Department of State Disarmament Files
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Deputy United States Representative to the Commission for Conventional Armaments (Nash)
US/S/C.3/13
Subject: Implementation by the Commission for Conventional Armaments of the General Assembly Resolution of November 19, 1948, on Census and Verification
| Participants: | Baron de la Tournelle, French Delegation |
| Mr. Leith, UNS | |
| Mr. Shooshan, UNS | |
| Mr. Russell, United States Delegation | |
| Mr. Nash, United States Delegation |
At a meeting at the French Delegation on April 14, 1949, Baron de la Tournelle advised us that instructions had been received from Paris approving the United States position contained in the informal, unofficial memorandum discussed on March 9, 1949. He explained that the official United States paper, transmitted by the Deputy United States Representative on April 6, had been subsequently referred to Paris and that while no reply had yet been returned, he nevertheless felt that word would be received within “the next few days”.
Baron de la Tournelle said that the French would be willing to put forward a draft paper along the lines of the United States paper as their proposal in the Working Committee, although he recognized that it might be necessary to alter certain details in order to give them a “French flavor”.
Baron de la Tournelle suggested that the French position might lie somewhere between what he understood to be the British position and the United States position. We explained that while the British might have some reservations from a security standpoint, they were prepared, on the basis of the earlier draft paper, to accept the United States position on political and tactical grounds, and that we felt in the last analysis there would be no very wide difference between the British and ourselves.
[Page 50]Baron de la Tournelle explained that French public opinion required that a fair and honest plan be put forward which should be acceptable to all states and that such a plan should not be aimed at making it difficult for the Russians to accept it. We agreed that every effort should be made to come up with fair and reasonable proposals, and that so far as bringing about some measure of confidence, the heart of the General Assembly resolution was to be found in adequate verification of information to be subject to the census.
Baron de la Tournelle agreed to send us a memorandum as soon as he had heard from Paris giving us the French views and agreed further that it would be helpful to arrange for a meeting of the French, Canadians, British and ourselves as soon as the other delegations had received instructions from their governments. He also agreed that it would be desirable to have a meeting of the Working Committee before the end of the present General Assembly session into which he would be prepared to present a working paper with the object of getting early action by that committee in formulating the report to the fourth session of the General Assembly called for by the resolution of November 19, 1948.