FE files, lot 55 D 480, “United Nations”
Memorandum by the United Nations Adviser, Bureau of Far Eastern Affairs (Bacon), to the Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs (Robertson)
- Subject:
- Non-member participation in the United Nations
In view of the Secretary’s personal interest in our sounding out other delegations on the possibilities of moving ahead at this General Assembly on the associate membership question, the Department recently sent USUN a possible draft resolution on the participation of [Page 1024] non-members in the UN. Under the draft resolution the General Assembly would invite any state “which the General Assembly has found fully qualified for admission” to accredit representatives to General Assembly sessions. These representatives would be entitled to (a) speak and make proposals, (b) have their votes recorded but not counted, (c) receive UN documents, and (d) to make and have circulated proposals and communications. Non-members taking advantage of this invitation would be expected to make a voluntary contribution to the UN.
In discussions in New York both the Italian and Austrian initial reactions were negative. The UK representative anticipated that his government would not support the plan. Some Latin American states, on the contrary, showed interest.
The Japanese representative expressed strong personal interest but said that in the past Japan had felt that Japan should receive full membership and the Japanese Government had accordingly not taken a formal decision in support of any other type of participation. He said that he would consult his government on the matter and let us know its views.
Comment: It is believed that the Secretary’s interest in this problem arises partly in the desire to avoid the essentially negative position which we have taken on the membership question during recent sessions. With nineteen applications pending,1 some way of breaking the deadlock has been growing in the General Assembly. Non-member participation, if limited to states which have received GA approval, might be the most advantageous solution from our point of view—if it is generally acceptable. The conditions of participation indicated in the draft resolution are very generous. They amount in fact to all the benefits of full membership except the right to have the vote counted.
The proposal is likely to meet difficulties on several scores:
- (a)
- As there is no charter provision for non-member participation, differences may arise among our friends concerning the extent of the rights to be conferred.
- (b)
- To date, the proposed beneficiaries have either been opposed or shown a minimum of interest. Their position in general has been that their chances for obtaining full membership would be impaired if they showed a disposition to accept a lesser status.
- (c)
- The proposal will meet with strenuous Soviet Block [sic] opposition. The result might be an effort to offer non-member participation to Soviet Block candidates.
USUN is now reporting the reactions of other delegations. When fuller reports have been received, a decision will be taken whether or not to proceed to introduce the proposal.
- Marginal notation indicating words “pressure for” were to be added at this point.↩