500.CC/8–3144

Memorandum of Conversation, by the Secretary of State

The Soviet Ambassador called at my request. I discussed and earnestly urged the retention of the proposal that no nation could vote in a case in which it was interested and, secondly, I strongly emphasized the great importance of an elaborate discussion of economic problems.50 The other question which I discussed is not to be made of record.51 I complimented the Ambassador very highly on his excellent showing as head of his delegation. This was in all sincerity.

C[ordell] H[ull]
  1. With reference to the Soviet contention that economic and social problems should be handled by a separate organization apart from the international security organization, the Secretary argued to Mr. Gromyko that peace and security were inextricably linked with economics, because a world in economic chaos would be forever a breeding ground for trouble and war. (Hull, Memoirs, vol. ii, pp. 1680–1681.)
  2. The other question was Ambassador Gromyko’s proposal in the Joint Steering Committee on August 28 that all sixteen Republics composing the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics should be made initial members of the United Nations Organization. In his Memoirs, Secretary Hull said he told the Soviet Ambassador the large nations that would have to furnish leadership and the military force for the organization would have no difficulty in getting their views listened to, whether they had one vote or many votes, and the United States did not think to have more than one vote.

    Mr. Hull stated that prior to his resignation in November, 1944, this question of plural Russian membership was mentioned only once more by Gromyko, and that toward the end of the conference. At no time, according to the Secretary, did the Soviets take up with him their later request for the admission of the White Russian and Ukrainian Republics to which President Roosevelt agreed at the Yalta Conference. Had they done so, Mr. Hull stressed that he would have opposed it. (Memoirs, vol. ii, pp. 1679–1680.)

    For discussions at the Yalta Conference on this subject, see Foreign Relations, The Conferences at Malta and Yalta, 1945, pp. 712, 772, and 991.