Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers, 1945, General: The United Nations, Volume I

500.CC(PC) 12–2445: Telegram

The Acting United States Representative on the Preparatory Commission (Stevenson) to the Acting Secretary of State

London, December 24, 1945—9 p.m.
[Received December 25—6:50 p.m.]

13583. This is Copre 670.

a. Following is summary report of conversations concerning slates and related matters during the last few days in addition to conversations reported in Copre 665.

[Here follows Mr. Stevenson’s discussion of his conversations with several heads of delegations from Near Eastern, British Commonwealth, and Latin American countries.]

b. Following are preliminary observations concerning presidency of GA and SyG:

1. There seems to be very little interest in a Norwegian as president of the GA. There is even some concern that a Norwegian president might be in a somewhat embarrassing position with regard to Soviet Union. Apart from the support for Evatt mentioned above among the Latin American delegations,⁶³ sentiment seems rather strongly to favor Spaak as president. He is known to be favored by the British. The view is now infrequently expressed, however, that because of his political record he might be unacceptable to the Soviet Govt. Gromyko was certainly lukewarm, to say the least, concerning the possibility that Spaak might be elected president of the GA. It is felt that Spaak might accept the presidency since it would presumably permit him to continue his political and administrative career in Belgium.

2. There is virtually no favorable reaction to Spaak as a possibility for SyG. It is doubted whether Spaak would be willing to give up his national career; it is believed that Soviet opposition would be far stronger against Spaak as SyG than it would be against him as president of GA; it is recognized that Spaak’s command of English is very poor and that fluent command of English will be essential since headquarters will be in US. There is very little enthusiasm for Van Kleffens or Van Royen. The latter is thought of as a very high-minded gentle person of considerable intellectual capacity but, on the other hand, he is considered to be somewhat aesthetic and not tough enough for the job as SyG. Soundings we have taken without, of course, specific reference to Gromyko’s proposal of Simic, indicate there would be strong opposition to an Eastern European as SyG. This opposition would be notably strong among Latin American countries, and might be somewhat embarrassing because, although not in any way inspired by US, the Soviet delegation would undoubtedly believe that it had been.

c. We shall continue consultations so far as possible over the holidays with other members of the five and other delegations as circumstances permit. Because of pressure of other work on all delegations and reluctance of most delegations to discuss slates before this week, it has not been possible for us to make as much progress as we should have liked during PreCo period. We anticipate it will be possible to commence active discussions of these matters by about January 3 and we feel quite certain that the remaining time before the GA convenes on the tenth will be more than fully occupied with these negotiations.

Stevenson

63. H. V. Evatt, Australian Minister of State for External Affairs and Australian Representative on the Preparatory Commission. Mr. Stevenson had reported as follows: “With regard to the presidency of the GA, Zuleta [Eduardo Zuleta Angel, of Colombia, President of the Preparatory Commission] confirmed that there is general support among all Latin American delegations for Evatt. He said that he personally as well as his Govt shares this view. He then talked at length about Evatt as a leader of smaller countries at San Francisco and the profound impression he had made upon all of the Latin American countries in this sense. For the same reason he said he thought Evatt would have a great deal of support among the smaller European countries, Zuleta went out of his way to emphasize that Latin American support for Evatt was not directed against the US but rather to prevent domination by the Soviet Union. Zuleta did not feel that the candidacy of a Norwegian would be very warmly received if Evatt’s candidacy were not practicable. He said he thought the Latin American countries would favor Spaak if Evatt were not available.”