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

Lot 54D394⁶⁹

Memorandum of Conversation, by G. Hay den Ray nor of the United States Delegation to the United Nations General Assembly

secret

[New York,] December 14, 1946.

Participants:	Mr. Paul Gore-Booth, of the United Kingdom Delegation
	Mr. Percy Wells, of the United Kingdom Delegation
	Mr. Hayden Raynor

During the course of the Secretary’s speech this evening⁷⁰ Mr. Gore-Booth expressed to me rather strong concern on the part of the United Kingdom Delegation over the fact that the United Kingdom Delegation had not been informed in advance of the substance of this speech. He was referring, of course, to the portions thereof in which we gave certain information with respect to our troops stationed in foreign territories. (In this connection it should be recalled that Mr. Bevin voted against switching the order of the agenda so that this question would be taken up tonight.) It seemed apparent from the way Mr. Gore-Booth spoke that the British were considerably nettled and felt that the disclosure by us of certain information with respect to troops abroad placed them in a difficult position. He did in the conversation indicate appreciation of the desirability, or almost necessity, of our taking this step but stressed that if they had had some advance information, although Mr. Bevin could not have included like information in his statement, he would have been able to prepare more comprehensive remarks than were possible on the spur of the moment.

Saturday, while talking generally to Mr. Percy Wells, I found occasion to ascertain discreetly from him as to whether Mr. Bevin had in fact been seriously discommoded the previous night. He disclaimed, I felt sincerely, that Mr. Bevin had been upset or resentful about the matter. From the manner in which he spoke, I believe that in the heat of the moment Mr. Gore-Booth had perhaps over-stated to me the feeling of the British Delegation on this matter.

In this connection it should be recalled that on Saturday morning Mr. Gromyko expressed a willingness to accept the troop resolution as amended by the United States Delegation to include information on troops at home, but omitting the British provision on verification, and also omitting the Soviet amendment on the disclosure of information on armaments. I took occasion to point out to Mr. Gore-Booth that we could have accepted this offer made by Mr. Gromyko as it met all the points for which we had been fighting. I suggested to him that if we had had any desire to make it difficult for them which, I of course know he appreciated we did not, we could have accepted Mr. Gromyko’s proposal rather than voting against it and voting in favor of the innocuous proposal on this matter presented by Committee 1.⁷¹ Mr. Gore-Booth appreciated this situation, and I feel certain that any possible lingering resentment or concern brought about the night before was dissipated as a result of this course of action by the United States Delegation.

69. Certain files of the Office of European Affairs.
70. The reference is to Mr. Byrnes’ statement at the 62nd Meeting of the General Assembly, December 13, in which he described where and in what number United States troops were stationed in foreign territory; for the text of his address, see GA(I/2), Plenary, pp. 1289–1296.
71. The reference is to the proceedings of the 63rd Meeting of the General Assembly, December 14.