President Roosevelt to the Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Harriman)70
58. Please deliver the following message from the President to Marshal Stalin:
“I have just had a pleasant and interesting talk with your Ambassador in regard to the progress of the Dumbarton Oaks talks, There is apparently only one issue of importance on which we have not yet reached agreement and that is the question of voting in the Council. The British and ourselves both feel strongly that parties to a dispute should not vote in the decisions of the Council even if one of the parties is a permanent member of the Council, whereas I gather from your Ambassador that your Government holds the opposite view. Traditionally since the founding of the United States parties to a dispute have never voted in their own case and I know that public opinion in the United States would neither understand nor support a plan of international organization in which this principle was violated. Furthermore I know that this same view is held by many nations of the world and I am entirely convinced that the smaller nations would find it difficult to accept an international organization in which the great powers insisted upon the right to vote in the Council in disputes in which they themselves were involved. They would most certainly see [Page 789] in that an attempt on the part of the great powers to set themselves up above the law. Finally, I would have real trouble with the Senate. For these reasons I hope you will find it possible to instruct your delegation to agree with our suggestion on voting. If this can be done the talks at Dumbarton Oaks can be speedily concluded with complete and outstanding success. Roosevelt.”
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Copy of telegram obtained from the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, N.Y. Message transmitted by the White House Map Room via Navy channels to the United States Naval Attaché Moscow, for Ambassador Harriman.
A memorandum of September 8 by Lt. Robert W. Bogue, U.S.N.R., to Under Secretary Stettinius stated that the message drafted by the Department for transmission to Marshal Stalin was dispatched with the addition by the President of the following sentence: “Finally, I would have real trouble with the Senate”.
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