IO Files: US(P)/A/81
Memorandum of Conversation, by Mr. G. Hayden Raynor of the Advisory Staff of the United States Delegation
| Participants: | Dr. Herman van Roijen, of the Netherlands Delegation |
| Mr. Hayden Raynor, of the United States Delegation |
I spoke quite frankly with Dr. van Roijen with respect to the Netherlands’ candidacy for the Security Council along the line that normally the Netherlands would, in all likelihood, be our preferred choice. I said, however, that after the most careful consideration we had concluded that because of Indonesia there would doubtless be a solid adverse Asiatic vote which plus an adverse Slav vote would in itself almost, insure defeat. I said the result of the defeat would mean that western and northern Europe would lose this Security Council seat, and that this was something which the United States did not wish to see happen. I told Dr. van Roijen that the United States Delegation had discussed this matter, and viewed the question seriously. I appealed to Dr. van Roijen to bring these considerations to the attention of his Government, and to urge; that they view the situation from the [Page 147] larger view of the interests of western and northern Europe instead of from a nationalistic view.
Dr. van Roijen stated that his Government’s decision had been made prior to knowledge on its part that Norway would stand for membership. He said that he thought there would be little difficulty in withdrawing their candidacy under the circumstances which I had outlined. He added, however, that they had some doubts as to how Norway would stand on questions such as the Indonesian question, although they appreciated that on matters pertaining to the Western Union they were now all right. He promised to bring this question to the attention of his Government.
In concluding our conversation, I stressed the danger of the Netherlands’ standing even on the first ballot, with a resultant scattering of votes which well might eliminate both the Netherlands and Norway on the very first ballot.