Foreign Relations of the United States, 1946, Paris Peace Conference: Proceedings, Volume III

CFM Files

Verbatim Record

July 29, 1946, 4 p.m.

C.P.(Plen) 1

Temporary President: M. Georges Bidault

M. Bidault (France)—

On behalf of the French nation, the Government of the Republic extend a hearty welcome to the Delegations of the Allied and friendly nations who have come to Paris for the first major conference which is to discuss the settlement of the post-war world. They are happy to find that all these nations have accepted the invitations extended to them on behalf of the Council of Foreign Ministers, and they feel certain that the representatives of all our countries will work in joint agreement and a spirit of friendly co-operation on the important task devolving upon them.

For the second time in less than thirty years, France is the country in which the nations which have emerged victorious from terrible combats are meeting to endeavour to make the peace.

The French Government fully appreciate the honour done and the confidence shown by their partners and friends. They know that this honour is the result of the fate which for the second time has designed France to be in the forefront of the democratic nations against whom the attack was launched, and that on both occasions France has had a large share of the bereavement, the suffering and the destruction which were the price of the victory won.

The conferences which met after the 1914–1918 war proposed certain solutions to the world, and yet less than twenty-five years later a new war, longer and even more terrible, broke out. It would be far too easy to criticize the men or the policies responsible for those solutions. The verdict must be left to history. May I, however, venture to say that whatever the mistakes and the weakness revealed, the fundamental cause of their failure was the fact that two great powers which had in turn played a decisive part in the struggle stood aloof from the peace.

That cause, which was certainly the real reason for the weakness displayed, does not exist to-day. All the democratic nations are taking part in the discussion. There is already an international concert of nations in existence, and the French Government is particularly anxious that it should speedily be completed by the admission of the nations which are absent, particularly in Europe, as soon as they live according to the principles of freedom.

The association of peace-loving nations inspired by one and the same ideal is at the root of the United Nations Organisation, the foundations of which were laid last year in San Francisco,² and which amid many difficulties, but confidently and hopefully, is entering on its first year of existence in 1946.

It is this same association of peace-loving nations that the Council of Foreign Ministers is inviting to take part in drawing up the peace settlement.

You are all aware, Gentlemen, of the procedure which has been adopted for the preparation and discussion of the treaties to be concluded with the European States which were during the whole or part of the war associated with Germany. There is no need to remind you of the meetings of the Council of Foreign Ministers held in London in September, 1945, and in Paris in May and later in June this year, at which the drafts laid before you to-day were prepared.³

I know that there have been criticisms expressed of the main lines on which this procedure has been devised. There have also been complaints regarding the slowness of the Council’s work and the consequent delay in holding the necessary consultation with the other nations mainly concerned.

As the representative of the Government whose hospitality you have accepted, I should be the last to set myself up as a champion of the methods in question. Having, however, personally and directly participated in the work, I think I can say that the difficulties encountered were enormous, because the interests involved were hard to reconcile, and because it was essential to observe certain legal and moral principles which are as valid for international policy as for human behaviour.

Obviously excessive baste is not a charge that can be levelled at those who now submit for your consideration this important chapter of the European settlement formed by the draft treaties of peace with Italy, Hungary, Bulgaria, Roumania and Finland. They feel, however, that they have at least worked patiently and even tenaciously for such solutions as might meet with general agreement and constitute the basis of permanent settlements.

It is hardly the moment, on this opening day, to say whether they have succeeded in their undertaking. In their favour it must at least be said that they never claimed to impose final decisions without consulting the other parties concerned. It was provided from the outset that such decisions should be taken only after the problems had been discussed in a wider assembly where international public opinion could be freely heard. This is why the representatives of the United Nations who took an active part in the war with substantial military forces have met in Paris to-day.

Ample assurances have been given that the discussion at this Conference would be as broad and as thorough as possible and that the Peace Treaties would be finally drafted only after your recommendations had received full and complete consideration.

It is in this spirit, Gentlemen, that the Paris Conference has been convened and I have no doubt that you realize the importance of what you are called to do.

The French Government themselves have always maintained and always will maintain that a free discussion, at which every view can be expressed, is necessary. It is convinced that one of the basic rules of democracy is that no decision is of weight unless it has been previously openly discussed by the representatives of all the parties concerned and has the genuine support of those who have to assume the responsibility for its formulation and have to abide by its consequences.

