Foreign Relations of the United States, 1946, The Near East and Africa, Volume VII

501.BC/5–2746: Telegram

The United States Representative at the United Nations (Stettinius) to the Secretary of State

secret
us urgent

New York, May 27, 1946—6 p.m.
[Received 9:29 p.m.]

237. At Sir Alexander Cadogan’s request, I attended an informal meeting this afternoon in his sitting room. Dr. Quo, Dr. Van Kleffens, Mr. Herschel Johnson, Mr. Noyes and Mr. Lawford⁵² were present. Sir Alexander said that Dr. Van Kleffens had suggested certain changes in the draft resolution which I sent you in No. 234 of May 25.⁵³ He subsequently circulated a revised draft which I am wiring separately in No. 238.⁵⁴

I said that I had sent a copy of the first draft of this resolution to Washington but was not yet in a position to tell them what my Government’s views would be. I said I had received some preliminary reactions.⁵⁵ Our view was that it would be wiser not to take any immediate steps to hold a Council meeting. I thought we should wait until Ambassador Ala submitted a report to the Council and then hold a meeting 2 or 3 days later. I also stated that our preliminary thinking was to the effect that if the Iranian Government, as expected, stated that they were satisfied that the Soviet troops had withdrawn and wanted the Council to drop the whole matter from its agenda, we would favor dropping the matter from the Council’s agenda. We had almost made up our minds that in such an event it would be inopportune to request the Council to investigate the situation in Azerbaijan along the lines of the proposal I had discussed with them last week. I indicated that we would not want to take the initiative in requesting the Council to drop the matter from its agenda; we were wondering whether it would not be best to let the French and Polish delegations make such a proposal.

There seemed to be considerable agreement with these points. It was pointed out that this coming Thursday was a holiday and probably the Council would not want to meet between Wednesday and Monday. If by Monday Ala had not reported, Sir Alexander thought we might want to take some action to have a meeting. I agreed and said I thought we also would want to do so. Sir Alexander also indicated he would be glad to have the French and Polish delegation make the original proposal to drop the matter but thought it might be necessary for one of the “right thinking delegations” to make the specific suggestion. I said I could not comment on the resolution as a whole but I understood that my Government had not decided whether it wanted to drop the matter with a stern rebuke to the Soviet Union, a moderate statement of dissatisfaction, or with no comment whatever.

Van Kleffens raised the question whether or not this resolution could be passed by procedural vote. It was apparently the general view that a decision to drop the matter from the agenda should be taken by a procedural vote, but there appeared to be some doubt as to whether the Council could state its collective opinion on the matters in the resolution by procedural vote. It was suggested that if these matters were put in whereas clauses, with the resolution merely stating that the matter was dropped from the agenda, this might avoid the difficulty.

[Here follows further discussion of the draft resolution.]

Stettinius

52. Valentine G. Lawford, attached to the British delegation at the United Nations.
53. Not printed, but see telegram 233, May 25, from New York, and footnote 50, p. 483.
54. Not printed.

55. These views were transmitted by telephone on May 27 to Mr. Noyes in New York by Mr. Hiss. Mr. Hiss’ memorandum of conversation on that date stated in part:

    “As a result of the morning meeting in Mr. Acheson’s office I informed Mr. Noyes by telephone that the subject of telegrams 233 and 234 of May 25 had not yet been taken up definitively with the Secretary although the Secretary had apparently indicated very briefly to Mr. Acheson that his initial reaction was that the case would have to be dropped if Ala were, as anticipated, to inform the Council that Soviet troops have withdrawn from all of Azerbaijan and that the Iranian Government wishes to withdraw all aspects of its complaint from the agenda.

    “I said that we were all in complete agreement that there seemed to be no reason for hurrying a decision and that we could not quite understand why Cadogan and Quo seemed to feel that some action was immediately necessary. We felt that until the anticipated report from Ala eventuates no action is called for and that even after such a report by Ala no action would be called for for three days or so. Consequently we certainly disagreed with the suggestion made by Cadogan and Quo, as reported in telegram 233, that a meeting should be asked for by Wednesday. In this connection I said that we also thought it would be inadvisable as suggested by Cadogan and Quo to have Ala present at the next meeting of the Council in as much as this would only compromise Ala.” (861.24591/5–2746).