S/PV.356 Security Council

There are .two items, on our. agenda - the India,:,Pakistan' question, in connexion with 'a telegram .from .the Chairman of the United d~ Pakist,an nOQSa If there are no objections to these questions being placed on the agenda, 1 shall consider the agenda adopted. Mr. EL-KHOURI (Syrïa): 1 do not believe that the two items on today's agenda necessitate a meeting of th(~ Security Council. The first itemt the India-Pakistan question"only concern: a request for obsèrversand, as was the cas~ in a similar situation recently, this matter could be settled by the Commission itself, and its financial aspect by the Secretariat. 1 do not tchink the Security Council needs te reach any d'ecision in this respect. The item on Palestine, according ta the document [8/985] before us, concerns the interpretation, of certain paragraphs in the resolution of the Security Council [8/981]. It is weil knownthat during the monthof June the Councilhad a simüar ,matter befouoe it [3Hthand 313th meetings]. At that time the Council decided not to interfere in the interpretation, 'butrather to leave snch interpretation to the Mediator, with the understanding that if the Mediator'sintérpretation were challenged by either of the parties, concemed, the question would he submitted. to 'the Sècurity Council. Theo, and only then, would the Security Counciltake a stand and, try to give a ruling based on the two' different interpretations. 1 do'Ilot see that the Council can take action on tbismattert1ow. The same procedure could bàvebeen ,fol1owed lis in June. At that time 1 was 'PreSident' of theSecurity Council, and the Colincil agreed, to such à course. Our decision was éontmunica.ted to 'the ,Mediator ,and the appUcants: it was that tlièMewatot had full authority to interpret the . resoluti0I?- of ~e Security Council and, the Ctnincil·would not beseized ,of .any matter in that respect unless the Mediator~s interpreta.tion were challenged by thepartiesconcemed, in·whichcase the qhallenge.would cbesubmitted to tbe CJouncil by th~ Mediator. The pointsconcerning which an interpretatioll .w~. requested were.proposed by fl1eMediator binl.self,jS/814] .and the Securi!} Councildid nothing at that time beyond acceptmg ~he·Media.tot'sproposalandsuggestions, t~go oVérthe headofthe .Mediator now an.d :make anotherinterpretationwouldcomplicate , the situation and render it more difficult. -For

That means that the Syrian representative has requested that these questiOllB should not be consiàered by the Security Council. That is how 1 understand his proposal. C'~t. pOSItion. Mr. EL-KHOURI (Syria): Yes, that is correct. la Mr. NISOT (Belgium) (translated trom French): As regards the Palestine question, we have before us today a questionnaire [8/985] addressed by one of the parties concerned to the President of theCouncil, that is to say, in actual fact, to the Council itself. This question- naire amounts to an indirect criticism of the resolution of ·19 August [8/981]. It sets forth a series of hypothetical situations and asks the Council to say what would happen if those situations became facto If the Council were to' take'the line of action which.this' document intends it to take, a seriousprecedent W01.ùd be established; indeed, the Council would he permitting itself to be led by one of the partiès, under the guise of a request for interpretation, into extending the implications .of one of its resolutions, bràadening its provisions'; in short, into m~difying it. In my opinion, the Council cannot·countenance such a course of, action. The terins of the resolution of 19 .August are clear. It is addressed to both the parties. Each party is called upon to regulate iis con- duet in conforIlÛty with t'he resolution .and thèrefore has the right to interpret the· resolu- tion. 1 do not feel- therefore th'l-t there is ~y reàson for the.' Security Council to give' its opinion on this questionnaire. . As regards the Inàia-Pakistan question, the President of the Council has before him ,a me~~ge from the .C~~ of the Uwted Nations CommiSsion for India and Pakistan [Sf9Q7], in winch the Chairmail: of the qom- mission asks tlie Secretary':'GeneraI to takeim- mediate stçps tq appoint twenty qbservers. 1 dp. not see why this message should çall for. a. djScussion in the Council, given the, fact that uhderthe tt::nns pf our resolution of 21·· April [8j726] the appointm~ntof observers is a func- tiOI}. of theComrrrissionitSeM. · parties. '. · •le · Unies : sage - Commission : prendre des mesures immédiates · l , \ For thereasons 1 have givel1, l see 110 point in placmg these. two questions on. the agenda for· this meeting. Mr.Au's'rIN (United States ot America): On the question Qf the adoption .of the agenda, 1 reserve theright to' o'bject. 1 have tCl admit tha;t l am curiou~.as. to why' the Security Council has beencalled to meet to deal with. the two itemswhich appear on the provisional agenda today: Lrecall.that itwas agreedunanimously by ··members .•of; the .Council that ,there .would be no furthermeetings in New York unless an.....elllergency... a. rose...,so far .as .1 .can see, fl'om -.- ., - -.-'. . As to the pl"~blem of Kashniir, all that we have before us il; document S/987 dealing with the question of provi0i1llg milit~.ry observers to serve with the United Nations Commission on India and Pakistan should the Commission's cease~fire proposal be acceptedby both parties. 