Office of the Historian

260. Message From Foreign Secretary Lord Home to Secretary of State Rusk1

London, July 29, 1963.

I am still very worried about the wording of paragraph 3 of the American draft Resolution about the Portuguese Territories. I realise that your delegation has made an effort to help us by altering somewhat the reference to the functions of the eminent person designated by the Secretary-General, but the latest wording, as we see it, would still make it absolutely impossible for us to resist a demand that a United Nations [Page 576] Mission should visit territories such as Southern Rhodesia and British Guiana. The words which give us difficulty are “to visit the territories and to take such other steps as may help to bring about the attainment of self-determination.” We would go along with amended wording which read “to conduct such other consultations as may be appropriate to attain the elimination of the causes of international friction, etc.”

I am very anxious that we should be able to associate ourselves with your moderate resolution which has a number of valuable features in it; and I should be very unhappy if we found ourselves separated from working closely with your delegation by the difficulty over the words I have concluded. Do you think you could possibly see your way to getting these words omitted and those I have suggested substituted? Alternatively, if this is out of the question, I should like you to know that we would be prepared to go along with your resolution as it stands provided your delegation makes it clear in the debate that their interpretation of these words is that the action taken in operative paragraph 3 will be taken in consultation with the Portuguese.

  1. Source: National Archives and Records Administration, RG 59, Presidential Correspondence: Lot 66 D 204, UK Officials and Rusk, Box 181. Confidential. A covering memorandum from Denis A. Greenhill of the British Embassy, dated July 29, is not printed. For the reactions of President Kennedy and other senior U.S. officials to this letter, see Foreign Relations, 1961–1963, vol. XXI, Document 370.↩