Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers, 1945, General: The United Nations, Volume I

500.CC/3–2245: Telegram

The British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (Eden) to the British Ambassador in the United States (Halifax)⁹¹

[Paraphrase]

[London,] March 21, 1945.

I recently asked His Majesty’s Ambassador at Moscow to enquire if M. Molotov could give me any indication of his personal plans in connection with the San Francisco Conference. I have now received from the Soviet Ambassador in London⁹² a personal message from him dated March 13 in which after informing me that he would lead the Soviet Delegation although its full composition had not yet been decided, he goes on to say “I take it that the Ukrainian Delegation and the Delegation from White Russia will be able to participate in the work of the Conference right from the start”.

2. It is not clear whether this means that M. Molotov expects delegations of the two republics to take part automatically with the invited nations in the work of the Conference, or whether he is proposing that they should turn up in San Francisco in the expectation that the Conference will co-opt them at the outset of its work so that they can then take part in the proceedings.

3. The first alternative would be inconsistent with the wording of the English text paragraph 1 (2)⁹³ of the secret protocol of the Crimean Conference, although I am told that the Russian text might be read as slightly less conclusive on this point.

4. As regards the second alternative, we, for our part, contemplated that actual participation in the work of the Conference would be confined to delegations of those states which had formally been invited. The Russians from the first argued at the Crimean Conference that the Soviet Republics ought to be given “membership” then and there, but at the Fourth [Fifth] Plenary Meeting on February 8 President Roosevelt explained that there would be technical difficulty in including two republics amongst the states invited to attend the Conference,⁹⁴ and Marshal Stalin agreed to the formula which was adopted by the Conference and formed the basis of paragraph 1 (2) of the secret protocol.

5. My inclination is to remind Molotov of the agreement reached at the Crimean Conference and to point out that it will be for the states invited to the Conference to approve the proposed membership of the two republics, who would then be able to take their full share in the work of the organisations at the first meeting of the general assembly.

6. But it looks as if the Soviet Government are determined to send representatives of the two republics to San Francisco and it would in any case be impossible to prevent individuals going as members of the Soviet Union Delegation. We cannot foretell at what stage in the Conference the claim of the two republics to membership would be granted, nor indeed can we assume that we can put this through the Conference as the idea will not appeal to many states. Assuming that membership were granted at a fairly early stage, the Conference could presumably decide whether or not representatives of the two republics could be allowed to take part in the remainder of its proceedings. I should not however propose to mention this in any reply to M. Molotov.

91. Paraphrase copy handed to Assistant Secretary Dunn on March 22, by the Counselor of Embassy (Wright). On the transmittal chit of the British Embassy, Mr. Dunn wrote: “Answered orally by me March 22, 1945.” According to an attached memorandum of March 22, by Mr. Raynor, Mr. Dunn’s oral reply was along the lines of telegram 2234, March 23, noon, to London, p. 150.
92. Feodor Tarasovich Gusev.
93. For the Russian text of paragraph 1 (2) of the Protocol of Proceedings of the Crimea Conference, signed February 11, 1945, see Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Soviet Union, Sbornik deystvuyushchikh dogovorov, soglasheniy ikonventsiy, zaklyuchyennykh SSSR s inostrannymi gosudarstvami (Collection of Existing Treaties, Agreements and Conventions concluded by the U. S. S. R. with Foreign Governments), vol xi (Moscow, 1955), p. 74. For the English text, see Conferences at Malta and Yalta, p. 976.
94. See ibid., pp. 771, 775.