CFM files, lot M 88, box 169, “Churchill–Eden Visit”
No. 464
Memorandum by the Assistant
Secretary of State for United Nations Affairs
(Key) of a Meeting of Secretary of
State Dulles and
Foreign Secretary Eden at the Department of State on the
Morning of June 25, 1954
Subject:
- Guatemalan Complaint
Participants:
- The Secretary of State
- Mr. Anthony Eden, British Foreign Secretary
- Sir Roger Makins, British Ambassador
- Mr. Livingston Merchant, Assistant Secretary for European Affairs
- Mr. David Key, Assistant Secretary for United Nations Affairs
At a meeting held in the Secretary’s office this morning,1 he outlined to the British Foreign Secretary the United States position with reference to the Guatemalan complaint before the Security Council, calling attention to the importance, from our viewpoint, of having this matter considered on a regional basis in the OAS and not to have it considered at this time in the Security Council.2
The Secretary cited to Mr. Eden the pertinent sections of Chapters VII and VIII of the Charter and in particular Article 52(2) which encouraged regional arrangements for the pacific settlement of disputes. The Secretary also pointed out the danger to the inter-American system involved in the present Communist maneuver to attempt to by-pass the Inter-American Peace Committee and to try to have the Security Council act on the Guatemalan complaint.
Mr. Eden stated that he shared our views as to the desirability of having the OAS act on the Guatemalan complaint and that likewise he did not wish this matter to be acted upon in the Security Council. However, there was nothing in the Charter which would preclude the laying of a complaint before the Security Council, and [Page 1076] he felt that at least a hearing should be given to the plaintiff. For this reason, he could not instruct the British Representative to vote against adoption of the provisional agenda at this afternoon’s meeting, but he would instruct him to abstain.
- According to Hagerty’s diary, this conversation took place on the drive from the airport to the White House. (Eisenhower Library, James C. Hagerty papers)↩
- For documentation on the Guatemalan complaint before the Organization of American States (OAS) and the U.N. Security Council, see vol. iv, pp. 1027 ff.↩