Office of the Historian

501.AA/3–3148: Telegram

The Acting Secretary of State to the Embassy in France 1

secret
Washington, March 31, 1948—6 p. m.

1031. De La Tournelle2 on Friday3 again stated to our Reps New York that if voting necessary on satellite applications France would vote favorably for all except Bulgaria.4 If instructions have not been [Page 187] changed please continue to urge on FonOff view that satellite applications with possible exception of Finland should be opposed.

Lovett
  1. Repeated to New York as telegram 175.↩
  2. Guy Le Roy de La Tournelle, Alternate Representative of France on the Security Council.↩
  3. March 26.↩
  4. The following is recorded in a memorandum of conversation of March 26 by Mr. Gordon Knox of the United States Mission at the United Nations: “De La Tournelle (France) repeated to the United States Mission that France would vote to admit Italy to United Nations membership. France would not raise the issue of admission of other states at this time, but if this question were raised by some other state, France would vote in favor of the admission of all states which have been considered to date by the Security Council except for Bulgaria. France would refuse to vote for Bulgaria because of the ‘murder’ of Petkov. [Nikola D. Petkov, Bulgarian minister without portfolio and secretary-general of the Agrarian Party (leader), was executed after Bulgarian trial on Sept. 23, 1947. The Department of State in a press release of the same date labelled the trial and execution of Petkov as a “travesty of justice”. This Government had made representations on behalf of Petkov following his trial. For documentation on this subject, see Foreign Relations, 1947, vol. iv, pp. 51 ff.]

    “France, of course, would not use the veto regarding the admission of states to membership.” (IO Files; document US/S/357)

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