501.BC/8–2148
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Under Secretary of State (Lovett)
| Participants: | Mr. E. N. van Kleffens, Ambassador of the Netherlands |
| Mr. Robert A. Lovett, Under Secretary of State | |
| Mr. Benjamin M. Hulley, Chief, NOE |
Mr. van Kleffens said he had come in to talk with me about the forthcoming choice of a successor to Belgium on the Security Council. His Government had been canvassing the situation and had not found a satisfactory solution. The most likely place to look was among the Scandinavian countries but these had in the last two or three years adopted a vacillating attitude and shown a disposal to throw tidbits to the Soviet Union to offset any actions favoring the Western Powers, so that on the whole a choice of one of these was regarded at The Hague as possibly more favorable to the Soviets than to the Western Powers. His experience with the Norwegian delegate on ECOSOC confirmed this estimate. He mentioned India as a candidate but thought it had troubles enough of its own and would not make a desirable [Page 112] replacement. He mentioned Turkey as subject to many pressures which would be aggravated if it held a seat on the SC, and Greece was too weak. The Netherlands was not going to put forward a claim for the position or seek it in any way. However, if other nations desired it to have the seat, it would accept.
I told Mr. van Kleffens that the subject had not come to my attention. I talked with Dean Rusk on the telephone to get some background, after which I told the Ambassador that we had been studying the matter but had not come to a decision. Our primary objective would be to retain the seat for a Western European power. Our preference would be the Netherlands, but the brief investigation we had made indicated objections by other countries on the ground that it was a too rapid return of the same power which had held the seat before Belgium; also, the Indonesian problem would be a factor. It was suggested that opposition to the Netherlands might arise from an ill-assorted group of Latin American, Moslem, and Eastern European states which might combine to put India into the vacancy. If it should be clear that the Netherlands’ candidacy would not succeed, we had thought of Norway. Mr. van Kleffens agreed that the seat must be held by a Western European state and was sure that his Government would agree to some such state if it became clear that the Netherlands could not be elected. He reiterated his objections to Norway and mentioned that from the equitable viewpoint Norway had been given many international offices whereas none had been given to the Swedes or the Danes. I observed that since April Norway has followed a commendable strong line. I told him that I would be glad to discuss the matter further with Dean Rusk and then talk to him about it the next time we meet.