IO Files, Lot 71 D 440
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Deputy United States Representative on the Collective Measures Committee (Bancroft)
US/A/AC.43/63
Subject: Collective Measures Committee: Facilities, Rights and Related Assistance for United Nations Armed Forces.
| Participants: | Mr. Francis Lacoste | } | French Delegation |
| Mr. Jacques Tine | |||
| Mr. Harding F. Bancroft, U.S. Mission to United Nations | |||
I had luncheon with Lacoste and Tine following our conversation with Coulson and Laskey (reported in US/A/AC.43/62).1 The [Page 653] French attitude toward our paper on assistance and facilities2 was much more favorable than that of the British. They said frankly that the thing that frightened them off was the problem of bases and nothing more, and that they agreed that the Collective Measures Committee should consider the contributions which member states could make to support United Nations forces by way of all sorts of assistance and facilities, including rights of passage. In their view, rights of passage and bases did not come in the same category at all and they saw no objection to the former.
The thing that frightened them about our paper was the introductory part which made it appear that what we were driving at was to have the United Nations create a system of bases throughout the world on which much work would be done in advance to make the bases adequate for UN use by enlarging the facilities and doing all sorts of construction work. In other words, they said that it was the material in the first part of our paper rather than the conclusions that worried them.
I asked if they thought it would be possible for them, the British and ourselves to go over the paper and modify it in such a way as would make it acceptable for submission and consideration in the Committee. They replied that they thought this was a good idea and that it could be done. I said that we would undertake to prepare a draft revision of the paper to be used as a basis for discussion and I hoped we could get together to consider it soon.
In the course of our discussion, I outlined to them the same ideas of the concept of the Uniting for Peace resolution that I had to the British and the presentation which could be made in the report to offset the fear that any progress toward making the United Nations an effective collective security organization would be regarded as an anti-Communist effort. Lacoste said he agreed with the concept and thought it was desirable that it be expressed in the report of the Collective Measures Committee, as it would go far to eliminate the fears that all we were seeking was to make the United Nations into an alliance against a single enemy.