Office of the Historian

501.PA/10–1045: Telegram

The Chargé in the United Kingdom (Gallman) to the Secretary of State

London, October 10, 1945—7 p.m.
[Received 8 p.m.]

10571. ReDeptel 8568, Sept. 28 and Embtel 10250, Oct. 2.14 Following is text of letter sent to Foreign Office Sept 30 by Soviet Ambassador Gusev:

“In answer to your notes of the 3rd Aug and 10th Sept, of this year, I have the honour to inform you that in the opinion of Soviet Govt, measures for the preparation and creation of an organization for matters of enlightenment and culture, as also measures for the calling of a conference for the establishment of such an organization should be taken by the Social-Economic Council of the Organization of the [Page 1516] United Nations after the formation of such council in the forthcoming first session of the General Assembly.

“Such procedure would be in complete accord with article 59 of constitution of the international Organization according to which initiative in the matter of the creation of international intergovernment organizations should issue from the International Organization of the United Nations.”

It will be noted that arguments Soviets advance for postponement Conference are identical with those originally proposed by French when they argued British alone should not convene Conference. Foreign Office does not propose to reply to Soviet letter but will make statement at meeting of working committee Oct 12 defending propriety of British Govt and French Govt convening Conference and urging that present time table be followed.

Foreign Office informed us this morning that Bolivia, Egypt and Poland have now accepted invitation to Conference in addition to countries listed Embtel 10276, Oct. 3.15 We were also told, however, that previous list supplied to us was in error in one respect since Syria has not yet formally accepted. Number of countries which have formally accepted, therefore, now stands at twenty-five, but Foreign Office is confident that Canada, India, Greece, Netherlands, Belgium and Syria will also accept and possibly several additional Latin American States.

Gallman
  1. Neither printed.↩
  2. Not printed; the countries listed were Australia, Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Dominican Republic, France, Iran, Lebanon, Luxembourg, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Panama, Peru, El Salvador Syria, Turkey, Union of South Africa, United Kingdom, and the United States.↩