501.AA/8–2346: Telegram
The Acting United States Representative at the United Nations (Johnson) to the Secretary of State
us urgent
[Received 7:20 p.m.]
515. Reference my telephone conversations this afternoon with Alger Hiss and Hayden Raynor.
At the meeting today on initiative of Secretary General Lie, Parodi, [Page 433] Hsia, Gromyko, Cadogan, Lange,29 Sobolev30 and I were present. Informal discussion of membership problem was initiated by Secretary General Lie, who made earnest plea for admission of all 9 candidates. He also implored the members having the right of veto not to exercise this right in the case of applications for membership in the UN. He told the group that he thought use of the veto for this purpose would be damaging to the prestige of the UN and would further lower the esteem of the Security Council in the eyes of the world. Public opinion, he thought, already inclined to the view that the veto had been too frequently employed. He said that he knew that the representatives of the US, Mexico and Brazil favored the admission of all the applicants, and that he believed certain other members of the Council would also. He was also aware of strong objections which had been raised by other states represented on the Council.
I then spoke myself, confirming Lie’s statement that the US favored admission of all the applicants, and gave at length our reasons for this view. I told my colleagues that my Government desired me to make our position in this matter clear at the next meeting of the Council, when the report of the Committee on Membership would be considered and that a statement of our views had been prepared which I would then place on the record. I told them that I had copies of this statement with me and would distribute them to all the members present. I expressed the hope that all of them would be able to give the US their support in the Council on this important question. I concluded by saying that I must necessarily reserve the position that my Government would take on applications of individual states in the event that all members of the Council did not give their support to our proposal for admission of all 9 applicants.
Parodi then asked me if I would have to reserve my position in the event that France should be unable to cast an affirmative vote for Siam. He indicated that he wished to vote affirmatively for Siam, but that, pending the outcome of the talks now taking place in Washington between representatives of France and Siam, he would have to oppose the Siamese application under present instructions. I asked him if it would not be possible for him to abstain from voting if it became necessary to vote before the Washington talks had reached a favorable conclusion. He said that he was sorry, but that under his present instructions he would have to oppose the Siamese application.
The general opinion of the group was that the effect of abstention by a member of the Council is not determined. If one of the powers [Page 434] possessing the veto should abstain, the controversial question might therefore arise as to whether it was not a veto by implication.31
Cadogan said he was sorry he could not say now what his attitude toward our proposal would be, that he could not give it his support under present instructions, but that he would telegraph London immediately.
Gromyko said that he would state his views on our proposal at the next meeting of the Council.
Cadogan informed me privately afterwards that he regretted that he could not give my proposal his full support, but that his present instructions made it impossible. He also indicated that he did not personally agree. I know that Cadogan feels strongly on the subject of Albania and Outer Mongolia, and believes that those countries should not be admitted at the present time. His views probably reflect those of the British Foreign Office. He said that he would not make any recommendation on our proposals and that if Gromyko should speak at the Council first, indicating that he accepted our proposition, the British then might be able to support it, but that he would not speak before Gromyko. I gathered from this remark that Cadogan feels that if all other members of the Council, including the Russians, accept our proposal, the British Foreign Office may allow him to go along.
Lie informed me privately that Gromyko told him yesterday that he would vote against Portugal and Ireland. Since the meeting this afternoon, I have spoken individually with all the other members of the Council who were not present, and have sent them copies for their confidential information of the statement of our position that I shall make at the next meeting of the Council. The Brazilian, Mexican and Egyptian delegates have assured me of their full support. Van Kleffens32 has not yet committed himself, but talked favorably and said that the thing which troubled him most was the Albanian disregard for treaty obligations. I told him that that point troubled us also, but that for the sake of the broader interest involved in securing admission of all 9 applicants, we would be willing to pass over our very real objections to Albania. I made clear to each of those who were not present at the meeting in Lie’s quarters that, if our proposals were not supported by all members of the Council, the US would be compelled to reserve its position on individual states.
- Oscar Lange, Polish Representative on the Security Council.↩
- A. A. Sobolev, United Nations Assistant Secretary-General for Security Council Affairs.↩
- For documentation on this problem as part of the larger question of voting procedures of the Security Council under Article 27 of the Charter, see pp. 251 ff.↩
- Eelco van Kleffens, Netherlands Representative on the Security Council.↩