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

SPA Files

Memorandum by the Assistant Chief of the Division of International Security Affairs (Rusk)³²

Confidential

[Washington,] May 3, 1946.

Russian delay in submitting statement of general principles to subcommittee of Military Staff Committee.

At a meeting on Tuesday, April 30, the senior members of the U.S. Delegation of the Military Staff Committee discussed at great length the problem raised by the failure of the Russian Military Delegation to submit a statement of general principles which the Russians considered applicable to the special agreements referred to in Article 43 of the Charter. Such a statement has been overdue since April 3; statements were received on time from the United States, Great Britain, France and China.

Our Military Delegation came to the conclusion that the United States should not undertake to heckle the Russians on this statement of general principles. They thought that the matter could best be handled through some official agency such as the Secretary-General or the current Principal Secretary of the Military Staff Committee. The present Principal Secretary is Chinese; inquiries as to when the Russian paper might be expected have thus far been unavailing.

Our Military Delegation agreed that General Ridgway (the U.S. member of the Military Staff Committee subcommittee on general principles) should find a suitable opportunity to inquire of General Vasiliev³³ informally as to when the Russian statement of principles might be expected. It is already generally known in the Military Staff Committee that the Russian statement is being drawn up in Moscow in the light of the statements of the other four powers.

It was also agreed that General Ridgway should attempt to ascertain General Vasiliev’s views as to whether the Military Staff Committee subcommittee should proceed to discuss the four other statements of general principles already in hand, without prejudice to any comments or suggestions which the Russians might wish to make later. In this connection, it is recalled that the French reaction in early April was that the general principles should not be discussed until all five papers have been submitted.

In a conversation with me Captain Knoll³⁴ stated that our Military Delegation do not yet attach sinister implications to the Russian delay in submitting a paper. Captain Knoll, who was a member of the U.S. military mission in Moscow for over two years, expressed a personal opinion that the situation would not be normal until the delay had extended at least three months.

Captain Knoll asked that no political representations be made by Mr. Stettinius or through other channels in an effort to expedite the Russian paper without the fullest prior coordination with the U.S. Delegation, Military Staff Committee. He felt that a very useful working basis is being established in New York between the American and Russian Military Delegations and that the greatest care should be exercised to protect this relationship from unnecessary irritation. I have passed this point on to Mr. Stettinius and Mr. Johnson³⁵ in New York.

I believe we should leave this matter in the hands of the U.S. Delegation, Military Staff Committee, at least for the time being; however, I believe the political staff should follow this matter very closely since there will come a time when further delay in submitting the Russian paper will have serious political aspects. Paragraph 3 of Article 43 of the Charter requires that the special agreements be negotiated as soon as possible. The statement of U.S. policy contained in SWNCC 219/8³⁶ also urges expeditious action. The draft paper on the regulation of armaments prepared in IS recommends a special instruction to the U.S. Representative on the Security Council along the same line.³⁷

D[ean] R[usk]

32. This memorandum was directed to Messrs. Hiss, Raynor, and Blaisdell.
33. Lt. Gen. Alexandre F. Vasiliev, Soviet Representative on the Military Staff Committee.
34. Capt. Denys W. Knoll, Secretary to the United States Delegation to the Military Staff Committee.
35. Herschel V. Johnson, Deputy United States Representative on the Security Council; Acting Representative at the United Nations from June 6, 1946.
36. See footnote 2, p. 769.
37. The draft paper under reference has not been identified. SWNCC/MS UNO Doc. 28, prepared in the Division of International Security Affairs, discusses the Military Staff Committee but does not present the specific recommendation cited here; for partial text of SWNCC/MS UNO Doc. 28, June 5, see p. 833.