Cablegram 11237 LONDON, 29 October 1945, 10.30 p.m.
SECRET
Your 447. [1]
1. I saw D. No. 1965 [2] for the first time to-day. The views expressed accord with the line taken throughout the Executive Committee by the United Kingdom with the general object of strengthening the United Nations Organisation and, in my view, all their arguments have considerable force. On the Executive Committee experience I agree completely with the first paragraph.
2. There would seem to be nothing in the functions of the Educational Organisation which would suffer from its creation as an integral part of the United Nations and there would be great practical advantages for educational body as well as United Nations in regard to staff, administration, budget, management and availability of common services, such as a statistical Bureau. In the light of experience here I would [3] the last sentence of paragraph 1 and paragraph 4 of D. No. 1965. If exchange of views at the November Educational Conference [4] could lead to actual creation of an educational body at the January meeting of the General Assembly there would be prospect of immediate organisation of its staff to tackle urgent reconstruction problems, thus starting a new body with emphasis on practice, rather than on programmes and saving it from some of the faults of the old Paris Institute. [5] I also feel strongly that such a demonstration of co-operation in the prompt performance of practical tasks would have a very good effect for the United Nations itself, particularly as the Assembly may meet in a period of political uncertainty. Anything we can do in this and related fields of social and economic endeavour to give substance to the first meeting of the Assembly and to lay precise tasks on the New World Organisation during the January-April interval may well have considerable effect on its successful establishment.
3. These views also apply to other fields in which we are interested, e.g. employment. Tange [6] succeeded in maintaining recognition of our policy and the proposal for an Economic and Employment Commission goes forward to Preparatory Commission. We should be consistent, making each instance strengthen the other.
If we wish to make an early practical start with precise proposals for Employment Commission it may help us to quote parallel action in other fields.
4. One practical difficulty in the way of creating an Educational Body inside the United Nations may be raised in relation to United Nations Head-Quarters and the French, who are strongest advocates of a separate Organisation, largely because they see Paris as the traditional centre of western culture, will make much of this point.
5. Finally, attention is drawn to the fact that the Educational Body may be established as a Subsidiary Organisation under Article 22, rather than as a Commission of Economic and Social Council and I understand that the British have the first mentioned method in mind.
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1 Dispatched 29 October. On file AA : A1066, H45/703/1/2. It requested Hasluck’s views on cablegram D1965 in the light of Executive Committee discussions on the role of specialised agencies and commissions.
2 Document 328.
3 A sign here indicates ‘mutilated’.
4 A Conference to open in London on 1 November, to establish a United Nations educational and cultural organisation.
5 The International Institute of intellectual Co-operation, inaugurated in 1926 under the direction of the League of Nations Committee on Intellectual Co-operation. The Institute was set up as a result of a gift to the League of Nations by the French Govt.
6 Australian representative on the Executive Committee’s sub- committee dealing with the Economic and Social Council.
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[AA : A1066, H45/703/1/2]