740.00119 Control (Germany)/11–1648: Telegram
The Acting Secretary of State to the Secretary of State, at Paris
Telmar 166. For the Secretary from Lovett. Following is text of message received by President from Evatt ref my immediately preceding telegram:1
“The Secretary-General and I are handing to the Chairman of your delegation at the third regular session of the UN General Assembly, for transmittal to you, a communication urging implementation of the resolution of the General Assembly unanimously adopted on 3 November, 1948 entitled Appeal to the Great Powers To Renew Their Efforts To Compose Their Differences and Establish a Lasting Peace. I hope for your most earnest and sympathetic consideration of this communication with special and immediate reference to the Berlin crisis, the continuance of which has been and still is an active obstruction to the work of the General Assembly. Indeed the Berlin dispute is seeping into the very structure of this organization. There are, of course, a number of ways in which this dispute may be settled. The recent Security Council proceedings nearly resulted in the settlement which was preceded by negotiation. Therefore the matter might again come before the Security Council. Alternatively you might consider that other and more direct methods of Four-Power negotiation might well be tried with regard to the overwhelming necessity of settling not only the Berlin dispute, but the peace itself. I have always taken the view that a much closer association with the great powers of other nations that during the war contributed men and material unstintingly to the common cause against the common enemy would have assisted the Council of Foreign Ministers and facilitated the making of the peace. Finally there is the important question of personal contact, [Page 1253] personal trust and personal confidence and comradeship between the leaders of the great powers. I want to assure you that the Secretary-General and I will be entirely at your service and disposal in any positive steps you may think would be helpful. Our single desire is to forward the purposes and principles of the United Nations, which the peoples of the world intensely desire to see translated into action.”
It is not clear from this message whether a similar one was sent to other Chiefs of Government or whether it was only intended for the President.2
- Telmar 165, not printed; it reported the President’s agreement to a draft reply to the Evatt–Lie letter and his declaration at a press conference that the United States would not resume negotiations on Germany until the blockade of Berlin had been lifted (740.00119 Control (Germany)/11–1648).↩
- There is no record in the Department of State files of any reply to this letter.↩