Office of the Historian

IO Files: US/A/155

Memorandum by David Popper of the United States Delegation Staff of Advisers60

secret
[New York,] November 20, 1946.

If the Netherlands is not elected to the Economic and Social Council, it may be desirable, by way of compensation, to support the Netherlands for the Trusteeship Council whenever that agency is set up. It will be recalled that the Netherlands Delegation at one stage indicated that it might be inclined to stand for the Trusteeship Council rather than the Economic and Social Council.

The successful conclusion of the negotiations with the Indonesians might provide a more favorable atmosphere for the Netherlands candidacy on the Trusteeship Council than would previously have been the case.61

I would suggest that we consider substituting the Netherlands for Denmark on our Trusteeship Council Slate. The Danes do not appear to have shown any special interest in a position of this sort, and we have had at least one bad experience with an unenthusiastic candidate.62 I believe the Netherlands could make at least as good a contribution to the work of the Trusteeship Council as the Danes, and I think it very desirable from our point of view that the Netherlands should not be excluded completely from the United Nations Councils.

An alternative possibility would be to substitute the Netherlands for Egypt. This could be justified on the ground the Arab states were already represented on both the Security Council and ECOSOC, and on the ground that it is not politically expedient for us to support an Arab state for the Trusteeship Council in view of the Palestine situation.63 In this connection it should be noted that, a few days ago, the Arab states agreed that Iraq would be their candidate for this council. We have always considered Iraq unacceptable.

  1. Addressed to Messrs. Sandifer, Ross, and Raynor.↩
  2. For documentation on the situation in the Netherlands East Indies, see vol. viii, pp. 787 ff.↩
  3. This refers to the earlier United States support of Uruguay for a position on the Economic and Social Council described in preceding pages.↩
  4. For documentation on this subject, see vol. vii, pp. 576 ff.↩