IO Files: US/S/946
Memorandum of Conversation Between the Heads of the Delegations of France, the United Kingdom, and the United States, United States Mission, New York, October 7, 1949
| Participants: | Sir Alexander Cadogan (UKDel) |
| Ambassador Jean Chauvel (French Delegation) | |
| Ambassador Warren Austin, United States Mission | |
| Mr. Charles P. Noyes, United States Mission |
At a meeting this morning in Ambassador Austin’s office on [the veto] there was a general discussion of tactics to be followed. The following agreements were reached:
Ambassador Austin will try to arrange a Big Five Meeting in his office next Wednesday afternoon. If other engagements conflict, this can be postponed.
Ambassador Austin will open the meeting with a short statement indicating that paragraph 2 of the General Assembly resolution requires the Permanent Members to reach agreement on certain matters. He will point out that Four of the Permanent Members sponsored and voted for this resolution, whereas the Soviet Union voted against it.
Ambassador Austin will ask the Representative of the Soviet Union whether their attitude on this matter has changed at all and whether their position has changed with respect to waiving the veto on a reciprocal basis in accordance with the recommendation of the General Assembly.
It was agreed that our objective should be to avoid detailed consideration of the items listed under paragraph 2 unless the Representative of the Soviet Union gives some indication that his Government is preparing to give favorable consideration to certain of them. If he indicates this is the case, we should ask him which ones they are prepared to give favorable consideration to and begin our discussion with such items.
If, as expected, the Russians indicate they are not prepared to give favorable consideration to any of the items in paragraph 2, we would then state that under such circumstances there is no point in further discussion of the question.
It was agreed that during the course of the discussion each of the three Representatives would attempt to find an opportunity to state that he is prepared to accept recommendation 3 of the General Assembly resolution and that an attempt would be made to force the Russians to state whether they accept it.
[Page 324]It was agreed that there should be no consideration of recommendation No. 1 or recommendation No. 4.
As to publicity, it was agreed that at the end of the discussion, Ambassador Austin should state that if the others agreed he would, as President of the Security Council, at the beginning of the next meeting inform the Security Council that the meeting had been held; that an effort had been made to find a basis for agreement; and that agreement had not been possible in view of the fact that the USSR had not changed its position on the question; and he would state in addition in regard to the third recommendation of the Assembly that Four out of Five Members had expressed their willingness to abide by this recommendation.
As to the Press, there seemed to be agreement that the Press should be informed that the meeting had taken place and that no agreement had been reached [if that is the case]1 and that a statement would be made to the Security Council in the near future.
Also present: For the British: Sir Terence Shone, Messrs. Laskey and Fawcett
For the French: Mr. Ordonneau
- Brackets in the source text.↩