Office of the Historian

500.CC/2–2345: Telegram

The Acting Secretary of State to the Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Winant)63

Washington, February 23, 1945—midnight.

1409. 1. The following is the text of the invitation referred to in the immediately preceding telegram:

(Begin text) The Government of the United States of America, on behalf of itself and of the Governments of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and the Republic of China, invites the Government of (Note: Insert name of Government to which invitation is being sent) to send representatives to a conference of the United Nations to be held on April 25, 1945, at San Francisco in the United States of America to prepare a charter for a general international organization for the maintenance of international peace and security.

The above named governments suggest that the conference consider as affording a basis for such a charter the proposals for the establishment of a general international organization, which were made public last October as a result of the Dumbarton Oaks Conference, and which have now been supplemented by the following provisions for Section C of Chapter VI:—

“C. Voting:—1. Each member of the Security Council should have one vote. 2. Decisions of the Security Council on procedural matters should be made by an affirmative vote of seven members. 3. Decisions of the Security Council on all other matters should be made by an affirmative vote of seven members including the [Page 90] concurring votes of the permanent members; provided that, in decisions under Chapter VIII, Section A and under the second sentence of Paragraph 1 of Chapter VIII, Section C, a party to a dispute should abstain from voting.”

Further information as to arrangements will be transmitted subsequently. In the event that the Government of (Note: Insert name of Government to which invitation is being sent) desires in advance of the Conference to present views or comments concerning the proposals, the Government of the United States of America will be pleased to transmit such views and comments to the other participating governments. (End of text)

2. In the event that the Provisional Government of the French Republic becomes one of the Governments sponsoring the invitation, and you are so advised of this fact, then insert in the first sentence of the text of the invitation after the words “Republic of China” the following: “and of the Provisional Government of the French Republic.”

3. Invitations will be sent to the Governments of the following United Nations: Australia, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Ethiopia, France (if it does not agree to join in sponsoring the Conference), Greece, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, India, Iran, Iraq, Liberia, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippine Commonwealth, Union of South Africa, Venezuela, and Yugoslavia. Note that an invitation will not be sent to Poland.

Grew
  1. Repeated on the same date as telegrams 406 to Moscow, 316 to Chungking, and 753 to Paris.↩