1 do not see how it can be claimed thà.t there is any need for the Security Council to concem Itself with this matter at· the present time, let alorie tltat it .requires eniergency action by the Council.No request of. any kind has been madeby the CoIIUnjssion to theSecurity Coun,- cil. No request has been made by the Commis- sion' for assiStance or guidance, and in fact the Council has alre,ady given the Commission adequate directives 1..'1 paragraph 17 of the resolution of '21 April [S/726], which directs the CoIhmission to "establish ..• such observers as i~ rnay require". ..A:ctirig, •probably, PUrsUaIlt ta this directive, the Secretary. of the CommissioJ"l, oninstruc- 'tiqnS~.·f~om.JtS .Chairman,m&de a request to the Secretary-General- nçt, it,should be noted, te theSecurity Council- that, pending a final decision by tlie CommiSsion,' the Secretary- General shoulcJ. immedia:tely take steps to ap- p~int ...at. short noticç.-not now-twenty observers. 1. note from the .Pressthat a furilier tëlegram'hasbeen sent by the Commission to tli.e Secretary-General reiterating this request to prepare'Jo. 'name-, an.d, ,!tere· Iquote-. "at short notice forly lnilitary,obsel'vers": , At one point, according to t1::.e statement in thé fus( paragraphof document S/987, which isnow before ys, the.Chaitman of the Commis- sion requested the· &ecretary-General t(),infopn the ,Security,. Council ,of the ComnÙS&ic;>n's re- quest. In, other .words, the Cornrilission has simplyinfol'IIl~d· the. Sècurity Counc~ ,that.it has warIled the Secretary-Qeneral of· tpe probable necessit)rf()r appointing at short notice, and, pendïng a· fimù decision of. the· CC?llllIlÏ$- sion, ,forty nWitary observe~. What. 1 do not understand :is, ,why à,special meeting .,of ,the Security .Council has been called, as if.dealing with .thls matter constitutedan· ,emergency. In theabsenéépf ,~, ,reql1~t bythe Commission to the Security·· Council Ioraction, and in the. absence .aIso "ofevidence that. the Corn- miS~ion and. the Secretary-General.are: not ful- fillirtg' thé diI'ectives. previausly· givénto thèm, there seems to me' ta' be .no ....sound reason ~or the8ectuity COtWcilto corisider 'th.e matter. With ••iêgardto thePàlè&tirie, qùestioh, ,it ie;' considered neither.necessary 'nor •.desirable ~for the 8ecurityCpuncUto daborate detailed replies to the nqmbered questionswhich appearin the Apparently there is nothing before us that calls for action by the Security Council in this matter. If thcre is anything,· we 'do not know what it is. On inquiry we f<)und from the Secretariat that the reference made in,the first paragraph of S/987 has not been documented. This reference says: "Chairman of UNCIP (United Nations Co~on for India and Pakistan) informs President of Security Coundl that Secretariat was instructed to request Secretary-General, to take steps to appoint at short notice military cbservers for supervision cease-fire in Kashmir." If there is nothing more in the communica- ticnthan appears in this fust paragraph, it certainly does not represent an em(~r(-ney. Mr. LAWFORD (United Kingdam): So far as my delegation is aware, neither of the items on the provisional agenda constitutesan emer- gency, and, i..ll our view, there is no action which, the Security Council is called upon to take on either of them. In accordance with that view, l shall vote against the adoption of the provisional agenda. l wOuId stress that, when the question comes. to a vote, it ïs the adoption of the provisional agenda, andnot its nOJj.-adoption, that must receive seven affirmative votes. Thè PRESIDENT (translated tram Russian): The discussion which has taken place on the agenda has, in faet, resulted in a discussion of the substance of the questions on·' our a.genda. The United States representative has stated ~ here that there is ne need to reply to the: request of the Minister fbr Foreign· Main of the Provisional Government of Israel. The United States representative hasof course, the right to this opinion if ,he tonsiders we can ignore requests addressed to the, S~curity Coun- cil. However, as President of the Security Gouncil Itannot share ihatview. , Arequest hasbeen received and the Security· Council is bound, to proceed· to. an. exchange of views,to discllSS the question and tos1ate im .opinionçm that question-itneed flot necessarily take a ,vote, .but it must èxpressan opinion. That is whât, we have ;met for, ând we have'a1ready discussed the question. Some of themembers of the. Security Çouncil have said tliat there iS noneed to reply to the request. of "t1,le . Ministçr for FoteignAffairs of theProvisionalGovernmentpf Israèl, and ,au'i1étaItinatile that mâywellbe the SecûÎ'itY Cottncil'sopiniori With regard to the India~Pakistan.question, the Chairman of the United Nations Comnùs~ sion for India and Pakistan has requested that sl.eps should be taken to appoint. observers without de1ay in accordance with bis fust mes~ sage, stressing ~ his telegram thattwenty military observersare required in view of the possibility of a cease-fireagreementbeing re~ched in the very ne~ future -. 1 emphasize -.