320/8–1852
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Director of the Office of Dependent Area Affairs ( Gerig )
- Subject:
- Suggestions of the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs concerning the policy to be followed by the administering powers in the Committee on Information from Non-Self-Governing Territories and the General Assembly of the United Nations
| Participants: | Dr. J. G. de Beus, Minister | } | Netherlands Embassy |
| Baron C. W. Boetzelaer, First Secretary | |||
| Mr. Durward V. Sandifer, UNA | |||
| Mr. Ward Allen, EUR | |||
| Mr. Benjamin Gerig, UND |
Mr. Sandifer explained that he had invited the Netherlands representatives to come in today in order to reply to two of the questions raised by the Netherlands Government some time ago. The other specific questions, he said, we would be ready to reply to in the near future. He added that on a number of these specific suggestions the United States was in general agreement but that our reply would be given more in detail later, perhaps around the middle of September.
On the first of the two general questions raised in the Netherlands memorandum, namely, the desirability of a formal meeting of all the administering powers to consider various questions raised in the United Nations, it is our feeling that a meeting of this kind would be inadvisable, since we wished to avoid, as far as possible, any charge that the administering Members are taking a concerted stand against the non-administering Members in United Nations bodies. While informal and irregular meetings of the administering group have from time to time taken place on specific questions during meetings of the General Assembly, we have wished to avoid giving the impression that the administering Members as a group were concerting all their actions. Such a position, he said, would tend to develop group action on the other side, which might be to our disadvantage. Mr. Sandifer added that we were, of course, anxious to consult with individual Members, including the Netherlands, at any time that any matter of common interest arises.
On the second broad suggestion in the Netherlands memorandum, namely, that the administering powers should consider the “sanctions” which they would use to defend their viewpoint, particularly that in certain contingencies they should jointly refuse further participation in Committee Four or suspend the transmission of information with regard to their territories, Mr. Sandifer said that the Department would strongly advise against any such use of sanctions and that we would not be able to agree on such a course of action. It was our feeling, [Page 1210] he said, that such sanctions would not only greatly damage our respective positions in the General Assembly but would only serve to antagonize still further non-administering Members who would accuse us of following the type of tactics employed by the Soviet Union and its satellites.
Mr. Sandifer said that the position of the Netherlands in United Nations bodies on the colonial question has been forthright and we did not see that it was necessary for the Netherlands to assume a defensive position on legalistic and jurisdictional lines. It was our hope that the Netherlands, like the United States, would continue to work for the formation of a body of moderate opinion among a majority of the Members of the United Nations so that our positions on the colonial and other questions would come to be accepted by a wider group of opinion in the United Nations.
Mr. de Beus said he was grateful for this reply to the memorandum which he would transmit immediately to his Government. On the remaining specific questions, he expressed the hope that we could have further talks regarding them before the General Assembly met.
Mr. Sandifer said that Mr. Gerig and others would be prepared within a short time—at any rate before the middle of September—to discuss the remaining specific questions with the Netherlands Delegation, and that we would get in touch with them about it later. It was then suggested that possibly such talks should be held in New York, and it was agreed that either in New York or Washington further discussion would be held before the middle of September.
As Mr. de Beus left, Mr. Sandifer handed to him the rough notes which he had used for his remarks, for Mr. de Beus’ information.1
- Presumably a copy of the “brief” attached to the Cargo memorandum of July 23, 1952, supra. A copy of the same notes was used by an officer of the Mission at the United Nations, Charles D. Cook, in a meeting with an officer of the Permanent Danish Delegation to the United Nations, Christian D. Holten-Eggert, at New York, on Aug. 13 (USUN files, “Dependent Areas (DA), 1952–1957”).↩