IO Files
Memorandum of Conversation, by Mr. James N. Hyde, Adviser, United States Delegation to the General Assembly
US/A/C.4/209
Subject: Italian Membership—4th Committee
Participants:
| Mr. Lacoste | } | —French Delegation |
| Mr. Pignon | ||
| Mr. Naudy | ||
| Mr. Coulson | } | —United Kingdom Delegation |
| Mr. Parrot | ||
| Mr. Mathieson | ||
| Mr. Gerig | } | —United States Delegation |
| Mr. Sandifer | ||
| Mr. Hyde |
The French called this meeting to consider a draft resolution which they had prepared in the light of a British draft1 carrying forward the decision of the three Foreign Ministers that the Italian membership item should be moved forward in the 4th Committee at an early stage with a resolution recommending that the SC again consider Italy’s application as a matter of urgency.
We made the point that clearly the tactical decision of the three Foreign Ministers are conditioned upon the fact that Italy will approve this course and feel that it forwards her cause. We added that this seemed particularly true in the light of our commitment made in the Tripartite Declaration of September 24 [26], 1951. In the light of these facts, we questioned the wisdom of getting to the point of discussing a draft with the other members. The British had stated that they had shown their working paper to Australia and Canada, as well as Argentina.
Lacoste stated that of course they intended to do nothing without consulting the Italians and they expected to see the Italians today. Naudy added that his general impression from telegrams they had received from Rome is that the draft resolution is along the general lines of What the Italians understand they are going to get.
The operative paragraph of the draft simply recommends to the SC that it should urgently consider the views of the Assembly that Italy should be recommended for immediate admission to membership in the UN.
Lacoste stated that they would seek out the Italian Ambassador to France today and be certain about what his views are. He added that [Page 387] after all this was only the first act, or beginning, of what we plan to do on the Italian membership application. Coulson made substantially the same comment. We replied that this underlined the importance of talking to the Italians before we set in motion a course of action without any clear idea of what the later steps would be. We added that it might well be, in the light of what the Italians have said to us, that they would consider SC action, and particularly a veto, as prejudicing the position which they and some of their other friends will want to urge in the First Committee.
We also underlined the fact that the Italians seemed to read the Tripartite Declaration as indicating some support for the aide-mémoire which they had presented our three governments, although the US has indicated its difficulties with the solution proposed in the aide-mémoire.
Lacoste stated that he thought that the later moves might really boil down to some sort of participation of Italy in Assembly committees, possibly with a vote in the committee, provided of course that Italy wanted this. However, Naudy later stated to Hyde that he could not see from a legal point of view how Italy would possibly be given a vote in Assembly committees wthout membership in the organization.
In the light of the above discussion, it was decided that we needed more time to have an agreed position and to talk to the Italians, and that we would not be prepared to proceed in the 4th Committee before Monday, November 19. Tactical steps were thereupon discussed for reaching this result. We left it that we three would consult during the course of tomorrow, November 15.
During this discussion we mentioned the fact that strong representations had been made to us, although we did not identify de Gasperi’s letter to the Secretary. Neither the French nor the British indicated that they had received any representations similar to these. We did not discuss how to handle the Peruvian and Italian aide-mémoires in the First Committee. However, at one point Coulson commented that perhaps there would be some way of having the International Court of Justice pass on Italy’s qualifications for membership.
- No text of a British draft has been found in Department of State files.↩