Foreign Relations of the United States, 1946, Council of Foreign Ministers, Volume II

CFM Files: Lot M–88: Box 2065: Deputies Documents

Proposal by the French Representative to the Conference of Deputies of the Council of Foreign Ministers³

secret
C.F.M. (D) (46) 77

London, 18 April, 1946.

Draft Rules of Procedure for the Conference of Foreign Ministers

1. Chairmanship

The chairmanship of the Council will rotate at each meeting.

2. Meetings

The Deputies will generally hold their meetings in the morning and the Council of Ministers in the afternoon. The Deputies will prepare the Agenda for the Council and settle the questions which are referred to them. The Council will set up any technical sub-committee required.

3. Official languages of the Council

English, French and Russian will be the official and working languages of the Council.

4. Powers of the Members of the Council

The four members of the Council will attend all meetings and take part in all discussions, but on questions relating to the Peace Treaties only those members will be entitled to vote whose Governments are signatories or are deemed to be signatories to the Armistice relating to the Peace Treaty in question.

5. Press Arrangements

A Committee will be set up consisting of Press Attachés from the four Delegations which will be responsible for issuing press communiqués. This Committee will issue the communiqués agreed by the Council, which will record the progress of work and the decisions taken.

6. Secretariat

(a) A Joint Secretariat will be set up consisting of the Secretaries of the four Delegations. It will employ officials drawn from the personnel of the four Delegations; their number will be fixed by agreement between the secretaries of the Delegations.

(b) The Secretary-General of the Joint Secretariat will be appointed by agreement between the secretaries of the Delegations.

(c) The Secretariat will be responsible for the technical handling of all Council documents. It will be responsible for reproducing in a numbered series all documents submitted by Delegations for consideration by the Council, and for circulating copies to each Delegation. Such documents will be reproduced in English, Russian and French. The Secretariat will arrange for translations to be made.

(d) The Secretariat will make all the necessary arrangements for Council Meetings. It will make any changes desired in the times of the regular meetings of the Council of Ministers and the Deputies.

(e) The Minutes of the Meetings will be limited to a record of the decisions taken by the Council and will not include details of discussions.

(f) As the work of the Council proceeds, the Secretariat will also be responsible, in consultation with Delegations, for compiling a completely agreed text of the decisions taken by the Council.

3. This paper was tabled by the French Delegation at the close of the 38th meeting of the Deputies of the Council of Foreign Ministers devoted to the draft Italian Treaty, April 17, 1946. It was agreed to, without amendment, by the Council of Foreign Ministers at its opening meeting at Paris, April 25 (p. 94); see also footnote 3, p. 96.