Foreign Relations of the United States, 1948, General; the United Nations, Volume I, Part 1

IO Files: US(P)/A/331

United States Delegation Position Paper

[Paris,] December 3, 1948.

Report of the Sixth Committee on Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations¹

1. United States Position

The United States should abstain from voting on the resolution² which notes with satisfaction the steps taken with a view to the entry into force of the Headquarters Agreements between the United States and the United Nations and invites those states which have not yet acceded to the convention on Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations to do so at the earliest possible moment. It will not be necessary for the United States to make any statement on this resolution. However, the United States should be prepared to speak against an attack on U.S. visa policy as indicated in 3 below.

2. History in Committee³

The resolution proposed by Egypt (Document A/C.6/297) was adopted by thirty-two votes in favor, one against (Peru), with two abstentions (United States–Argentina).

The United States Representative on Committee 6 stated that he would abstain from voting on the Egyptian resolution since it raised a matter which was within the exclusive Congressional prerogative of the United States Government.⁴ A Polish attack on United States visa policy⁵ was answered by the United States and the United Kingdom.⁶

3. Possible Developments in the Plenary Meeting

The resolution will undoubtedly be approved. It is possible that Poland or some other delegation of the Eastern bloc may renew the attack on the United States visa policy. The United States should be prepared to speak against such attack.⁷

1. For text of the Sixth Committee’s report on privileges and immunities of the United Nations, see GA(III/1), Plenary, Annexes, pp. 477–478.
2. For text of the committee’s draft resolution, see ibid., p. 478.
3. For the proceedings of the Sixth Committee, see United Nations, Official Records of the General Assembly, Third Session, Part I, Sixth Committee, pp. 652 ff.
4. For statement by the U.S. representative in the Sixth Committee (Gross), see United Nations, Official Records of the General Assembly, Third Session, Part I, Sixth Committee, p. 653.
5. For the remarks of Mr. Juliusz Katz-Suchy to the Sixth Committee concerning this matter on November 29, see ibid., pp. 655–656. Mr. Katz-Suchy was Permanent Representative of Poland at the United Nations, a Representative on the Polish Delegation to the General Assembly and Polish delegate in the Sixth Committee.
6. For the U.S. reply, see ibid., pp. 657–658.
7. The draft resolution was adopted by the General Assembly on December 8 without any discussion; see GA(III/1), Plenary, p. 767. For text, see United Nations, Official Records of the General Assembly, Third Session, Part I, Resolutions, p. 173. (Hereafter cited as GA (III/1), Resolutions.)