Office of the Historian

353/6–2954

Memorandum of Conversation, by the Director of the Office of South Asian Affairs (Kennedy)

secret
Washington, June 29, 1954.
  • Subject:
  • Sir Zafrulla Khan’s candidacy for election to the International Court of Justice
  • Participants:
  • Sir Zafrulla Khan, Foreign Minister of Pakistan
  • Mr. Donald D. Kennedy, SOA

I called on Sir Zafrulla Khan, Foreign Minister of Pakistan, at my request, to inform him of the latest developments with respect to his candidacy for the seat on the International Court of Justice vacated by the death of Sir Bengal Rau. Sir Zafrulla was informed that the election to the International Law Commission had been held which removed one of the obstacles to our being able to make known our willingness to vote for him at the time of election. The other factor which had to be resolved was the publication of the list of nominations which had not yet been done in New York. We had been in [Page 550] touch with our people in New York on this, and had been assured that the UN Secretariat would issue the list very shortly. When that had been done Sir Zafrulla would be free to indicate that he had our support and we would be prepared to answer queries to that effect. The point was made that we would not actively campaign for him so that it would be necessary for him to “carry the ball”.

Sir Zafrulla said that he had not told anyone of our position as yet, since Mr. Byroade had enjoined him not to do so until the way was cleared, but that he had been talking to some people himself. He had discussed this with Ambassadors Monroe, Casey and Heaney, and they had indicated favorable attitudes and said that they would communicate with their Governments. He had also discussed it with Mr. Eden while he was here in Washington, and Mr. Eden, without giving any indication of his final position, had said that he would take it up in London on his return. Sir Zafrulla also expected very shortly to discuss the question of his election with the Arab States, possibly proceeding through the King of Saudi Arabia in the first instance. He also thought he would talk to the Ambassador of Liberia. He said that we would have to help with the Latinos. I said that the Latinos might be difficult because they tended to support the principle of precedent in these matters and might very well take the view that since the seat had been occupied by an Indian national, India had a claim to the election of another national from that country to fill out the unexpired term. I also reiterated the fact that we would not be able to carry on an active campaign. Referring to the fact that the seat which Rau had held had formerly been occupied by a national of one of the Latin American countries, he pointed out that perhaps one of the arguments that could be used with the Latinos was that a rotation in this seat which they once held would indicate that it was not finally taken from them but could be considered as available to anyone who could secure the necessary votes. Sir Zafrulla also referred to the fact that he was going to be nominated for one of the full term seats and thought this might be used as an argument to obtain support for his election to the short term seat, since his election in the first instance would remove him as a candidate for one of the full term seats claimed by the Latinos.

I agreed that Sir Zafrulla would be free to indicate our support for him five days after the list of nominations was published by the UN Secretariat.

Subsequently I learned that the seat to which Sir Bengal Rau was elected had formerly been held by a Belgian national, although our original position had been to support Sir Zafrulla for one of the Latin American seats.