Moscow Embassy Files: Telegram
The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Harriman) to the Secretary of State
4905. The Foreign Office is evidently trying to puzzle out and understand the meaning and implications of the proposals made in the President’s cable to Marshal Stalin regarding voting procedure in the World Security Organization, as Bereshkov has informally called up a Secretary of the Embassy several times to ask for advice. (Secret for the Secretary from Harriman) Last night Bereshkov asked [Page 61] whether there was not some telegraphic mistake in the inclusion of paragraph one of Chapter VIII Section C. I hope we correctly interpreted the reasons for the inclusion of this paragraph by explaining that it related to peaceful settlements of disputes through regional arrangements such as in the American hemisphere. I may be called over to give a more formal explanation and it would be helpful if I could be informed urgently on this point. I am particularly interested to know whether it is essential that the Soviet Government agrees at this time to the inclusion of this paragraph in connection with the proposed voting procedure or whether, if it agrees to the voting procedure in reference to Chapter VIII Section A, consideration of paragraph one of Section C may be left for future determination.