Cablegram 293 PARIS, 27 December 1948, 10.15 p.m.
IMMEDIATE
Security Council. Please see our en clair report [1] today’s proceedings.
1. It was apparent even before today’s meeting that United States and United Kingdom had lost much of their enthusiasm for firm Council action. I had seen a number of delegations over the weekend and it was apparent that no proposal for withdrawal would receive the requisite number of votes whatever combination of powers suggested. Jessup even went so far as to tell me before the meeting that he was more or less satisfied with Dutch intended response, indicating that they had been in consultation with him.
Response is, in my view, quite unsatisfactory and amounts to no more or less than rejection of the Council’s order.
2. Withdrawal proposal of the Ukraine differs only in form from that contained in resolution last week and yet United States and United Kingdom, whose vote would have ensured the passage, abstained, the former on the grounds that further consideration of the position was desirable and the latter for the astonishing reason that the Council ‘should wait until it became clear what the Dutch intended to do’. United Kingdom was represented by Falla, which is hardly encouraging as to the seriousness with which they regard this issue.
3. The situation appears obviously to be one in which United States and United Kingdom regard it as more important to block the U.S.S.R. than to reach a satisfactory conclusion. I have made repeated efforts to persuade Jessup to adopt an attitude more in keeping with United States protestations last week without any success and I fear that present indications are that the Council will take no action in regard to the preservation of the Republic as a negotiating unit.
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1 Document 481.
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[AA:A1838, 854/10/4/3, iiib]