CFM Files

United States Delegation Journal

USDel (PC) (Journal) 8

After an adjournment the Committee again met at 9:45 p.m. M. Molotov made the following proposal: “Amendments to the proposals submitted by the Council of Foreign Ministers are to be regarded as accepted whenever they have obtained a vote of two-thirds in the Committee”. When the Chairman called for a vote on the Soviet proposal, M. Molotov stated that he did not desire that a vote be taken on it. He said that the Soviet Delegation merely adhered to that view. The Ukrainian, Byelorussian, Polish and Yugoslav Delegations associated themselves with the statement of M. Molotov. Mr. Lange (Norway) stated that the Committee must be free to adopt rules of procedure by simple majority and that he would be obliged to vote against the Soviet proposal if it was put to a vote. Mr. Alexander (U.K.) accused the Soviet Delegation of obstruction and called for a vote on the amendments before the committee. The Chairman then called for a show of hands on the motion to pass to a vote. The following delegations favored the motion: United States, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Ethiopia, U.K., Greece, India, Norway, New Zealand, Netherlands, and Union of South Africa. The following delegations abstained: Byelorussia, France, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Ukraine, U.S.S.R., Yugoslavia.

The New Zealand amendment in favor of recommendations by a simple majority was then defeated by 11 votes to 9 with one abstention. The following delegations voted in favor of the amendment: Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Greece, India, New Zealand, Netherlands and Union of South Africa. The following delegations voted against it: United States, Byelorussia, China, France, Great Britian, Norway, Poland, Brazil, Ukraine, U.S.S.R. and Yugoslavia. The Ethiopian Delegation abstained.

At the insistence of M. Vyshinsky (U.S.S.R.)? the Chairman divided the U.K. amendment into two parts for voting.48 The Committee first voted on the French proposal, put forward at the 7th meeting, as a substitute for the second part of the British proposal, the part which referred to recommendations with a majority of more than one-half but less than two-thirds of the members of the Conference.49 [Page 129] The French amendment was defeated by 13 votes to 8. The following delegations voted in favor of it: Byelorussia, France, Norway, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Ukraine, U.S.S.R. and Yugoslavia. The following delegations voted against it: United States, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Ethiopia, U.K., Greece, India, New Zealand, Netherlands and Union of South Africa.

The Committee then voted on the second part of the U.K. amendment providing for recommendations supported by more than one-half and less than two-thirds of the members of the Conference. This proposal was accepted by a vote of 14 to 6 with one abstention. The following delegations voted for it: United States, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Ethiopia, Great Britan, Greece, India, Norway, New Zealand, Netherlands and Union of South Africa. The following delegations voted against it: Byelorussia, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Ukraine, U.S.S.R. and Yugoslavia. The French Delegation abstained. The U.K. amendment as a whole was then voted on, the result being a vote of 15 to 6 in its favor. The voting was the same as on the second part of the amendment with exception that France voted in the affirmative instead of abstaining.

The Yugoslav Delegation then put forward a proposed resolution of the Committee reading as follows: “In case any proposal of an Allied state neighbor to one of the enemy states in question is not accepted by a majority of two-thirds or by a simple majority of the members of the Conference, the Government of the Allied state may submit it directly to the Council of Foreign Ministers for consideration”. The Ukrainian, Czechoslovak, and Soviet Delegations supported the Yugoslav proposal. Further consideration of it was deferred.50

  1. For substance of the British amendment, see the United States Delegation Journal account of the 6th Meeting, August 5, p. 123.
  2. For text of the French sub-amendment, see the United States Delegation Journal account of the 7th Meeting, August 5, p. 124. The British Delegate opposed this compromise because it did not fulfill the purpose of the British amendment—to provide for the automatic transmittal of all recommendations passed by a majority of the Conference to the Council of Foreign Ministers.
  3. The meeting adjourned at 2:30 a.m.