156. Memorandum of a Conversation, Secretary’s Office, Hotel du Rhone, Geneva, November 12, 1955, 3:30 p.m.1
USDel/MC/36
PARTICIPANTS
- United States
- The Secretary
- Mr. Gray
- Mr. MacArthur
- Mr. Bowie
- Mr. Merchant
- Mr. McCardle
- Mr. Russell
- Mr. Tyler
- United Kingdom
- Foreign Secretary Macmillan
- Sir I. Kirkpatrick
- Sir George Young
- Patrick Hancock
- France
- M. de Margerie (in place of Pinay)
- Henri Roux
- Jacques Roux
- Mr. Baraduc
SUBJECT
- UN Membership
Mr. Macmillan raised the question of the UN membership. He said the Canadians wanted to table their proposals. He said that the Russians were backing Outer Mongolia and he thought that they might try to bargain for its admission against some other nation.
The Secretary said he was strongly against the admission of Outer Mongolia. Mr. Molotov was coming to see him Sunday morning at 10 o’clock and, from something Gromyko had said to him, he thought that his call might have something to do with the [Page 348] UN membership question. The Secretary then asked Mr. de Margerie what the French position was with regard to the Canadian proposal for the admission of eighteen countries.
Mr. de Margerie said that at present the French Government does not feel that it can be a party to the discussions on this subject. If the Latin American motion were voted by the General Assembly, whereby the Algerian item would be removed from the agenda, the French Government would return to the General Assembly. Otherwise, it would not be part of it. He said that the French were somewhat unhappy at the prospect of the admission to the UN of several countries of the Bandung Conference.
The Secretary observed that the question of UN membership was principally a matter which concerned the Security Council and not the Assembly.
Mr. de Margerie said that at present there was no official French position on the membership question, and that Mr. Pinay had instructed Mr. Alphand to keep hands off.
There followed a discussion of the procedures under the Charter of the United Nations for admission of new members, and the Secretary observed that the Security Council has to recommend the States involved to the General Assembly.
The Secretary said that Outer Mongolia was not a genuine state. Admission of Outer Mongolia would give the Soviet Union four votes instead of the three it now has. It would be more appropriate, he said, to trade off Outer Mongolia against the Ukraine or Byelo-Russia. Mr. Macmillan observed that the Russians might be tempted to veto Spain if we don’t admit Outer Mongolia.
In answer to a question from the Secretary, Mr. Macmillan said that the UK Government is known to be a supporter of the Canadian proposal, and if the Canadians table it, the UK will have to vote in favor of it because of the candidacy of their staunch and faithful Commonwealth ally, Ceylon.
The Secretary wondered how the Canadians had reached the number of eighteen and Mr. Macmillan said that they had simply taken a list of all the candidates. The Secretary said that Puerto Rico would be as good a candidate as Outer Mongolia; in fact, why should he not propose Duck Island?
The Secretary observed that the Canadian proposal meant a kind of de facto amendment of the Charter with regard to its provision for conditions of membership. He said that it had been regrettable that the Ukraine and Byelo-Russia had been allowed to slip in at the beginning.
Mr. de Margerie said that he could speak for Mr. Pinay to the effect that if the Algerian question were settled before the Canadian [Page 349] proposal came up for a vote, he thought that France would go along with it.
Mr. Macmillan said that if it were a question of nothing at all or admitting the eighteen countries, the Government of the United Kingdom would take the whole lot, including Outer Mongolia, though it, did not like it. He observed further that the admission of all these countries would mean that a whole lot of new issues would be introduced for debate, especially with the presence of Ireland in the UN. The Secretary observed that no doubt the question of the partition of Ireland would come up and Mr. Macmillan ruefully agreed.
No more subjects were proposed for discussion at this meeting and it was agreed that the press would be told that the three Ministers had met in order to have an exchange of views on matters outside the scope of the Conference of Foreign Ministers. It was subsequently discovered that Sir George Young2 had already told the press this and had informed them that among the matters to be discussed there would be:
- (1)
- The Near East Crisis.
- (2)
- Vietnam.
- (3)
- UN Membership.