Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers, 1945, General: The United Nations, Volume I

800.014/4–345

The Secretary of State to Mr. Leo Pasvolsky, Special Assistant to the Secretary of State

Washington, April 3, 1945.

My Dear Mr. Pasvolsky: It was agreed at Yalta that the five governments with permanent seats in the Security Council should consult each other prior to the United Nations Conference on providing machinery in the Charter of the United Nations for dealing with territorial trusteeships which would apply only to (A) existing mandates of the League of Nations; (B) territory to be detached from the enemy as a result of this war; and (C) any other territory that may voluntarily be placed under trusteeship.⁹³ It was further agreed that no discussions of specific territories will take place during the preliminary consultations on trusteeships or at the United Nations Conference itself. Only machinery and principles of trusteeship will be formulated at the Conference for inclusion in the Charter and it will be a matter for subsequent agreement as to which territories within the categories specified above will actually be placed under trusteeship.

Within these terms of reference you are directed to represent the Government of the United States in these preliminary consultations which are scheduled to take place in Washington as soon as representatives of the other invited Governments can arrive in the United States.

You will take for your instructions the paper on Trusteeship Arrangements prepared by the Interdepartmental Committee on Dependent Area Aspects of International Organization⁹⁴ and which has been approved by the Secretary of State, the Secretary of War, the Secretary of the Navy, and the Secretary of the Interior.⁹⁵

You are expected to consult, as occasion may require, with the other members of the Interdepartmental Committee referred to above, but you will be responsible for carrying on the conversations under my authority and direction.

You are directed to report to me and to the members of the United States delegation to the San Francisco Conference on the developments and results of these conversations.

Sincerely yours,

E. R. Stetttinius, Jr.

93. See statement released to the press April 3, Department of State Bulletin, April 8, 1945, p. 601.
94. See memorandum of March 17 with draft statement on trusteeship arrangements, p. 134.
95. This letter, from the Secretary of State to Mr. Pasvolsky, which was drafted on March 28, presumed that formal clearance by the Secretaries of War and the Navy of the draft proposals, which had been formulated through interdepartmental collaboration, would be promptly forthcoming. See extracts from the Secretary’s Diary, 18 March-7 April 1945, p. 140, for his account of differences of opinion expressed at a meeting of the three Secretaries on April 2, and the consequences.