Foreign Relations of the United States, 1955–1957, Austrian State Treaty; Summit and Foreign Ministers Meetings, 1955, Volume V

162. Telegram From the Delegation at the Paris Working Group to the Department of State¹

Paris, July 11, 1955—11 p.m.

151. From Beam. Re Deptel 102, Embtel 126.² After considerable argument particularly from French, Working Group dropped French and British demand for inclusion draft declaration of principles in its report. French still believe text in Embtel 126 should be useful in drafting final Geneva communiqué. On condition delegations retain text in their files for such purpose French agreed following section in WG report with reference to declaration of principles:

“It is probable that at Geneva the Soviet Delegation will try to persuade the four heads of government to adopt a declaration of principles similar to those to which they have recently subscribed (Nehru–Chou communiqué,³ and Soviet attempt to get a declaration of principles in San Francisco⁴). It is also possible that they will unilaterally publish their own declaration of principles if they do not succeed in getting their text accepted by the West.

Three governments should resist any Soviet proposal to associate themselves with a declaration of principles, using the following arguments:

(A) We do not need a new declaration of principles: the UN Charter contains all the necessary principles;

(B) Furthermore, to exclude from a declaration certain principles in the Charter would raise questions as to whether these principles have been abandoned or whether they have lost their importance;

(C) The 4 governments have already subscribed to the Van Kleffans statement at the San Francisco commemorative meeting of the United Nations to which all UN members unanimously subscribed;⁵

(D) Any joint declaration of new principles agreed to with the Soviet Union might contain ambiguities which could be embarrassing in the future;

(E) In any case what the world wants is action not words.”

1. Source: Department of State, Central Files, 396.1–GE/7–1155. Secret; Priority.
2. Telegram 126 reported on a subcommittee meeting at which the French and British pressed for a declaration of principles on international behavior and transmitted the draft of a statement reaffirming the principles of the U.N. Charter. (Ibid., 396.1–GE/7–955) Telegram 102 reported that Secretary Dulles did not like the proposal for a declaration and instructed the U.S. Delegation to “hold line that new declaration unnecessary”. (Ibid.)
3. A copy of the Nehru–Chou En-lai communiqué, June 30, 1955, is ibid., Conference Files: Lot 63 D 123, CF 497, REF–5/55.
4. At the tenth anniversary ceremonies of the United Nations Molotov attempted to get a declaration of principles approved by the four powers. The three Western powers resisted this effort in favor of subscribing to Van Kleffens’ statement referred to in footnote 5 below.
5. It is not clear whether the reference here is to Van Kleffens’ statement on June 25 or June 26; however, both are printed in Tenth Anniversary, pp. 283–287.