IO Files: US/A/161
Memorandum of Conversation, by Charles W. Yost of the United States Delegation Staff of Advisers
Brigadier Williams69 said that Mr. Spaak70 and Mr. Lie71 are fearful that, unless some steps are taken informally to come to a general agreement on the Economic and Social Council slates, balloting will continue indefinitely without any substantial change in the situation resulting from the last ballot. They were hopeful that the United States, British and Soviet Delegations might come to some agreement which would result in the prompt election of one eastern European and one other state to the remaining seats on the Council. I told Brigadier Williams that as far as I knew no such informal arrangements as he mentioned had been made. I said that the United States position was very difficult, that our calculations had been upset by the unanticipated election of Lebanon and that we had made at least qualified commitments to both Turkey and the Netherlands. I [Page 241] added, however, that it was my impression that our present intention is to vote for Byelorussia and Turkey on the next ballot, leaving to future developments our decision as to our subsequent course of action. Brigadier Williams said that he would continue his contacts with other Delegations and inform me of the results of these contacts. He said that he believed the Secretary-General might advise Mr. Spaak, if there were no final results from the next ballot, to postpone subsequent balloting until there had been a further opportunity for informal consultation among the Delegations.
He also said that he understood that there was some thought of proposing the Netherlands for a seat on the Trusteeship Council in order to console them for a possible defeat in the Economic and Social Council balloting. He, however, understood that the Netherlands did not desire a seat on the Trusteeship Council at this time, although they might wish to be a candidate for the Council in some future year.