IO Files: USGA/Ia/Del. Min./Exec/14 (Chr)

Minutes of Meeting of the United States Delegation (Executive Session), Held at London, Claridge’s Hotel, February 8, 1946, 9:30 a.m.

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[Here follow list of names of persons (18) present, and discussion of several agenda items.]

Privileges and Immunities

Mr. Walker said he would like to have instructions from the Delegation. Committee 6 was ready to send to the Assembly the rapporteur’s report on the general draft convention on privileges and immunities. The French and British had spoken against Mr. Walker’s reservation on the subject of tax exemption and military deferment.26 The Russians also had reserved their position on military deferment. The French Delegation was determined that this convention, including the tax exemption and military deferment features, be made a provisional rule for the next session of the Assembly to bridge the time gap until the convention had been generally ratified. The British and French had said that in view of its obligations under the Charter the United States had no right to reserve its position on tax exemption and military deferment. They felt that United States citizens in the Secretariat should be thought of as UNO citizens and could not do military service.

Mr. Walker thought if the United States position was going to be [Page 73] consistent with its obligations under the Charter that the Senate would have to go along on tax exemption and deferment but he did not wish to tell the Senate what to do. Senator Vandenberg said those were rightly questions for the United States Senate and that before Mr. Walker’s proposal was reached, Senator Vandenberg will have opposed the report of Committee 5 on the question of tax exemption. The Senator said he was going to call Committee 5’s recommendations on tax refunds,27 the nearest thing he had seen to “perpetual motion”.

Mr. Pasvolsky observed that member states under the Charter each had to decide on the privileges and immunities question. Mr. Hiss thought it depended on the power of Assembly Delegates as to whether there was authority to bind members to Assembly decisions on privileges and immunities. Mr. Hiss thought there was not sufficient authority in the United States Delegation. Mr. Pasvolsky thought Mr. Walker’s reservation was in order and Senator Connally said Mr. Walker would stand on it. Mr. Hiss cited Article 105 of the Charter, paragraphs 1, 2 and 3. Mr. Hiss said perhaps Delegates from countries with parliamentary governments might have authority to adopt the privileges and immunities convention as a provisional assembly rule but that the United States Delegates did not have such authority to bind the United States Government in that manner.

Senator Vandenberg thought Mr. Walker had to stand on his reservation and that probably Mr. Walker as well as himself would get licked in the Assembly. The Senator observed that his point, however, did not come up under this convention but that Committee 5 had tried indirectly to get around the tax exemption question as raised in the convention.

Mr. Hiss thought Mr. Walker’s position with respect to a reservation [Page 74] was strong and that Congress had covered the subjects dealt with in the convention on privileges and immunities satisfactorily.28

[On February 13 the General Assembly took up the report of the Sixth Committee which included in pertinent part the recommendations and draft resolutions with accompanying texts of (1) a general convention relating to the privileges and immunities of the United Nations, and (2) a special convention between the United States and the United Nations regarding arrangements pertaining to the location of the seat of the United Nations in the United States; for the report of the Sixth Committee see GA(I/1), Plenary, pages 642 ff., annex 22. For the proceedings in the General Assembly relating to the adoption of the report and the two resolutions on February 13 see ibid., pages 448 ff.; Senator Vandenberg’s remarks at this time regarding the provisions in the general convention relating to exemptions from taxes and national service obligations have already been noted in footnote 28, below; regarding the special convention Senator Vandenberg confined his remarks to a statement that the United States would abstain from voting “because the special Convention is one to which the Government of the United States will be a party, and we consider it would be inappropriate for us to prejudge the case here” (ibid., page 455). For texts of the resolution and accompanying draft general convention on privileges and immunities of the United Nations, see United Nations, Official Records of the General Assembly, First Session, First Part, Resolutions Adopted by the General Assembly during [Page 75] the First Part of the First Session, pages 25 ff. (hereafter referred to as GA(I/1), Resolutions); for texts of the resolution and accompanying draft special convention between the United States and the United Nations regarding arrangements for locating the seat of the United Nations in the United States, see ibid., pages 28 ff.; in the serialization of General Assembly resolutions established later in 1946 both resolutions were designated as two sections of the same resolution, Resolution 22(I); other sections of this same resolution dealt with privileges and immunities of the International Court of Justice and the coordination of the privileges and immunities of the Organization itself and the Specialized Agencies.]

  1. On February 7 the Sixth Committee received from its sub-committee on privileges and immunities a second report on the subject of privileges and immunities (the first having been submitted on January 28) with the text of a draft general convention: for the report, see GA(I/1), Sixth Committee, p. 45, annex 3a; for text of the draft general convention, see GA(I/1), Plenary, p. 642, annex 22. In the discussion of the draft text following its introduction into the Committee Mr. Walker was recorded as saying that he “reserved the position of his delegation with regard to paragraphs (b) and (c) of article V, section 18, concerning exemption from taxation on salaries and emoluments and immunity from national service obligations of [United Nations] officials as far as United States nationals were concerned. His reason was the right to exempt from taxation and exempt from national service obligations was a prerogative of Congress in the United States of America” (GA(I/1), Sixth Committee, p. 26).
  2. For the proceedings in the Fifth Committee on February 8 in which the Committee reversed its previous recommendations regarding tax refunds and extra assessments, see GA(I/1), Fifth Committee, pp. 50 and 51. In supporting a motion that would have this result Senator Vandenberg emphasized to the Committee that unless such a course were adopted the Committee would be endorsing a position “directly opposed, not only to the constitutional rights of the United States Congress, but also to Article 105 of the Charter which expressly asserted that on such questions the General Assembly could only make recommendations or submit conventions. If the present text [providing for tax refunds] were endorsed he would be forced to raise his objections in the General Assembly”. The motion for amendment which was offered by the Netherlands delegate was approved by 13 votes for, 8 against. The new text then read: “In the case of any Member whose nationals in the service of the Organization are required to pay taxation on salaries and allowances received from the Organization, the Secretary-General should explore with the Member concerned methods of ensuring as soon as possible the application of the principle of equity amongst all Members” (ibid., p. 50).
  3. The United States reservation was entered into the Report of the Sixth Committee to the General Assembly (GA(I/1), Plenary, p. 642, annex 22) which the General Assembly considered and adopted on February 13. The United States position was reaffirmed by Senator Vandenberg during the relatively brief discussion on the floor, in which he said “I rise only to make the position of the delegation of the United States perfectly plain in regard to the reports of the Fifth and Sixth Committees. We have reserved our position in respect of tax immunities in regard to the reports of both Committees. [For text in pertinent part of the Fifth Committee’s report to the General Assembly see GA(I/1), Plenary, pp. 607, 608, and 612.] The Constitution of the United States gives the American Congress sole power to exempt American citizens from taxation. … The delegation of the United States also reserves its position in respect of national service exemptions under the general Convention reported by the Sixth Committee. This again is due to the fact that the Constitution of the United States permits no authority other than the American Congress to deal with this matter, and we are not in a position to prejudge that ultimate consideration.” (GA(I/1), Plenary, pp. 454, 455)

    The position of the United States on the two issues of exemption of United States citizens in the service of the United Nations from national service and taxation in the United States was re-affirmed by the United States Government at the second part of the first session of the General Assembly (at New York, October–December, 1946); see United Nations, Official Records of the General Assembly, First Session, Second Part, Fifth Committee, p. 382, annex 11c, “Convention on the privileges and immunities of the United Nations: Categories of officials to which the provisions of articles V and VII shall apply: Report of the Joint Sub-Committee of the Fifth and Sixth Committees”.