The problems laid before you, which constitute only a part of the general Peace Settlement, are complex and difficult. They involve the essential interests of a large number of European nations. They give rise sometimes to powerful emotions. I am convinced that we will, all of us, tackle these questions with a sincere desire to find, if not ideal, at least reasonable solutions, not incompatible either with justice or honour and which will help to bring to this sorely stricken part of the world the pacifying factors that it desperately requires.

The French Government feel sure that the Paris Conference, fully conscious of its responsibility, will succeed in accomplishing its difficult task.

It is to us that the long-suffering, sorely-tried peoples of the world, the weak in their anxiety and the simple honest folk turn—to ask us to-day to reject forever the evil forebodings lavished upon us by the prophets of ill and to set up in common accord, and in the service, of justice and liberty, a world delivered from this scourge, which, unlike others, becomes more formidable as time passes—I mean the plague of War.

We have all suffered in waging it sufficiently to want to banish it. The time has now come to begin that consummation.

Gentleman, I declare the Paris Conference open.

Election of President of the Meeting and of the Interim Secretary-General

Mr. Byrnes (United States of America)—Mr. Chairman, I feel certain that I voice the opinion of the members of all delegations when I say how greatly we appreciate the cordial words of welcome with which you have greeted us. We all share your hopes for the success of this conference.

As it is necessary for the members of the conference to appoint temporary officers to direct and regulate our work pending the adoption of standing orders and the election of office-bearers, I beg to propose M. Bidault as temporary President and M. Fouques Duparc of the French Delegation as interim Secretary-General. M. Bidault is a very modest man and that is why I take the liberty of making this proposal. I wish, however, to ask if there are any other proposals.

As no other proposals are forthcoming, I take it that M. Bidault is unanimously elected temporary President of the Conference. Mr. President, I have to inform you of your election.

M. Bidault (France)—Gentlemen, on behalf of my Government and my country I thank the Conference for the honour conferred on me. In particular, I want to thank the First Delegate of the United States of America for the terms, so flattering to me, in which his proposal was made. My modesty, to which he paid so kind a tribute, impels me to say, however, that he himself has just shown that he possesses, in addition, no doubt, to many others and to a much more marked degree than myself, those gifts which are essential to the office of chairman.

Invitation to the Secretary-General of the United Nations To Be Present as an Observer

The President—Gentlemen, I have to call the attention of the conference to the presence of M. Trygve Lie, Secretary-General of the United Nations, who is at present staying in Paris. I ask the Conference to approve the invitation addressed to him to be present as a guest of honour and as an observer for the United Nations at plenary meetings of the conference.⁴

(The proposal was adopted)

Election of the Credentials Commission

The President (Interpretation)—Gentlemen, custom and even necessity require every conference to set up a Credentials Commission. It is also customary to allow the President to propose the members of this Commission. I therefore suggest that it be composed of seven members who shall be the representatives of Australia, Byelorussia, Brazil, China, Czechoslovakia, Ethiopia and the Netherlands.

(The proposal was adopted)

Election of a Commission on Procedure

The President (Interpretation)—Gentlemen, the four Foreign Ministers have submitted to the twenty-one delegations proposals for the establishment of rules of procedure for this Conference. It goes without saying that these proposals must be approved by the Conference before they can be adopted as its rules of procedure. For this reason, it is necessary to set up a Commission on Procedure.

It would appear to be preferable not to postpone the drafting of these rules of procedure until the close of the public debate which we are shortly going to begin. The Commission on Procedure might, therefore, sit at the same time as the plenary meetings of the Conference, Governments being represented by a delegate who would not necessarily be their first delegate. This Commission should include all the Governments represented at the Conference, as the questions it will be called upon to handle are questions inseparable from the correct, orderly and normal working of the Conference itself.

Mr. Evatt (Australia)—Mr. President, I beg to oppose the suggestion that the Commission on Procedure should meet simultaneously with the plenary meetings of the Conference, and I venture to hope you will not press your proposal.

