Foreign Relations of the United States, 1948, General; the United Nations, Volume I, Part 1

IO Files: US(P)/A/4

Memorandum of Telephone Conversation, by Mr. John C. Ross, Deputy to the United States Representative at the United Nations (Austin)

confidential

[Paris,] September 20, 1948.

Participants:	Mr. Andrew Cordier, Executive Assistant to the Secretary-General
	Mr. John C. Ross, United States Delegation

I telephoned Cordier this morning to check with him on latest information on above subject.

1. He told me Evatt has the inside track clearly for the Presidency. The Latin Americans were talking about a candidate but he did not see that they had strength enough even in their own ranks to put one over.

2. Cordier said Spaak clearly is out in front for the Chairmanship of Committee 1. I raised with Cordier the question of whether the Latin Americans might not make a strong drive for this Chairmanship if they conceded to Evatt on the Presidency. Cordier thought that they could not muster enough strength. Furthermore, he went on, the Latin American Delegation list was pathetic. They had very few strong people. He mentioned Santa Cruz, Nervo, Stolk and Muniz as being probably the strongest on the list he had seen so far.

3. Cordier said he thought it would be essential to give one Vice-Presidency at least to an Eastern European and one to a Latin American. He said it would be essential to give three General Committee posts to the Latin Americans; this would mean one Vice-Presidency and two Committee Chairmanships. It would also be essential to give a total of three General Committee posts to Eastern Europe. In addition to the U.S.S.R. this would mean one Vice-Presidency and one Committee Chairmanship.

4. I informed Cordier that Romulo had asked our support for one of the Vice-Presidencies and we had informed him we would support him.

5. I told Cordier that we tentatively had Entezam or Malik on the list for Committee 3. He thought either of these would be good.

6. I told Cordier we favored Wilgress for Committee 5. Cordier said he thought Wilgress would be good for this but he had not been able to find out if he would be available. I told him I understood that the Canadians had informed Dean Rusk that they would make Wilgress available for this post.

7. I said we tentatively were considering an Eastern European for Committee 6. Cordier said he thought this might work and mentioned the name of Vilfan.

I told Cordier that we definitely did not want to get into the business of campaigning. We felt, however, that coordination was very important and that he might well be, in our opinion, the most neutral and objective coordinating center. With this in mind, I said we would try to keep him fully informed of our views and any information we might pick up. Cordier said that he would welcome this cooperation and thought that we should continue exchanging views and work toward a general crystallization of a firm slate before the elections get underway.