Cablegram 455, CANBERRA, 26 September 1949, 9 p.m.
IMMEDIATE CONFIDENTIAL
Your UN.528.[1] Greece.
We agree that you should make early move in Assembly to continue conciliation efforts initiated by Minister. Discussions could be undertaken either by group similar to last year, or by Heads of Delegations of Big Four.
2. In event of failure to postpone debate or failure of conciliation talks you should continue to follow general policy of emphasizing need to reach overall settlement at the latest during 1950. Such settlement may require separate machinery for purposes of conciliation and observation. Experience of UNSCOB has shown that combined functions of conciliation and observation are apparently incompatible. Accordingly it would be preferable during 1950 if separate machinery were established for each function.
3. To be effective conciliation should be conducted by specially qualified person or persons appointed at opportune time with consent of both parties.
4. Observation functions could be efficiently discharged with considerable economy in dollars and manpower by a diminished number of observation groups based primarily on Albanian and Bulgarian borders. Such groups might be responsible either directly to Secretary-General through a chief observer, or to a small committee consisting at most of three member states. This group would be directly responsible to General Assembly and would circulate regular reports through Secretary-General.
_[1] See note 2 to Document 120.
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[AA : A1838, 852/20/1, VIII]