Foreign Relations of the United States, 1946, General; the United Nations, Volume I

501/3–2246

Memorandum by the Director of the Office of Special Political Affairs (Hiss) to the Secretary of State

[Washington,] March 22, 1946.

Reference your memorandum of March 22 on the subject of personnel attending the Security Council.

Mr. Joseph E. Johnson, Chief of the Division of International Security Affairs, was sent to New York to attend the meetings of the Committee of Experts⁴¹ which began on Wednesday, March 20. Mr. Stettinius has definitely counted on Mr. Johnson’s being available in New York on indefinite detail from the Department for general responsibilities relating to Security Council meetings. I have just found I will not be able to go up on Sunday as I have made an appointment along the lines you and I discussed yesterday for Monday afternoon. For this reason, it seems all the more important that Mr. Johnson remain on in New York even though he may not be needed for direct assistance to you.

Mr. Rusk, who dealt with Joint Chiefs of Staff matters in the War Department during the war with the rank of Colonel, is our principal liaison officer with the Military Staff Committee members.⁴² Mr. Stettinius has felt it important that he be in New York on a more or less regular basis for this liaison work so long as the Military Staff Committee is establishing its organization and dealing with the important question of the agreements for supplying of forces for the Security Council.⁴³

A[lger] H[iss]

41. For documentation on the work of the Security Council’s Committee of Experts, with particular reference to the establishment of rules for voting in the Security Council, see pp. 251 ff.
42. For documentation on United States efforts to bring about the organization of the Security Council’s Military Staff Committee and to further its work, see pp. 712 ff.
43. Marginal notation by Secretary Byrnes: “O.K. J.F.B.”