Office of the Historian

500.CC/2–2345: Telegram

The Acting Secretary of State to the Minister in Iceland (Dreyfus)

Washington, February 23, 1945—8 p.m.

38. The Minister of Iceland56 orally requested, under instructions from his government, that an exception be made for Iceland to attend San Francisco Conference without declaring a state of war.57 [Page 87] He said that his Government was making similar representations at London and Moscow.58

We replied that the San Francisco Conference is a conference of United Nations; that the United Nations are those which have subscribed to the Declaration of January 1, 1942; that to be eligible to sign that Declaration a nation must be (1) “at war” and (2) “rendering material assistance and contributions”; that Iceland clearly is eligible as far as (2) is concerned but is not formally at war. We stated further that all the nations represented at San Francisco will have qualified as above indicated and therefore we do not feel it would be fair to those nations to make an exception in the case of Iceland, even though we appreciate greatly the definite contributions made by Iceland to the prosecution of the war. Finally, we said we hoped very much that Iceland would see her way clear to qualify as a United Nation.

Repeated to London and Moscow.59

Grew
  1. Thor Thors, Icelandic Minister in the United States.↩
  2. In a discussion at the fifth plenary meeting at the Yalta Conference, February 8, 1945, concerning a list of nations to be invited to the forthcoming United Nations Conference, President Roosevelt added the name of “Iceland, the newest of the United Nations Republics”. ( Conferences at Malta and Yalta, p. 774.)↩

  3. In telegram 37, February 14, 4 p.m., from Reykjavik, the Minister in Iceland, (Dreyfus) reported on conversations of the British Minister and Foreign Minister Thors: “Thors said Iceland would be lacking in self respect if it abandoned its traditional policy at this late date when the defeat of the enemy appears imminent but he also expressed great interest in having Iceland represented at the conference.” (500.CC/2–1445)

    In telegram 56, March 1, 3 p.m., from Reykjavik, Minister Dreyfus reported on a conversation with Foreign Minister Thors: “He said the Soviet Minister called on him last evening to inform him of a cable from Moscow instructing him to inform the Government of Iceland that the Soviet Government shared the views of Britain and USA regarding invitations to the San Francisco Conference and it would be in Iceland’s interest to become one of the United Nations. Thors told him the decision had already been taken but added in his jocose way that he would be willing to reconsider it after the Soviets declared war on Japan.” (740.0011 EW 3–145) (For text of agreement of February 11, 1945, regarding entry of the Soviet Union into the war against Japan, see Conferences at Malta and Yalta, p. 984.)

    ↩
  4. Telegrams 1403 and 403, respectively.↩