710.J/3–1346

Memorandum by the Director of the Office of Special Political Affairs ( Hiss ) to the Assistant Secretary for American Republic Affairs ( Braden )

Reference is made to your memorandum of March 13, 1946 requesting the views and suggestions of SPA concerning the Report on the Program of the Ninth International Conference of American States, approved by the Governing Board of the Pan American Union.

The preliminary list of topics9 for possible inclusion in the program appears to cover the topics with which SPA would be primarily concerned, within the criterion set forth in paragraph 1 of the Report.

It is suggested, however, that it might be desirable to insert under topic 1 some such general item as the following:

“(e) Urgent problems of the reorganization, status and relationships of various inter-American agencies.”

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This would include those problems now listed as topics 1 (e) and (f) and 4, making their separate enumeration unnecessary. It would also include a consideration of the status of various emergency agencies, such as the Inter-American Juridical Committee and the Committee for Political Defense, created by the Meetings of Foreign Ministers. Under this heading the Conference could likewise take up specific problems concerning procedures of coordination and cooperation among specialized inter-American agencies which appear urgent, and which it might be desirable not to hold over for study and reconsideration by the Governing Board as is contemplated in the draft charter of the system. A number of such problems appear already to be shaping up.

If this wording is accepted the report accompanying the program might contain a paragraph explaining the scope of the suggested topic by reference to the types of problems mentioned above.

  1. Supra.