Foreign Relations of the United States, 1946, The Far East, Volume VIII

892.014/8–2646

Memorandum of Conversation, by the Acting Chief of the Division of Western European Affairs (Wallner)

[Washington,] August 26, 1946.

Participants:	M. Bonnet, French Ambassador
	Mr. Acheson, Acting Secretary of State
	Mr. Moffat, Chief, SEA
	Mr. Wallner, Acting Chief, WE

The French Ambassador called at his request and handed to Mr. Acheson the attached note,⁷² setting forth the decision of the French Government to withdraw its offer for an agreed submission of the territorial dispute with Siam to the International Court of Justice as a result of a recent border incident. The Ambassador went over the note paragraph by paragraph with the aim of elucidating its contents.

Mr. Acheson stated that he took note of the French decision to abandon judicial settlement and stated that the other considerations set forth in the note would be examined with care. He expressed the hope that direct negotiations with the Siamese would be fruitful and productive of a rapid solution.

Mr. Acheson then raised the question of the French position on the Siamese membership application which was to come before the Security Council on August 28, inquiring whether the French representative might not be instructed to abstain from voting on our intended proposal for the admission of all nine applicants to UN rather than veto it because one of the applicants was Siam. M. Bonnet replied that he was convinced that his Government was adamant on the question of Siamese admission to the United Nations⁷³ at this point. Mr. Acheson then suggested that Mr. Parodi might propose an amendment to our proposal excluding Siam⁷⁴ and reducing the number of applicants to eight. He would then propose that the consideration of Siamese application should be postponed for thirty days, at which time France as a result of the conversations now going on in Washington with the Siamese for a settlement of outstanding problems and the termination of a technical state of war, hoped to be in a position no longer to oppose Siamese application.

The Ambassador accepted this suggestion with alacrity and said that he would immediately cable Paris with a request that appropriate instructions be issued to Mr. Parodi before the Security Council meeting on the Monday of August 28.

72. No. 533, August 26, not printed.
73. French opposition to Siam’s admission to the United Nations was expressed to the Committee on the Admission of New Members on the ground that until negotiations with Siam over restitution of the Indochinese territories were completed, France considered herself in a state of war, de facto, with Siam. Konthi Suphamongkhon took cognizance of the French opposition in a letter of August 19 to the Secretary-General in which he expressed confidence that an agreement would soon be reached on the territorial dispute. The letter also expressed his trust that favorable consideration would be given to Siam’s application for membership. In a further letter to the Secretary-General on August 28, he noted that a settlement of the territorial dispute had not yet been arrived at and requested that consideration of Siam’s application for membership be postponed until such settlement would be effected. The texts of the letters of August 19 and 28 are printed in SC, 1st yr., 2nd series, Suppl. No. 4, pp. 47, 48.
74. The Department, in telegram 172, August 27, authorized Herschel V. Johnson to accept an amendment postponing Siamese application for membership.