500 CC(PC)/9–545: Telegram
The United States Representative on the Preparatory Commission ( Stettinius ) to the Acting Secretary of State
[Received 10:10 p.m.]
9076. Copre 64. I have had several preliminary conversations since my arrival. There has been no meeting of the Executive Committee as yet15 and the next meeting will be on Friday. I am summarizing for your information the gist of my conversations and am forwarding memo by pouch.
I called on Ernest Bevin 16 with Ambassador Winant and explained to him our view that with the coming of victory earlier than expected and the likelihood of receiving the necessary ratifications to the Charter early in October we should set a target date for an organization meeting of the General Assembly on or shortly after November 15, I explained that our thought was that this should be solely an organization meeting and that the first full plenary meeting of the General Assembly should be held next spring. Mr. Bevin said he thought that sounded reasonable. We also discussed the question of the permanent location. I told him that our position was that if the United Nations desired to have the permanent location within the US as one of them had indicated, we would be perfectly willing to have it there and were prepared to issue an invitation to that effect. Bevin had not given the matter any thought but agreed to give it prompt attention. Bevin said he was prepared to take a strong stand against the Russians on the question of whether the International Labor Office should be brought into relation to the United Nations. He also felt that it was quite improper for the World Trade Union Conference as a private organization to have any formal relationship to the United Nations.
I had two long talks with Sir Alexander Cadogan 17 and discussed with him at length both the matter of the time and place of the first Assembly and the location of the permanent headquarters. Cadogan is thoroughly in accord with our idea of speeding up the work of the Executive Committee and preparing to hold an organization meeting of the Assembly as soon as possible after the necessary ratifications are in. I told Cadogan in confidence of our position regarding the location. He indicated a preference for Europe believing that the US and specifically San Francisco was not sufficiently accessible. He prefers Geneva but agreed that if the Russians would not accept Geneva [Page 1443] as a practical matter there is no other place in Europe at this time. Cadogan felt that it was important that the Foreign Ministers attend the meetings of the Security Council when important subjects were to be discussed and that therefore headquarters should be located in Europe.
I told Cadogan that the Russians and Chinese and certain countries had expressed a desire for the location in the US. I told him of my conversation with Gromyko in San Francisco. He said that Molotov 18 had a private conversation with him at Potsdam and had stated his definite opinion that the location should be the US and specifically San Francisco. We discussed the possibility if no agreement appears to be possible in the near future of postponing the final decision on this question until the first plenary session of the Assembly which might meet in San Francisco, for example, next spring. In such case the various councils and the secretariat could meet in San Francisco in January. Cadogan appeared to like this suggestion.
I had a talk with Gladwyn Jebb 19 and he also thought well of the idea of holding an early organization meeting of the Assembly in London this fall.
Mr. Bianchi, the Chilean delegate to the Executive Committee, and Mr. Freitas Valle, the delegate from Brazil, called on me separately. They both expressed the hope that I would do all in my power to speed things along. I told them of our program for holding an organization meeting this fall and explained our view in some detail. I said that I planned to make this proposal at the next meeting of the Executive Committee. They agreed entirely with this program and said that they would back me up.
As to the permanent site of the organization, the first choice of each was Geneva. They did not believe the Russians would retreat from their opposition to Geneva and said their second choice was San Francisco.
In discussion at luncheon today with Prime Minister Attlee he stated that there was nothing more important in his mind at the present time than for us to speed along with the organization of the United Nations and particularly the establishment of the Security Council so it could start functioning early next year. The Prime Minister stated that he had given the matter of permanent location a great deal of thought and that he felt definitely that the headquarters should be in Europe and that he thought Copenhagen would be a good choice.
I am having dinner with Ambassador Koo tomorrow evening.
[Page 1444](b) Don’t believe we are going to have any difficulty in getting the Executive Committee to accept our proposed time schedule and the majority of the delegates will welcome our leadership.
- i.e., since the arrival of Mr. Stettinius in London.↩
- British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.↩
- British Permanent Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and British Alternate Representative on the Preparatory Commission.↩
- V. M. Molotov, Soviet People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs.↩
- Counsellor, British Foreign Office.↩