My reason for opposing this suggestion is that the Commission on Procedure is not a commission on procedure in the usual sense of the term. It is a much more important commission, which will define the whole procedure of the Conference. For example, it will fix what majority will be required before the Conference of the twenty-one nations here assembled can send forward recommendations to the four or five Governments which form the Council of Foreign Ministers. Consequently, the work of the Commission on Procedure is of very great importance. Indeed the Government I represent here considers the questions which will be discussed by the Commission on Procedure to be so important that they affect the actual rules of the Conference and therefore Heads of Delegations themselves should be present at meetings of this Commission.

I would therefore ask you, Mr. Chairman, to arrange that the Commission on Procedure should meet immediately, for any delay in its work is clearly undesirable. The questions which this Commission will have to study are questions of principle which, as I said just now, affect the rules of the Conference itself, and are therefore of interest to countries here represented which are not members of the Council of Foreign Ministers.

It will be for the Commission on Procedure to discuss the other questions mentioned by the Chairman and, as I was saying, that Commission’s programme will be much more than merely a programme of rules of procedure. It will have to decide what are the actual powers of this Conference of Twenty-One Nations in respect of the final Treaties of Peace.

We believe that all the countries represented at this meeting which were not members of the Council of Foreign Ministers have, as far as the peace is concerned, the same rights as the members of the Council themselves. This is a position which I have already taken, which I have publicly explained and by which I stand. However I do not wish to start a discussion on this point immediately, but I do believe that, sooner or later, it will be necessary to decide whether the proceedings of this Conference are to be governed by a simple or a conditional majority. Thus, the work of this Commission on Procedure will be extremely serious and important and some Heads of Delegations will want to attend its meetings in person. The Commission on Procedure, I think, might meet in the mornings and the Conference in the afternoons—or some other system might be adopted. We look to you, Mr. President, to direct our work up to the moment when the Rules of the Conference have been adopted and to conduct it in such a way as to safeguard the rights of all the nations represented at this Conference.

Mr. Byrnes: I hope that the Conference will take the request of the Australian representative into consideration. I presume that members of other delegations will also wish to attend plenary meetings both of the Conference and of the Commission on Procedure. I suggest, therefore, that you fix the time for the first meeting of the latter, at which it will itself decide when it wishes to meet again.

The President: The President has no objection to the convenience of the various delegations being considered; he is in fact here to see that this is done. My proposal was a mere suggestion; I have just heard another,—that the time of the meeting of the Commission on Procedure be fixed.

I suggest that it meet to-morrow at 10 a.m. and that, in accordance with the desire expressed by Mr. Byrnes on behalf of the United States Delegation, it decide itself the order and time-table of its proceedings.

Are there any remarks? If I have rightly understood the requests submitted, these imply that, to-morrow at any rate, the Plenary Conference will not meet at the same time as the Commission on Procedure. If there are no objections, all that remains to be done is to fix the agenda for the plenary meetings of the next few days.

Agenda

The President: Delegations will, I think, agree that the next plenary meetings should be devoted to the general discussion. I suggest that the various delegations send in the names of their speakers to the General Secretariat, speeches to be delivered in the order in which the names of speakers are registered.

No objection being raised, I take it that the Conference has decided that the Commission on Procedure will meet at 10 a.m. on the following day and the Commission on Credentials one hour before the next plenary meeting.

We have now to fix the time for the next plenary meeting. I propose that the Conference meet at 4 p.m. and the Commission on Credentials at 3 p.m.

Agreed.

I would remind delegates that credentials should be communicated to the General Secretariat.

I thank the Conference for its promptness in dealing with the agenda of this first meeting.

(The meeting rose at 5.20 p.m.)

2. For documentation on the United Nations Conference on International Organization, held at San Francisco April 25–June 26, 1945, see Foreign Relations, 1945, vol. i, p. 1 ff.
3. For documentation on the meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers in London, see Foreign Relations, 1945, vol. ii, pp. 99 ff.; for documentation on the Paris meetings, see ibid., 1946, vol. ii, pp. 88 ff., and 493 ff.
4. In telegram 3494 (Delsec 718), July 17, from Paris, Dunn reported that the Acting Secretary General of the United Nations had inquired of the French Government whether the United Nations could be represented by an observer at the forthcoming Peace Conference. Byrnes replied in telegram 3503 (Secdel 484) the same day: “Please inform the French Government that I am agreeable to the Foreign Ministers suggesting to the Conference that an invitation be extended to the United Nations Organization to send an observer.” (740.00119 COUNCIL/7–1746)