CFM Files, Lot M 88, Box 159
Minutes of Tripartite Ministerial Meeting, Paris, French Foreign Office, November 9, 1951, 11:30 a.m.
NoVT M–2
[Here follows list of persons present: France (11), the United Kingdom (9), the United States (11). The Foreign Ministers headed each group. The Secretary of State was assisted by David K. E. Bruce, U.S. Ambassador to France, Walter S. Gifford, U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom, and George W. Perkins, Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs; G. Hayden Raynor, Director of the Office of British Commonwealth and Northern European Affairs and formerly United Nations Adviser, Bureau of European Affairs, was also present throughout the meeting.
Here follow brief remarks about projected dates for the forthcoming meeting of the NATO Council, and a discussion of some length on the Moroccan question (see page 157).]
Italian UN Membership
Foreign Minister Schuman said he thought it was essential that action on Italian membership be initiated in the SC. He said the Italian note had failed to convince him that the Assembly could act in the absence of SC action. He said, however, that he felt in the SC all that would happen would be another debate and another veto. He said we should consider what needs to be done if this course of events occurred. He said this would be very serious to Italy and that we also should not “bend to the Soviet veto”. He said he thought perhaps the SC could refer the question to the GA with a statement that it has been blocked from action. He thought then the GA could vote favoring Italy. He said the result of this, of course, would be only a moral one, but he thought even so it would help the Italian situation somewhat. He said that in the GA the Trusteeship argument could be used. He said we could argue that it was not in accord with the Constitution or with justice that a country worthy of being given a Trusteeship by the UN should be excluded from membership in the UN. No decision was taken on the matter of GA tactics in the event of another SC veto.
Mr. Acheson said that he wanted to suggest that the Trusteeship Council recommend to the GA that because of the difficulty Italy has in administering a UN Trusteeship without being a Member, something should be done about this situation. Schuman replied that this in effect had been done and was covered by Item 56 of the agenda. Mr. Acheson said that he had not completed his suggestion. He wished to propose that this agenda item be considered in the Fourth Committee and that the Fourth Committee and the Assembly pass a Resolution [Page 374] calling upon the SC to reexamine the Italian application as a special case in view of the trusteeship question.
M. Schuman said he thought this was a good proposal and that Item 56 should be referred to the Fourth Committee rather than the First. He said that if we agreed in principle on this proposal, our experts could work out the details.
Although Mr. Eden did not speak, there appeared to be general agreement, and Mr. Acheson said that Congressman Mansfield, of our Delegation, would be in touch with the other two Delegations to work this out.
[Here follows discussion of other agenda items.]