IO Files: US/A/C.4/19
Memorandum of Conversation, by Mr. Charles W. Yost of the United States Delegation
In the course of a conversation yesterday afternoon I asked Mr. Gromyko whether his Delegation had given further consideration to the suggested procedure for dealing with the question of “states directly concerned” which had been transmitted to them in an aide-mémoire a few days ago and which Mr. Dulles had explained more fully at our recent luncheon. Mr. Gromyko said that his Delegation is still studying this question. He felt, however, that it would be extremely difficult for them to accept the US proposal in view of the Soviet belief that the terms of Article 79 of the Charter require formally signed agreements among the “states directly concerned”.
Mr. Gromyko asked whether we had given further consideration to the question he had raised at our luncheon as to whether the United States believes that the five principal powers are “states directly concerned” in all of the trusteeship agreements which have been presented. I replied that it is precisely because we feel that an attempt to define this term will lead to endless controversy and debate, and I cited the Indian claim to be a “state directly concerned” in the Tanganyika agreement, that we were proposing a procedure which would avoid this difficulty and enable the Assembly to set up the Trusteeship Council at this session. I pointed out that our procedure would accord to the Soviet Union, as well as to ourselves and to any other state which might consider itself directly concerned, ample opportunity to present its views to the proposed subcommittee, to the full committee and to the Assembly. Mr. Gromyko continued, however, to contest the constitutionality of our procedure and concluded our conversation by stating that, while it was, of course, most desirable to set up the Trusteeship Council as soon as possible, it would nevertheless be better not to do so at all, than to do so on an unsound constitutional basis and by virtue of trusteeship agreements which may not be satisfactory to all the “states directly concerned”.