Office of the Historian

ODA files, lot 62 D 225, “TTPI—Nuclear Tests Marshallese Petition”

Memorandum of Conversation, by the United States Representative on the Trusteeship Council (Sears)

official use only
New York, June 10, 1954.
  • Subject:
  • Marshall Islanders Petition
  • Participants:
  • Mr. Mikhail Mikhailovich Sumskoi, Second Secretary, USSR Del.
  • Mr. Mason Sears, US Representative, Trusteeship Council

In the course of a friendly talk at the apartment of Ambassador Guidotti (Italian Observer at UN) last night with Mr. Sumskoi of the Soviet Delegation, the latter raised the question of the Marshall Islanders Petition and asked how we intended to handle it. I assured him that we were prepared to handle it to suit the convenience of the Council. Mr. Sumskoi gave me reason to believe that the Soviets planned to give a good deal of attention to the petition. He has been sitting for the USSR on the Petitions Committee and seemed interested in knowing whether we expected the petition to be considered, in the first instance, by that Committee.

In the course of our conversation I had occasion to say that there had been a number of atomic explosions in the USSR and that I wondered what had happened there. Mr. Sumskoi’s reply was, “but that was not in a trust territory”.