Cablegram D263 LONDON, 10 February 1945, 2.15 p.m.
TOP SECRET PERSONAL
My telegram 9th February D No. 258. [1] World Organisation.
A meeting of Foreign Secretaries was held on 9th February to consider the following points:
(A) To consider the question of membership of the World Organisation by two or three Republics of the Soviet Union;
(B) To recommend what States should be invited to the proposed United Nations Conference, and (C) To recommend the time and place at which the Conference should be held.
2. It was agreed that a suitable date for Conference would be toward the end of April and that United States should be the place. Mr.
Eden entered a caveat that in that event we would expect the next meeting of Foreign Secretaries to be in London and Mr. Molotov and Mr. Stettinius both agreed.
3. As regards the Soviet claim for membership in the Organisation for the Ukraine, White Russia and Lithuania, Mr. Eden said that he was, in principle, sympathetic towards the inclusion of two of the Soviet Republics and would be ready to say so at an appropriate moment. Mr. Stettinius also seemed favourable but said that he would have to consult the President.
4. As regards the question whether invitation should be limited to United Nations, Mr. Stettinius put in a strong claim for ‘Associated Nations’ and Mr. Eden said that Turkey also came into this category. It was agreed that Countries which had declared war and signed the declaration by a certain date would qualify for invitations. As regards the two Soviet Republics it would be left to the Conference to decide whether they should be chosen as founder members or not.
5. The report of the Foreign Secretaries was considered at a plenary meeting and adopted as follows:-
(a) The United Nations conference on the proposed World Organisation should be summoned for Wednesday 25th April and should be held in the United States of America;
(b) The United Nations as they existed on 1st March, 1945, that is those who had at that date signed United Nations Declaration would be the only States invited to the Conference on World Organisation. It will be for the Conference to determine the list of original members of the Organisation. At that stage Delegates of the United Kingdom and United States will support the proposal to admit to original membership two Soviet Socialist Republics, namely Ukraine and Belo Russia.
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1 Dispatched 9 February, on file AA:A1066, H45/1016/4. Cranborne had reposed the inclination of Churchill and Roosevelt to let the Soviet Union have two or three of its constituent republics given separate membership of the proposed world organisation.
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[AA: A1066, H45/1016/4]