Office of the Historian

772.00/5–653

Memorandum of Conversation, by the Director, Office of African Affairs (Utter)

confidential
[Washington,] May 6, 1953.

Subject:

  • French Opposition to Inscription of Tunisian-Moroccan Item on the Security Council Agenda.

Participants:

  • Jean Pierre Benard, Counselor, French Embassy John Utter—AF

Mr. Benard called to tell me that he had received an answer from Paris regarding the attitude his Government would take if the Arab-Asian States sought to raise the questions of Tunisia and Morocco in the Security Council. He stated that the French Government would be opposed to the inscription of this item on the Security Council agenda for two reasons: (1) This would be contrary to the definite and established policy of France that the United Nations, whether in the General Assembly or the Security Council, was incompetent to treat such “purely domestic” questions; (2) no cogent arguments could be produced by the Arab-Asians to prove that the situation in Tunisia and Morocco was a danger to international peace and security.

After making it quite clear that the French Government would not [Page 865] entertain the suggestion made by the French Delegation at the United Nations in New York to accept inscription in the hope that the matter could be pigeonholed, Mr. Benard asked what the attitude of the United States would be in the event that the Arab-Asians seized the Security Council with the Tunisian-Moroccan item. I replied that I could not give him a firm answer at this time, but that the general view in the Department was that the Arab-Asians did not have sufficient grounds to base a request for inscription and further that insufficient time had been give to France and the Tunisian and Moroccan Governments to implement the resolution passed by the General Assembly in December 1952.