500.CC/6–1945: Telegram
The Chairman of the United States Delegation (Stettinius) to the Acting Secretary of State
[Received June 19—11:59 p.m.]
10. Please transmit the following message to Harriman personal from me:53
“Please call on Molotov immediately and inform him that we have canvassed the situation here thoroughly with respect to the proposed text which he gave you and also wired to Gromyko. We find that the text would have no chance whatsoever of acceptance by the Conference. The absolute minimum which we could hope to get adopted would be one of the following:
‘The General Assembly has the right to discuss any questions or any matters within the sphere of the Charter or relating to the powers and functions of any organs provided in the Charter, and except as provided in paragraph 2B of this section, to make recommendations to the members of the United Nations or to the Security Council or both on any such questions or matters.’
This simply means that the word ‘Charter’ would be substituted for the words ‘functions and powers covered by this section’.
If Molotov prefers we could try the following two alternatives ‘scope of the Charter’54 or ‘sphere of action of the Organization’ instead of ‘sphere of the Charter’.
Please also inform Molotov that we cannot hold beyond tomorrow (Wednesday) afternoon the work of the Technical Committee involved and we must therefore have a reaction to this proposal by noon tomorrow San Francisco time. Otherwise, the almost inevitable result will be the re-adoption of a provision by the Conference much less to the liking of him and of us.
The change we suggest in Molotov’s draft in itself will be difficult to get accepted here, but we are prepared to do everything within our power to do this.
We are informing Gromyko of this tonight.
For your own information, the President arrived on Pacific Coast today preparatory to coming to San Francisco to close the Conference. This is the last question remaining for settlement.”
Please inform the President and Mr. Hull of the substance of this message.
- Message repeated to Moscow as telegram 1349, June 20, 1 a.m.↩
- In telegram 2190, June 20, 1 p.m., Ambassador Harriman informed Secretary Stettinius that lie had just received a written answer from Foreign Minister Molotov stating that the Soviet Government would accept the new proposed text substituting the words “scope (in Russian ‘predelakh’) of the Charter” for “sphere of the Charter”, and that he had instructed Mr. Gromyko by telegraph accordingly (500.CC/6–2045).↩