The United Nations Assistant Secretary-General for Legal Affairs ( Kerno ) to the Legal Adviser ( Gross )1
I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of the letter sent to me by your predecessor, Mr. Charles Fahy, on 4 August 1947, with reference to the action taken by the Congress during its last session with respect to the Agreement between the United Nations and the United States concerning the headquarters of the United Nations, and the General Convention on the privileges and immunities of the United Nations.
I have also received a copy of Public Law 357, authorizing the President of the United States to give effect to the Agreement concerning the headquarters of the United Nations.
The Secretary-General will report to the General Assembly on the action taken by the United States authorities on the headquarters Agreement, and will inform the Assembly that, in view of the action of the Senate and of the consideration already given by the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives, it may be expected [Page 52] that final favourable consideration will be given to the General Convention when the present Congress re-convenes in January 1948.
I have noted that in respect of the General Convention, the Senate, after consideration of its text, has directed that the United States reserve its position with respect to Section 18(b), regarding exemption from taxation on salaries and emoluments paid by the United Nations in so far as that section may [be?] applied to United States nationals, and with respect to Section 18(c), regarding immunity from national service obligations in so far as that section may apply to United States nationals or persons who have declared their intention to become citizens of the United States. These reservations are evidently of considerable importance and, if maintained, would have very serious effects in particular on the status of United Nations officials and on the financial position of the Organization.
My special attention was also drawn to that part of the Senate resolution which deals with Article VII of the Convention on the privileges and immunities of the United Nations with respect to the Laissez-passer. If Article VII of the Convention were to be interpreted in a restrictive manner so as to oblige a United Nations official coming or returning to the United States to be in possession of his natural passport, the significance of the Laissez-passer as an international document would naturally be reduced to a simple identification card and not the valid travel document as defined in Section 24 and in the discussions which have taken place on that subject in the General Assembly.
No reservations or restrictive interpretations have been signified to the Secretary-General by any of the Members who up to now have acceded to the Convention and in fact the Laissez-passer has already been utilized by various members of the Secretariat during their travels for the Organization, National visas have been affixed, in several instances to the Laissez-passer and the document has been accepted and recognized by the authorities of several States.
In view of the fact that the Headquarters of the United Nations is established in the United States and that practically all of the United Nations officials return to the United States after their trips, an interpretation by the United States of Article VII of the Convention different from that given to it by the States who have acceded so far to the Convention would affect to the greatest extent the significance and the usefulness of the Laissez-passer.
You will undoubtedly recognize the importance of this problem. Would, therefore, the United States consider it desirable to have conversations on this or on the other subjects relating to the General Convention with the Secretariat before the next session of the General Assembly? I would be very glad to appoint representatives for this purpose.
- Dr. Kerno’s letter not found in Department of States files; this text is from annex IV of U.N. Doc. A/371. Ernest A. Gross became Legal Adviser of the Department on August 15.↩