315/3–3153
Memorandum of Telephone Conversation, by the Deputy Director of the Office of United Nations Political and Security Affairs (Popper)
- Subject:
- UN Secretary-General
Mr. Wenner telephoned me to say that he had received an urgent telegram from London giving Mr. Eden’s views on Hammarskjold as a candidate for the office of Secretary-General. In substance, Eden considered him to be an excellent man, and the United Kingdom intended to support him. The British hoped that China would agree to-abstain in the vote on Hammarskjold. If our views on Hammarskjold ran parallel to theirs, the United Kingdom urged us to take any appropriate action to induce the Chinese to abstain.
I told Mr. Wenner that I could not discuss this matter with him in any detail on the telephone but that I did not think he needed to have too much anxiety on the points he had raised.