311. Memorandum From the Head of the Delegation to the Conference on Antarctica (Phleger) to the Secretary of State1
At the meeting of Heads of Delegations this afternoon the Soviet representative introduced the following amendment to Article IV of draft Article X covering Accession:
“The present treaty shall be open for accession by any state which is a member of the United Nations or by any state which will be invited to accede to the treaty by unanimous vote of the parties entitled to appoint representatives under Article VII of the treaty.”
This is an amendment to the draft Article which provides that accession shall be open to accession “by any state which is a member of the United Nations or a member of any of its specialized agencies.” The effect of the amendment would be to eliminate accession by members of specialized agencies of the UN, without unanimous invitation by the treaty members.
During the discussion it was obvious that the Soviet Union had proposed this amendment in order to exclude countries which were members of the specialized agencies and not members of the United Nations and who were friendly to the west, such as West Germany, South Korea, and South Vietnam. He pointed out that the socialist countries had been denied membership in these specialized agencies and that, therefore, it was unfair to permit accession by the members of specialized groups.
Almost all of the representatives expressed disapproval of the Soviet amendment and said that they would refer the question to their governments. The Soviet representative appeared quite firm in his position and gave every indication that he intended to stick to his position.
The Heads of Delegations will meet again at 10:30 A.M., Monday, at which time Argentina representative will be able to express his Government’s view on Article II and the Article on nuclear explosions which were not discussed this afternoon because the Argentine representative was attempting to reach the President of the Argentine on the telephone. He reported that he would be able to have a definitive reply by Monday morning.
[Page 616]Five copies of a working paper showing the present status of all of the Treaty Articles2 were delivered to your office earlier today.