501.AC/7–2148
The Acting Secretary of State to the Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate (Vandenberg)
Dear Senator Vandenberg: In the Secretary’s absence from the Department today, I am sending you a preliminary report on the entry of aliens in connection with the United Nations, as requested in your letter of July 21, 1948.
We fully appreciate your reaction to the press reports of statements made by certain officers of this Department before staff members of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee and agree that an immediate clarification is of the greatest importance. The Department of State is now conducting a thorough investigation of the allegations made and of all the circumstances surrounding the testimony.
As indicated in the Secretary’s statement to the press on July 21 (Tab A), the Department does not believe, on the basis of our immediate and summary review, that our national security is endangered by the activities of persons entering this country in connection with the United Nations. The safeguards contained in the United Nations Charter, the Headquarters Agreement, and the International Organizations Immunities Act are fully adequate to protect the security of the United States against the abuse of such privileges and immunities.
The Charter of the United Nations provides in Article 105 that “the Organization shall enjoy in the territory of each of its Members such privileges and immunities as are necessary for the fulfillment of its purposes”. The same article also provides that “Representatives of the Members of the United Nations and officials of the Organization shall similarly enjoy such privileges and immunities as are necessary for the independent exercise of their functions in connection with the Organization”. Thus, the fundamental law of the Charter establishes the proper functioning of the United Nations as the test of privilege or immunity. Obviously, activities which are not a part of United Nations business and certainly such abuse of privilege as espionage or sabotage are in no sense protected by the Charter.
The International Organizations Immunities Act (Public Law 291, 79th Congress, Tab B) contains an important safeguard in Section 8(b):
“(b) Should the Secretary of State determine that the continued presence in the United States of any person entitled to the benefits of this title is not desirable, he shall so inform the foreign government or international organization concerned, as the case may be, and after such person shall have had a reasonable length of time, to be determined by the Secretary of State, to depart from the United States, he shall cease to be entitled to such benefits.”
The Headquarters Agreement between the United Nations and the United States (Tab C) provides in Sections 11 and 13 for the admission of persons who have business at the United Nations Headquarters. Such admission is based upon official business. Activities outside official business are expressly subject to the laws and regulations of the United States regarding the continued residence of aliens, and procedures are set forth for dealing with such situations. You will also note that Section 10 authorizes the United Nations itself to “expel or exclude persons from the headquarters district for violations of its regulations adopted under Section 8 or for other causes”.
In Section 6 of Public Law 3571 (Tab C) the United States explicitly reserved its right to safeguard its national Security, which of course is an inherent right which the Headquarters Agreement was not intended to impair or abridge in any event. The provisions of Public Law 357 were specifically called to the attention of the United Nations in an exchange of notes between Senator Austin and the Secretary General2 (Tab C).
The United States may deport persons who abuse the purposes for which they are admitted, may (if it sees fit) limit individuals to the United Nations Headquarters and its vicinity and may even refuse to admit a person in the first instance if we determine that the presence of such person here is inconsistent with our national security.
The Department has of course always been aware of the necessity for diligence in administering the procedural safeguards summarized in Tab D and at no time have facts been brought to our attention which disclose a threat to the security of the United States. Indeed, the security agencies of the government have not presented a single case of this nature to the Department of State for consultation with the Secretary General. Although of course some individuals have been admitted under the Headquarters Agreement and Public Law 291 to the United States for legitimate business with the United Nations and other international organizations, who would not normally be admitted under our immigration laws, no cases have been presented to the Department of State for action under Section 6 of Public Law 357.
As soon as our investigation of the allegations made this week can be completed, you will have a further report. In the meantime, there is attached (Tab D) a background statement regarding procedures controlling the admission of personnel on United Nations business.3 If there are questions on specific points on which you would like an immediate answer we shall furnish the information promptly.
[Page 67]We earnestly hope that persons hostile to the United Nations and to the broad lines of our bipartisan foreign policy will not succeed in any effort to use this unfortunate incident to injure the national interests. Specifically, we hope that the members of Congress will not divert from their broad support for the United Nations Headquarters loan and other necessary United Nations legislation.4
Sincerely yours,
- The joint resolution authorizing the President to accept the Headquarters Agreement.↩
- See the Legal Adviser’s letter to the United Nations Assistant Secretary-General (Kerno), August 4, 1947, and Dr. Kerno’s reply, August 27, 1947, Foreign Relations, 1947, vol. i, pp. 47 and 51, respectively.↩
- Not attached to file copy.↩
- On September 2 the Secretary of State forwarded to
Senator Vandenberg “the full report which we promised you . . . .”
(not found in Department of State files). In a covering letter, the
Secretary said, after stating the above:
“After weeks of careful study, the Committee I appointed to investigate this matter has submitted its report. A copy is enclosed. The Committee confirms the tentative conclusions of Lovett’s earlier letter to you and rejects the testimony before the Senate Subcommittee as unwarranted and entirely without foundation. The Committee concluded that ‘there is adequate statutory authority to exclude from the United States persons whose presence here is inconsistent with our national security’ (page 12), and that ‘existing administrative procedures, and the legislation on which they are based are sufficient’ to assure the exclusion of such individuals (pages 12–13).
“With respect to these administrative procedures, the Committee ‘is not satisfied that the practices under the outline of procedures are satisfactorily coordinated’ (page 14). The suggestions of the Committee in this respect are to be submitted to me in a supplementary memorandum which will receive my immediate attention. Our Mission in New York is currently engaged in discussions with UN officials in an effort to improve these procedures. We are receiving full cooperation from them and have already made progress.” (501.AC/9–248)
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