be responsible for carrying out all measures for “Relief” and “Rehabilitation”, with the sole reservation of the requirements which may result from military operations that are still in progress. The-terms of the provision in question should be precisely set forth in this sense.
5. Article V provides that each member Government pledges its full support to the Administration, within the limits of its available resources and subject to the requirements of its constitutional procedure. In this field, the Belgian Government wishes to state that if, as it hopes, the resources of Belgium permit, it intends to make payment itself for purchases made for the “Relief” and “Rehabilitation” of the country. It is prepared to consider the idea of giving other member States such assistance as may lie within its power, but the scope of the undertakings in this respect proposed in paragraph 1 of Article V does not appear to it to be very clear, and it would be desirable, in its opinion, that it should eventually be precisely defined. This should also be done with regard to the scope of Article VII which seems to-imply that the military authorities will assume responsibility for “Relief” and “Rehabilitation” until they themselves decide that hostilities: and military requirements have ended. It would also be well to state clearly whether, as the Belgian Government believes to be the case on the strength of the explanations which it has received, the Council’s decisions will be taken by a simple majority, except in cases where the majority is otherwise expressly specified. Finally, it should be understood that the Agreement would in no way impair the right of the occupied countries to obtain payments in kind from enemy States corresponding to the spoliation which their economic systems may have suffered as the result of a systematic exploitation of their resources.
As regards the “allocations” of both food products and raw materials or other products, the Belgian Government understands that these will be made with due regard to available resources and delivery facilities, and, if these are inadequate to meet requirements, on the basis of equality of sacrifices on the part of all the United Nations.
The proposal does not include any provision with regard to the denunciation of the Convention or its interpretation. The Belgian Government thinks it would be well to repair this omission.
[Page 943]6. Subject to the points outlined above, the Belgian Government is prepared to join the United States and the other interested nations with a view to bringing to realization the proposed course of action.
I take [etc.]
- Copy transmitted to the Department by the Ambassador in his despatch No. 79, July 20; received July 28.↩