Cablegram 326 (extract) WASHINGTON, 20 March 1946, 9.46 p.m.
MOST IMMEDIATE
Your 433. [1]
I saw Lie this afternoon at Blair-Lee House and handed him your message. He pointed out that the draft rules of procedure required only three days notice and that these had been approved by the Committee of Experts. He had felt, therefore, that he had no alternative but to put the Iranian question on the Agenda.
Regarding the possibility of postponing consideration he said that he appreciated Australia’s difficulty but that the United States had asked that the Iranian question be put at the top of the Agenda (see my immediately preceding telegram [2]). The Russians on the other hand had asked for postponement of the Security Council Meeting (Ibid). Personally he was anxious to avoid delay as he felt this could only lead to a worsening of the present difficult situation.
I then raised the question of appointments to the position of Assistant Secretary-General [3] (your telegram 435). He said that it did not seem possible to appoint an Australian to this post as it was essential to have an American on the financial side and in fact an American had already been selected. I enquired if there were any other vacancies in the posts of Assistant Secretary- General and he replied that all such posts had now been allotted.
[matter omitted]
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1 Document 133.
2 Numbered cablegram 325 and dispatched 20 March, it conveyed the texts of notes Lie had received from the United States and the Soviet Union regarding the Iranian question.
3 See Document 119.
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[AA:A3195, 1946, 1.7156]