501.AD/11–2546: Telegram

Senator Austin to the Acting Secretary of State (Acheson)

confidential
us urgent

854. Report from US representative on committee inspecting alternative sites for permanent headquarters of UN indicates that committee feels Presidio56 is best possible site in San Francisco area. Many members of committee feel Presidio is best possible site in US.

Following meeting of committee in San Francisco Sunday morning at which Presidio was fully discussed, the chairman, Zuleta Angel of Colombia, made formal request in name of committee to US representative to ascertain if at all possible before November 30 whether Federal Government is prepared to offer the Presidio. I should greatly appreciate it, therefore, if you would take this matter up with the Secretary of War and the President also if you deem it advisable.

I consider it very important that we make this offer. As you know I have taken a very strong stand in support of keeping the permanent headquarters in the US and of reaching a definitive decision on a specific site at this session of Assembly. In view of our strong position on these points and our policy of active participation in this matter, I feel that the Federal Government should be no less generous than the many American communities and individuals who have made very generous offers of large and valuable tracts of land.

An offer of the Presidio, whether or not the Assembly finally decides to accept it, would also help dispel for once and all the still lingering criticism that the Federal Government has not done all in its power to assist the United Nations in getting settled in the US despite our protestations in favor of keeping the permanent headquarters here. It would also help avert any last move by Russian bloc, in light of Stadnik affair,57 for example, to establish headquarters in Europe rather than in US.

[Page 108]

Such an offer would also be consistent with the views expressed by the President and the Secretary [of] State when we discussed this matter in White House as to desirability of making public lands available to UN.

I understand that Charles Fahy has had a study made indicating it would be possible legally to make the Presidio available.58

Austin
  1. The Presidio of San Francisco, an United States Government military reservation immediately adjacent to the city of San Francisco, California, and overlooking the entrance to San Francisco harbor (the Golden Gate) and the Pacific Ocean, with an area of about 2½ square miles.
  2. This refers to the wounding by gun-fire of one of the Ukrainian delegates who happened to be present in a New York City delicatessen store at the time of an armed robbery.
  3. A typewritten notation at the end of the telegram indicated that the text of the telegram had been transmitted to President Truman and the Secretary of War (Patterson).