IO Files: US/A/362
Memorandum of Conversation, by Mr. G. Hayden Raynor of the United States Delegation Staff of Advisers
| Participants: | Mr. Hector McNeil, Acting Chairman, United Kingdom Delegation |
| Adlai Stevenson, United States Delegation | |
| Mr. Charles Bohlen, United States Delegation | |
| Mr. Hayden Raynor, United States Delegation |
Immediately following the adjournment of this morning’s Plenary Session, Mr. McNeil asked Mr. Stevenson and me to sit down with him to discuss the matter of the slate for this committee [General Committee]. His slate was quite at variance with our views on the matter. We were in agreement as to the President and having the five permanent members as Vice Presidents, and also as to Mexico occupying another Vice Presidency. The United Kingdom slate, however, contained the name of Cuba for the Vice Presidency.
We were in agreement as to the candidacy of Bech (of Luxemburg) as Chairman of Committee 1. The British desired Poland placed on Committee 2 and maintained this position despite our protestations that the Soviets had made the most strenuous kind of plea to have the Chairmanship of Committee 3. As to Committee 3, Mr. McNeil expressed a strong preference for Mr. Malik of the Lebanon. The British list contained Sweden for Committee 4. They were willing to have a Latin American, probably Panama, for Committee 5 and made a rather strong point of India being given the Chairmanship of Committee 6. We discussed in some detail the difficulties which this slate would give us and particularly referred to the Soviets’ desire for three seats on the General Committee, to which we had concurred. Mr. Hector McNeil made a rather strong point as to the desirability of giving the Soviets only two seats on the General Committee. We agreed to take the British suggestions up with our Delegation and to discuss the matter again with Mr. McNeil as soon as possible.
Following a meeting of the Advisers of the Delegation with Mr. Bohlen following a consultation with Mr. Gromyko and several of his advisers, this matter was again discussed with Mr. McNeil during lunch. We explained to Mr. McNeil that the Soviets were unwilling to agree to Poland being switched from Committee 3 to some other committee such as 5 and that we therefore felt compelled to continue to support Poland for the third committee.
The British reluctantly agreed to go along on this and most reluctantly agreed to go along on the Ukraine for the seventh Vice Presidency, following our agreement to drop Iran from our slate in [Page 129] favor of India. This resulted in the slate which was elected by the Assembly during the afternoon, with the exception of course of the vote for Cuba instead of the Ukraine for the seventh Vice Presidency.1