IO Files
Memorandum of Conversations, by the Deputy United States Representative at the United Nations (Gross)
US/A/3399
Subject: Security Council Successor to Yugoslavia
| Participants: | Sir Gladwyn Jebb, U.K. Delegation |
| (Separately) Mr. Maurice Schumann, French Delegation1 | |
| Mr. Julius Holmes, American Embassy, London2 | |
| Mr. Philip Bonsal, American Embassy, Paris | |
| Mr. Durward Sandifer, U.S. Delegation3 | |
| Ambassador Ernest Gross, U.S. Delegation |
At lunch with Sir Gladwyn Jebb today, he informed me that although he had not yet received instructions from London to vote for Byelorussia for the Yugoslav vacancy in the Security Council, he believed the decision would be made shortly. … Accordingly, after talking with Mr. Sandifer, I gave this message to Mr. Julius [Page 107] Holmes, in the London Embassy, and told him of Circular Telegram No. 500 (Control 214, Dec 2) and which I thereafter asked our Code Boom to repeat to him.
Mr. Holmes said that Ambassador Gifford had an appointment to talk with Mr. Eden on Wednesday and doubted whether he could see him before then. I therefore suggested to Holmes that he communicate at once with the Foreign Office to endeavor to have the decision put off until Ambassador Gifford has had a chance to talk with Mr. Eden on Wednesday. Mr. Holmes said he would do what he can.
During the afternoon I went with Mr. Bonsal to discuss the subject with Mr. Maurice Schumann and explained our position at length along the general lines of Circular 500. Schumann professed to be greatly surprised when I told him that the Charter provided that in the election of non-permanent members to the Security Council due regard should be paid to the contribution of members of the UN to the maintenance of international peace and security. He also said that he had been unaware of the intense importance which we attached to the election of a non-Cominform State to the Security Council.
In response to his inquiry concerning the British position, I said that although I could not of course speak for the British, it was my understanding that the British Government had not yet made a final decision and I hoped that they would carry out their commitment which they had made some time ago to support Greece. Mr. Schumann appeared to be sufficiently impressed by the exposition of our point of view to indicate that if the decision were up to him, he would vote for Greece, but that although he would undoubtedly be in the French seat and would therefore have to cast the vote in the Assembly, it was a matter of sufficient importance for him to discuss fully with “the other Schuman”.4
In order to derive optimum benefit from the approach which Mr. Bonsal and I made to the Quai d’Orsay, Mr. Bonsal suggested that he would inform Mr. de la Tournelle during the afternoon of the substance of our conversation with Maurice Schumann.
- Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in the French Ministry for Foreign Affairs.↩
- By telephone.↩
- Durward V. Sandifer, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for United Nations Affairs, and in Paris with the U.S. Delegation as one of the two Senior Advisers to the Delegation.↩
- Robert schuman, French Minister for Foreign Affairs.↩