Foreign Relations of the United States, 1949, The United Nations; The Western Hemisphere, Volume II

501.BC/8–1849

Memorandum by the Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs (Hickerson) to the Deputy Under Secretary of State (Rusk)

secret

[Washington,] August 18, 1949.

Subject: US Support for India for UN Security Council

Discussion:

1. Canada, the Ukraine and Argentina retire from the Security Council December 31, 1949. Their successors will be elected early in the Fourth Regular Session of the General Assembly.

2. India is an active candidate for the Security Council to succeed Canada. Mme. Pandit, the Indian Ambassador, in a conversation with the Secretary last June, requested US support for India’s candidacy. At that time she explained that when India withdrew its candidacy against the Ukraine in the 1947 Security Council elections, the United Kingdom promised to support India for this Council in 1949, as the Commonwealth candidate. (The US supported India against the Ukraine.) She also emphasized the political reliability of India from the standpoint of the West. No commitment was made by the Secretary.

3. Since last June the US and the UK have refused to make any commitment to India on the basis of the Kashmir situation.¹ It is no longer considered advisable, however, to attempt to use India’s SC candidacy as a lever to affect the development of this case. The British have now informally advised us of their intention to support India. Canada appears about to take the same decision. China intends to support India. It is agreed by the interested Departmental officers that the United States should immediately make known to India its intention to support it for the Security Council. It is further agreed that the Indians should be told that we consider them as filling the Commonwealth seat on the Council. (This will maintain one Council seat in future elections for such Commonwealth states as Australia and Canada, which, on any basis of strictly geographical regional representation, could seldom if ever expect to be elected.) It is anticipated that this decision will be extremely helpful in the general pattern of our relations with India.

Recommendation:

That you authorize the appropriate Departmental officers to advise the Indian Embassy of the present intention of the United States to support India for the Security Council, and to vote for India in the Assembly on the first ballot and as long thereafter as there is a reasonable prospect of India’s election.

1. During the summer months officers of the Department and the British Embassy had been engaged in working-level discussions relating to elections in the forthcoming General Assembly; these conversations are recorded in memoranda in the Department of State’s central indexed files (501.BB series).