Cablegram D1965 LONDON, 20 October 1945, 5.16 p.m.
SECRET
My telegram 15th October, D. 1923. [1] Education Conference.
His Majesty’s United Kingdom Ambassador, Washington, has been instructed to inform the United States Government that His Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom consider that the most economical and efficient method of creating the proposed educational and cultural organisation would be by resolution of the assembly of the United Nations Organisation rather than by seeking independent ratification of the draft constitution of the organisation by every nation severally. This would avoid the necessity and hazards of requiring ratification of the constitution by 51 sovereign legislatures and would also have the advantage of going a long way towards meeting the ostensible Soviet objection to the holding of the Conference.
2. Such procedure would automatically ensure that the educational and cultural organisation budget would be dependent upon the budget of the United Nations Organisation and would not need independent votes of credit every year from the 51 States.
3. The constitution of the educational and cultural organisation would also be more flexible since it would be capable of amendment by Assembly Resolution and would not require independent ratification by 51 states.
4. The result should also be a considerable saving in time in setting up the educational and cultural organisation and thus enabling it to handle urgent problems of educational reconstruction.
5. Procedure by Assembly resolution as proposed above does not mean that we wish to substitute the idea of a commission of the United Nations Organisation for that of specialised agency. The balance of advantages may be felt to weigh in favour of the latter but any such specialised agency should, in our view be integrated as closely as possible with the main organisation.
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1 On file AA : A1066, H45/703/1/2.
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[AA : A5954, BOX 1825]