CFM Files

United States Delegation Minutes

[Extract]

[Mr. Byrnes:] “Mr. President, when the Council of Foreign Ministers was first proposed it was my thought that membership upon the committees drafting the treaties should be liberal, because it was our view that this was a world war and the governments were forced to send troops not where they wished but where the staff determined they should go. Norway could send ships to aid this army or that army. It was participating indirectly in the prosecution of the war.

“The view of the United States, however, was not agreed to in the Council. It was agreed there that those States signatory to the Armistice should alone have the right to consider a treaty with the enemy states. The position of the United States has been that the conference should adopt its own rules of procedure. Our position in the Council was that we would not be bound by the agreement as to procedure having reference to the rules of the conference. Consequently, yesterday when the Representative of the Netherlands presented a motion which was in accord with the views originally held by the United States I abstained from voting.

“I wanted the conference to determine how these commissions should be formed. They determined the matter. I believe we should stand by that determination.

“I recognize the plea of the Polish Representative. It appeals to one’s sympathy, but this conference cannot pass upon the contribution made by each of the governments here and determine who should belong to a commission on the basis of that contribution. We will never get anywhere if we follow that procedure. We must either go back to the motion of the Representative of the Netherlands and let all participate or we must stand by the procedure as agreed to in the Council of Foreign Ministers, limiting it to those who were technically at war. For that reason I shall vote against the motion.”