850.33/9–651
Memorandum of Conversation, by Irwin M. Tobin of the Office of the Special Assistant to the Secretary of State 1
Subject: Appointment of special migration representatives by European governments.
| Participants: | Mr. Robert West, Special Consultant to the Secretary on Migration Affairs, Department of State |
| Mr. Archibald Gordon, Labor Counselor, British Embassy | |
| Mr. M.A. Wenner, Second Secretary, British Embassy | |
| Mr. Irwin M. Tobin, S/M, Department of State |
Mr. Gordon and Mr. Wenner called on instructions of the Foreign Office to express the opposition of the British Government to a proposal recently made by the Council of Europe on the above subject. The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe has proposed to the U.S., U.K. and French Governments that other European governments (presumably including Italy and Germany) directly concerned with migration problems should designate special migration representatives to confer and communicate informally with the Special Representatives appointed by the three governments in accordance with the decision of their Foreign Ministers in New York in October, 1950.2
The British Embassy had called earlier to request that the U.S. coordinate its position with the U.K. if possible before making its reply to Strasbourg.
The British Embassy representatives pointed out on instructions that their Government believes the Council of Europe proposal has the danger of establishing without adequate consideration a new international organization in the field of migration—a development which they consider not only useless but harmful since the question of an international organization in this field is being considered at the Naples Migration Conference called by the International Labor Organization.
Mr. West observed that he personally regards the suggestion of the Council of Europe as having useful possibilities and that his [Page 187] initial reaction had been to favor the step provided the British and French were agreeable. He would not favor the arrangement if he believed that it would inevitably lead to another international organization of a formal intergovernmental character. However, since the British were so strongly opposed he would not press the matter for the time being and certainly not until after the Naples Conference in October. He thought that we could postpone taking a stand on the proposal of the Council of Europe until that time. Meanwhile, he would be having direct conversations with his British and French colleagues in the course of his attendance as U.S. observer to the Council of Europe Meeting on Refugees and Surplus Population to be held at Strasbourg the following week. The British expressed their gratification and expressed the belief that the conversations between Mr. West and Mr. Veysey, the British Special Migration Representative, would help to clarify the matter considerably.