740.00119 Control (Korea)/6–647: Telegram
The Political Adviser in Korea (Langdon) to the Secretary of State
priority
141. Summary of 30th session Joint Commission June 4, General Brown presiding, follows:
As Subcommission 1 had been unable to compose different points of view on order of consultation, the Commission as a whole took up the question but was unable to reach agreement and once again sent it back to Subcommission. Differences are on two heads:
- 1.
- Soviet insistence on incorporating Hodge’s three conditions for consultation (December 24) in the published rules of consultation, and
- 2.
- Inviting parties immediately to consultation, with publication of questionnaires, before agreement is reached on standards for oral consultation.
Our position is with respect to (1) that Hodge’s three points do not stand alone, but are amendments to Chistiakov’s three points of November 26, and therefore that Molotov letter of May 10,90 which cites both Chistiakov letter and acceptance of Hodge’s amendments thereto is the minimum which should be put in the rules if it is at all necessary to incorporate the well publicized basis of reconvention in the rules.
As for the Soviet idea of a general invitation to parties to sign up for consultation, we suspect its purpose is to see first which parties will respond and then to fix the standards for oral consultation to fit parties favorable to them. Along with this line, they now propose that each consulted party be represented not by one spokesman but by several in a ration [ratio] to their relative membership, and that all representatives form a permanent consultative body for the Commission. We suspect that these maneuvers are aimed at securing a majority in a body that will not only dictate the writing of the charter but also supply the personnel of the provisional government. We are trying to secure advance agreement on standards for oral consultation, as the materials we have for North and South Korea indicates that in the overall picture non-Communist parties would tip the scales in any scheme for consultation of general application.
Next item on the agenda was our proposal of the previous session to eliminate references to pro-Japanese elements and to activities of reactionary anti-democratic elements and elements attempting to undermine the provisional government. As the Soviets showed no disposition to yield on this point, it was put on the agenda for the next [Page 666] meeting on the 6th. It may be necessary for us to withdraw this proposal in order to expedite our work and for the sake of consistency with our position a year ago.