310/10–2050
Memorandum of Telephone Conversation, by the United Nations Adviser, Bureau of European Affairs (Raynor)
| Participants: | Mr. J. G. Boyd, British Embassy |
| G. Hayden Raynor, EUR |
Mr. Boyd called me this morning at 10:35 to give me urgently the reply received from Mr. Bevin to the Secretary’s message to him regarding the Secretary Generalship of the UN. In essence, Mr. Bevin’s message, as I took it down during the telephone conversation, is as follows:
“Thank you for your message regarding the Secretary Generalship of the UN. Before I received your message I had mentioned this question to the Cabinet who for much the same reasons as those contained in your message had come to the conclusion that we should continue to support Mr. Lie. Instructions have been sent to the U.K. Delegation in New York to vote against the Indian proposal.”
Mr. Boyd commented that the instruction sent to New York contained the statement that it appeared in London that this Soviet maneuver was not so much directed at Lie personally as it was at the UN policies in general. Under these circumstances London feels that any alternative candidate would find himself in a very unsatisfactory position during his incumbency.
The above message will be confirmed in writing by the British Embassy.