501.PA/11–1545: Telegram

The Ambassador in the United Kingdom ( Winant ) to the Secretary of State

12087. MacLeish to Benton. This cable covers November 14 and 1525 at the UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) Conference in London. It is now possible to report that all articles in the final constitution have been reported to the plenary sessions and have been approved. There remains for tomorrow only the final adoption of the whole document and the Final Act.

At the last session of Commission IV but one, on November 14, a considerable controversy arose over the manner in which the location to [of?] the organization in Paris should be specified. The United Kingdom proposed that it be specified as Paris for a period of 5 years, thereupon to be reviewed for possible resolution. To this [Page 1522] the French naturally objected and after protracted debate and negotiation, it was filially decided this morning, November 15, that the location should be specified in the Final Act as Paris but that nothing in this provision “shall in any way affect the right of the General Conference to make decisions in regard to this matter by a two-thirds majority”. The French delegation regards the delegation of the United States as having won for it a most important point and the British delegation regards that of the United States as having successfully resolved a difficult situation between it and the French delegation.

In the Executive Committee today the point of view of the United States delegation, that the Preparatory Commission should go into session immediately upon the adjournment of the Conference, was presented and accepted with certain modifications; the American delegation sought in its proposal to go farther than the Executive Committee proved willing to go in establishing a timetable of operations for the Preparatory Commission. The American suggestions were quite specific with respect to the action that ought to be taken by the Preparatory Commission on the choice of Executive Committee and the appointment of an Interim Secretariat as well as a Technical Committee to consider problems of educational and cultural reconstruction and the steps that should be taken to prepare for the first regular meeting of the Conference of the organization. The Executive Committee of this Conference preferred merely to specify the first meeting of the Preparatory Commission to be Friday, November 16, immediately after the final plenary session, and to permit the Preparatory Commission then to develop its own timetable and procedure.

The Executive Committee further considered and decided to refer to the Preparatory Commission the following resolutions proposed by the United States Delegation:

(1)
Regarding adult education,
(2)
Plans for a working arrangement between UNESCO and the International Council of Scientific Unions,
(3)
Regarding inter-librarians,
(4)
Regarding media of mass communication and their place in UNESCO, and
(5)
A resolution supporting an item in certain recommendations presented by the Czechoslovakian Delegation on arrangements between UNESCO and UNO on education in dependent areas.

These resolutions do not have standing as parts of the UNESCO Constitution but are meant to serve as directives to the Preparatory Commission in the performance of its work.

[Page 1523]

Quite probably the UNESCO Conference will be concluded tomorrow, November 16, by the adoption of the constitution as a whole and the acceptance and signature of the Final Act.26 [MacLeish.]

Winant
  1. A report on the Conference, sent to the Department as telegram 11875, November 13, is incorporated in the report printed in the Department of State Bulletin, November 18, 1945, pp. 798–800.
  2. For text of the Final Act of the United Nations Conference for the Establishment of an Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and for the text of the Constitution of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, see Department of State Bulletin, November 18, 1945, pp. 801 and 802, respectively; the Constitution of the Organization is also printed as Department of State Treaties and Other International Acts Series No. 1580, 61 Stat. (pt. 3) 2495.