IO Files: US/A/1941
Memorandum of Conversations, by Mr. G. Hayden Raynor, Adviser, United States Delegation to the United Nations General Assembly
Subject: Yugoslav Candidacy for the Security Council
| Participants: | Ambassador Arne Sunde, Norwegian Delegation |
| Justice Terje Wold, Norwegian Delegation | |
| Ambassador Henrik Kauffmann, Danish Delegation | |
| Mr. G. Hayden Raynor, United States Delegation |
At Dr. Jessup’s dinner last night Ambassador Kauffmann stated that he had just received instructions similar to the Norwegian instructions directing his delegation to vote for Czechoslavakia but apparently, as is also the case with the Norwegians, he has authority to switch at some point in the balloting to Yugoslavia. Kauffmann is not certain from the wording of his instructions as to just what point he can switch. Sunde’s instructions read that he can do it in the event of an [Page 274] impasse but he also is not certain as to how to define an impasse. Both intimated that the English may have had something to do with these instructions and both seem to feel that the Norwegian and Danish Foreign Ministers had consulted on the matter before sending their respective instructions. Sunde, in particular, seems to attribute the situation to British initiative and I am told that he spoke rather bitterly to Mr. McNeil during the course of the evening about the whole matter. Both Sunde and Kauffmann indicated that if the English change their position, they felt confident they could get their own positions changed.
Sunde left the dinner early in order to discuss this whole question with the Norwegian Minister of Defense who was leaving late last night for Norway so that the Minister could raise the question when he reaches Norway in an attempt to have the instructions changed. Sunde told me this morning that the Minister of Defense agreed with his position completely and he is rather hopeful that he will be able to accomplish something when he gets back to Norway.
Justice Wold told me today that the Delegation also telegraphed back asking for reconsideration. He said he was depressed about the whole matter as he thought the decision indicated a lack of thought in Oslo whereas he and other members of the Delegation here had given it very serious study.
As Dr. Sunde stressed the secrecy which they attached to the matter, I thought it only proper to inform him last night that we had heard of this yesterday afternoon at Lake Success from two newspapermen, one a Scandinavian and one an American.