500.CC/4–345
The Department of State to the British Embassy 74
Memorandum
Tentative Suggestions Concerning the Allocation of Commission and Committee Positions at the Conference
It is hoped that by April 9 it will be possible for us to have agreed upon the composition of the Executive Committee, and the allocation of Chairmen, Rapporteurs and Secretaries of the proposed four commissions and twelve committees of the San Francisco Conference.
Consideration should be given, of course, to the personal qualifications of the individual delegates as well as to questions of geographic location and national power and prestige. Since our information about the composition of the several Delegations is not yet complete, the suggestions made below are necessarily highly tentative.
It is suggested that the Executive Committee should be composed of the Chairmen of the following Delegations: United States, Brazil, [Page 182] Canada, China, Czechoslovakia, France, Iran, Mexico, The Netherlands, Soviet Union, and the United Kingdom.
It is further suggested that the Presidents of the four commissions might be the Chairman of Delegation from the following countries:
- Commission I —General Provisions, South Africa
- Commission II —General Assembly, Belgium
- Commission III—Security Council, Norway
- Commission IV—Judicial Organization, Venezuela
The Rapporteur of each of these four commissions should be chosen with special regard to his technical qualifications and need not necessarily be the Chairman of a Delegation. It is tentatively suggested that the Rapporteurs should be allocated as follows:
- Commission I —Peru
- Commission II —Ecuador
- Commission III—Philippine Commonwealth
- Commission IV—Honduras
It is suggested that each of the four commissions should have a Secretary with rank and title of Assistant Secretary General who would be assisted by an American, as Executive Officer. The allocation of these four Secretaries of Commission might be:
- Commission I —Syria
- Commission II —Liberia
- Commission III—Nicaragua
- Commission IV—Ethiopia
The allocation of committee Chairmanships deserves special consideration, since most of the basic discussion and drafting will normally take place in committees rather than in the public sessions of commissions. Suggestions for Commission I are that the Chairmanships of Committees should be allocated among Delegation Chairmen as follows:
- Committee 1—Preamble, Purposes, and Principles—Bolivia
- Committee 2—Membership and General—Yugoslavia
The Committee Chairmen for Commission II might be the Chairmen of Delegation from the following countries:
- Committee 1—Structure and Procedures—Paraguay
- Committee 2—Political and Security Functions—Chile
- Committee 3—Economic and Social Cooperation—Colombia
- Committee 4—Trusteeship System—Australia
For Commission III the assignments of Committee Chairmen might be:
- Committee 1—Structure and Procedures—Turkey
- Committee 2—Peaceful Settlement—Uruguay
- Committee 3—Enforcement Arrangements—New Zealand
- Committee 4—Regional Arrangements—Greece
In Commission IV the Chairmen of Committees might be allocated as follows:
- Committee 1—International Court of Justice—India
- Committee 2—Legal Problems—Egypt
The Rapporteurs of these committees should obviously be persons of special competence. They might be chosen from countries not otherwise represented in commission or committee posts, or might be outstanding Delegates of countries from which other commission or committee positions have already been filled.
Each of the twelve committees would be assisted by a Secretary and by an Assistant Secretary, who for the most part would be provided by this Government. It is hoped that each of the sponsoring governments might detail two or three persons who, because of their training and knowledge of languages, would be especially qualified to serve as Secretaries of these committees. Your designation of such persons at your earliest conveninece would be greatly appreciated.
In addition to the principal working commissions and committees discussed above, Chairmen will also be needed for two special committees. For these purposes these Chairmen of Delegation of the following countries are suggested:
- Committee on Arrangements—Cuba
- Committee on Credentials and Nominations—Saudi Arabia
- Marginal notation on the original reads: “This memorandum was handed to the British Ambassador by the Secretary on April 3, 1945”. Copies were handed to the Soviet and Chinese Ambassadors on the same date.↩