Foreign Relations of the United States, 1947, General; The United Nations, Volume I

501.BB/10–1447: Telegram

The Secretary of State at the United Nations to the Acting Secretary of State

restricted
urgent

[ New York ,] October 14, 1947—7:17 p.m.

Delga 32. From Sandifer to Rusk for Barron.¹ Re telephone conversation between Bevans² and Marcy. Draft Legal Committee Report to GA on Headquarters Agreement³ contains paragraph reading as follows:

“With regard to Section 28, it was agreed that the notes exchanged for the purposes of bringing the Headquarters Agreement into force should be limited to effecting this purpose and should not contain any other matter having any effect by way of interpretation or otherwise on the provisions of the Headquarters Agreement”.

Draft note from Austin to Lie would contain language as follows: “Pursuant to instructions from my government and in accordance with authority granted by Congress, I wish to propose …” that the Agreement come into effect.

Language referred to above grew out of discussions as to whether reference should be made to Section 6 of Public Law 357.⁴ The Report referred to above also contains language reading as follows:

“Copies of Public Law 357 passed by the US Congress have been transmitted semi-officially by the Legal Adviser of the State Dept to the Assistant SYG, the Assistant SYG placed copies thereof at the disposal of the Subcommittee. While approving this action by the Secretariat, the Subcommittee were, however, of the opinion that it was neither necessary nor appropriate for the UN to take official cognizance of this resolution of Congress on the ground that the Agreement alone contained the obligations between the parties and that the actual contents of the resolution of Congress was a domestic matter for the US.”

USDel would appreciate your comments on suitability of above language, bearing in mind whether Section 6 does in fact place a restriction upon the Headquarters Agreement and the undesirability of raising this question again with the Legal Committee if it can be avoided. [Sandifer.]

Marshall

1. Dean Rusk was Director of the Office of Special Political Affairs, the Department of State office charged with responsibility for United Nations affairs. Bryton Barron was Assistant for Treaty Affairs, Office of the Legal Adviser, and Chief of the Treaty Branch.
2. Charles I. Bevans was Assistant Chief of the Treaty Branch, Office of the Legal Adviser.
3. On October 3, Subcommittee 1 of the Sixth Committee of the General Assembly, having before it the Secretary-General’s report of the headquarters agreement negotiation printed in U.N. Doc. A/371, began considering the question of whether the General Assembly should authorize the Secretary-General to exchange notes with the United States Government in order to try to bring the agreement into force. Following introductory remarks by Dr. Kerno, the Assistant Secretary-General for Legal Affairs, and Charles Fahy, United States member on the Sixth Committee (Mr. Fahy had been appointed an alternate representative of the United States to the Second Session of the General Assembly), in which they outlined the history of the headquarters agreement, the subcommittee made the decision to consider the agreement on an article-by-article basis.
4. For text of section 6, see p. 45.