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

IO Files: US/A/C.1/72 (Rev. a)

United States Delegation Document

[New York,] November 25, 1946.

United Kingdom Resolution on Armed Forces¹⁷

The Committee considers that items 4 and 5 on the Agenda are concerned with two aspects of the same question, the reduction and regulation of armaments.

As a first step in a study of this question, and to assist in the implementation of Article 43, the Committee propose that the Assembly recommend that all members of the United Nations furnish the following information to the Secretary-General for communication to the Security Council and to other members of the United Nations and for publication.

1. At what points in the territory of members of the United Nations, or other States, with the exception of former enemy territories, and in what number, are armed forces of other members of the United Nations, including military type formations?

2. At what points in the former enemy States and in what number, are armed forces of the Allied Powers and other members of the United Nations, including military type formations?

3. At what points in the above-mentioned territories are air and naval bases, and what is the size of their garrisons, belonging to the armed forces of States of members of the United Nations?

4. What is the total number of their uniformed personnel on the active list, wherever stationed, at home as well as abroad, including military type formations?

This information, which should be furnished not later than January 1st 1947, should relate to the situation on that date, and should be immediately subjected to an effective United Nations system of verification on the spot by a Committee to be established by the Security Council before that date.

17. The present document is identical with the draft submitted by the United Kingdom Delegation at the 27th Meeting of the First Committee, November 25, 11 a.m.; for the Record of that Meeting, see GA (I/2), First Committee, pp. 143–151. The tentative draft of the present document transmitted by the British Delegation to the United States Delegation on November 24, not printed, differed from the present document in the following respects: it made no reference to Article 43; it made no provision for reporting on “military type formations;” and it did not specify that the system of verification would be one established by the Security Council prior to January 1, 1947. In the Minutes of the United States Delegation Meeting of 9 a.m., November 25, Sanders is reported as saying that the present document had been drafted “as a result of conversations with the British over the week-end.” (IO Files)

    At the 27th Meeting, Senator Connally expressed agreement with the British proposal to broaden the request for information to include all uniformed personnel in active service with military type organizations at home and abroad. He also stated that in the long run there must be verification of the reports on troops to make disarmament effective. The record of Senator Connally’s remarks includes the following: “His delegation emphatically rejected any implication in this discussion that the information was needed to quiet uneasiness over the presence of United States forces abroad. In this connexion he expressed appreciation for the statements made by the representatives of (China), Panama, Brazil, and Ecuador, which had absolved the United States from any inference that their troops were in those States for any improper purposes.”