840.50/21966/8
The Netherlands Embassy to the Department of State
The Netherlands Government has taken cognizance of the Secretary of State’s note of July 28th83 with regard to the creation of a United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration.
At present the Netherlands Government wishes in reply to this note to limit its observations to the composition of the Central Committee.
Notwithstanding the American Government’s interpretation of the role to be played by the Central Committee, the Netherlands Government feels that the fact that this committee which has the same policy-making powers as the Council, when the latter body is not in session, could in fact if not in theory make the Central Committee the most important institution of the Relief and Rehabilitation Administration. The Netherlands Government therefore maintains its view that the composition of the Central Committee is too exclusive and too restricted.
The Netherlands Government would furthermore wish to draw attention to the following Tass statement:
“A few days ago the London Times and Washington Star published reports on negotiations between representatives of the USSR, USA, Great Britain and China concerning the composition of a central committee of ‘United Nations Administration of Relief and Rehabilitation,’ a draft agreement on the organization of which was adopted by representatives of the above-mentioned States in Washington on June 13, 1943.
“These reports contain the allegation that in the course of negotiations on this subject the representative of the Soviet Union demanded that the composition of the central committee be limited to representatives of the four Powers and that the proposal on an additional inclusion in the committees of representatives of three more states was declined ‘under strong pressure of the Soviet Union.’
“Tass has been authorized to state that these allegations do not correspond to the facts. In reality, the proposal that the central committee of the Administration be composed of representatives of the above-mentioned four powers figured from the very beginning in the draft of the United States State Department and this proposal was endorsed by the representative of the Soviet Union.”
In view of this authorized statement by the Tass Agency, the Netherlands Government feels that the text of the Draft Agreement might now be successfully reconsidered, and that particularly the [Page 962] composition of the Central Committee be modified on the basis of the suggestions which were made to this effect in Dr. Loudon’s note to the Honorable the Secretary of State of June 28, 1943, No. GA–1949.
The Netherlands Government expresses the hope that this view will be shared by the Government of the United States of America and that it will soon be possible to establish a United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration in which the smaller nations will be adequately represented.
- See telegram of July 28, 11 p.m., to the Ambassador in the United Kingdom, supra.↩