Foreign Relations of the United States, 1950, The United Nations; The Western Hemisphere, Volume II

IO Files: SD/A/223

¹

Position Paper Prepared in the Department of State²

confidential

[Washington,] August 10, 1950.

Appointment of the Credentials Committee

the problem

The problem is to determine the position of the United States Delegation with respect to the composition of the Credentials Committee. This Committee is composed of nine members and is appointed by the General Assembly on the proposal of the Temporary President (General Romulo—Philippines).³

recommendation

The United States Delegation should accept any slate proposed by the Temporary President provided that (a) the geographic distribution of countries approximates that of the last regular session, and (b) the slate generally reflects Assembly sentiment on recognition of the Chinese Communist Regime. (As of August 10, 16 of the 59 Members had recognized the Regime, including Byelorussia and the Ukraine.) In any case, the Committee should include not more than four states which have recognized the Chinese Communist Regime.

comment

Rule 28 of the Assembly’s rules of procedure provides that “A Credentials Committee shall be appointed at the beginning of each session. It shall consist of nine members, who shall be appointed by the General Assembly on the proposal of the President.…” The appointment of the Credentials Committee is normally the second item on the Assembly’s agenda; it is preceded by the formal opening of the session and a statement by the Temporary President (the Chairman of the delegation from which the President of the previous session was elected, i.e., General Romulo (Philippines)).

The Credentials Committee of the fourth session was composed of the following states: Belgium, Brazil, Byelorussian S.S.R., Cuba, Iran, Union of South Africa, USSR, United States and Uruguay.

The Temporary President, in proposing the Credentials Committee slate, acts on the recommendation of the Secretariat, and the Secretariat checks the slate in advance with major delegations, including the United States Delegation. In the past the Secretariat has always been amenable to changes suggested in the slate by the United States Delegation. This year, in view of the Chinese representation question, the Delegation should make every effort to ensure that the slate is drawn up by the Secretariat and proposed by General Romulo in accordance with the above recommendation. In the unlikely event that such a slate is not proposed, the Delegation should move appropriate changes in the plenary session.

1. Short title for the Master Files of the Reference and Documents Section of the Bureau of International Organization Affairs, Department of State.
2. This paper is placed here for the convenience of the reader. It was prepared in the Bureau of United Nations Affairs for the U.S. Delegation to the Fifth Regular Session of the General Assembly. (The General Assembly was scheduled to convene at Lake Success, New York, on September 19.) Such papers were in the nature of an “instruction” to the Delegation and generally were the result of deliberations in the Department’s United Nations Liaison Committee (UNLC), a body made up of representatives of the Bureau of United Nations Affairs, of the geographic offices, and of such other offices as appropriate. For matters concerning the composition and organization of the U.S. Delegation, see pp. 24 ff.
3. Brig. Gen. Carlos P. Romulo, Permanent Representative of the Philippines at the United Nations; he was President of the Fourth Regular Session of the General Assembly, September–December 1949.