865.00/9–2848
Memorandum by Mr. Philip Bagby of the United States Mission to the United Nations 1
It was agreed that the question of the disposition of the Italian Colonies should not come up for consideration until after the United States elections. Mr. Raynor stated that the British were in agreement with this. It was agreed that no action was necessary to obtain deferment of the question, since it already appeared as No. 10 on the agenda of Committee #1.2
Messrs. Villard and Raynor were requested to make an estimate of [Page 954] the number of members of the United Nations who would vote for or against British Trusteeship for Cyrenaica, if urged to do so by the U.S. and the U.K.
Mr. Rusk suggested that additional votes might be obtainable if Cyrenaica were placed under Trusteeship with the United Nations itself as the administering authority and Great Britain acting on behalf of the United Nations as a sort of Executive Agent. It was agreed that the British reaction to such a scheme should be obtained informally.
It was agreed that it would be useless to have Tri-Partite U.S., U.K., French talks on the Italian Colonies at this stage, unless the French had some new proposal to make.
- The members of the Working Group present at this meeting were: Dean Rusk, Chairman of the Group and Director of UNA; Ernest A. Gross, Legal Adviser; Philip Bagby; William I. Cargo, AF; O. Benjamin Gerig, UND; Col. Philip H. Greasley, USAF; David H. Popper, OA; G. Hayden Raynor, EUR; Capt. Harold P. Smith, USN; Eric Stein, IS; John E. Utter; Henry S. Villard, S/P; Stanley Wilcox, DRE. The meeting took place at 4 p.m., September 27.↩
- The problem of the Italian Colonies had come before the General Assembly at its 143d meeting September 24, 1948, and had been referred to the First Committee (problems dealing with threats to international peace and security).↩