310.2/11–454
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Director of the Office of United Nations Political and Security Affairs (Popper)
- Subject:
- Membership
By arrangement with NA, Mr. Suma came in for a general review of the status of the UN membership problem.
Mr. Suma said that the Japanese, like the United States, had sought reactions from other applicant states and UN members to the plan for “non-member participation” or, as he put it, “resident membership”. Their information, like our own, was that the reaction had been generally [Page 1064] unfavorable. Mr. Suma wondered whether there was any further action in this field which could be suggested to Prime Minister Yoshida when he reaches Washington.
I went over the current situation in the Ad Hoc Political Committee with Mr. Suma and expressed our conclusion that we did not expect that there would be any advance in solving the membership problem at this time. In the circumstances, I said, we could perceive no further action which might usefully be taken by Japan. I said I thought the discussion, both public and private, of the non-member participation idea, had been useful and that it might come to have increasing importance if the membership deadlock were to persist for the next few years. For the time being, however, we were letting the matter rest.