-. the very near future. One. of these te1egrams, however, was addressed to the President of the Security Coun~ cil and the· other to the Secretary~General. Tùe te1egram .quoted by the United States represen~ tative(and it is notioo clear from what he was quoting), was.not circulated to the members of the Council. Apparently the Secretariat .did not distribute it,to the membersofthe Council and .its- contents .are officially known to. the representative· of the United States of .l\merica . alone. The meafiing of the telegram, however, is that twenty observers should beappoitlted, trained .and' held .re'ildy to leave for· Kasluriir as soon as asked-.for by the CoIllIIlkJion, which hopes that acease~:fireagreement may be reachedin the very nearfuture. The Secretary~General has as yc:t takèn no steps in this respect, but the question arises, why theSecurity Council should avoid takingac~on on tbis matter. The Security Council isaware that in ip; resolution [S/726} on the India- Pakistan question the matter of observers.is definedin. ·paragraph. 17, which reads _as ·fol- Iows: . . _ "The Commission· sh()uldestablish in..Jammu ..rid Kashmir such observers. as' it' may require of any of the proceeilings Ïn pursuance of the measures indicated in the foregoing para- graphs." The. Commission has. approached the Secre- tary-General and the President of the .·Council with a request for such observers. The ..Security Council. has no right to sidetraclt thisrequest; it isin cluty· bound .. ta consider. the question and to decidehow and on what principle these nillitary opserVersare to beselected,. and which c01lIltrîes are to. send them. The Secretary- Qeneralcannot decide these questio:n$ alone. Only . the .Mediator ..for Palestine has. dared .to take. uponhitnseH the responsibility Jar such arbitrary> decisions. 1 donot think tJIat .the .Secretary~Gerieral would wish. 'to. decicle suçh qUestiODs' aloile. It isthe iight aIl4' duty of la question sécurité qui qu'ii requête Tuat is why it was decided to call a meeting of the Se~urity Council today, so that there could be anexchange of opinions on this ques- tion. There is nothing unusual or strange in this, as the exchan.ge of view on the provisional agenda has already' shown i.:hat a number of members of the Security Council consider that the req~est of the Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Provisional Governmènt of Israel should be filed without being answered. The same members of the Security Council have stated their views on the question of the despatch of observers to Kashmir. Thus, in discussing the provisional agenda, we have touched on the very substance of the question, and have exchanged views on it, and that was in fact what was required Ll1. c~nnexion with these-two questions. Doc." anyone ebJe 'wish to speak on this subject? If no one does, we shall consider the next que:stion. It lias been suggested that the two items on the Council's provisioI'al agenda . should l1'ot be examined at the present meeting of the Counçil in view of the fact that there i~ no need to reply to the comrrumication from the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Pro- visional .Govemment of Israel, and that the second item - observers for Kashmir - should be taken up again. upon receipt of a further reauest from the Commission indicating a time 1 ,it for sending those observers, .Gouvem~ment seconde envoyer :'cxamen inc:iqué' deVl:tÏentêtre que ner lever Those who are in favour of notconsidering these questions at today's meeting of the Security Council will please raise their hands. M. EL-KHOURI (Syrïa): 1 do not believe that this is the way' to cousult the Security Council on the subject. The first· item on the provisional agenda before us is the adoption of the agenda, and this is the item which should he put to the vote in the following manner: "Those in favour of adopting the agenda should l'aise their hands" rather' than "Those who do not wish to discuss these two hems", and so ,forth. This latter distorted and f'}undabout way is not correct. According to our rules of pro· gla~s): convenable à. provisoire tion mis qui jour "Ceux points", et de qui du tion tive. voix soire l'adoption de,l'ordre pas cedute~ the,first point ta be discussed is the adoption of the agenda. To turn this question about and vote ,onit in a negative manuel' is not correct~ 1 hope that the .President will put to the vote the fust item on· the provisional agenda before us, namely, fne adoption of the agenda. It is not a matter of whether wc ào Mr. MANUILSKY (Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic): (translated from Russian): From the point of view of procedure the President was quite correct in stating that we should vote on the Syrian proposaI. But we have engaged in a debate which constituted an answer of a kind to the items on today's provi- sionaI agenda. The Commission for India and Pakistan has addressed itself to the President of the Security Couneil. Consider how the Seeurity Couneil, its President, and the Secretary-General will look, if we simply remove this question from today's agenda. 1 personally think that, in view of the faet thaf a debate has taken place and statements have been made, such action would make a most unfavourable impression on the parties to the dispute, and in particular on the popula- tion of India. The· praper procedure, of course, is to vote fust on the proposal concerning the agenda. But what shall we do about the replies? ln my opinion, we should empower the President todraft replies to these telegrams in consultation with the Secretariat. General McNAUGHTON (Canada): lam speaking at this time to support the point of view .which has been so ably expressed by the representative of Syria. 1 should aIso like ta draw ûle President's attention specifically to rule9 of the provisionaI rules of procedure ·of the Security Co~cil which states: "Tf1.e ~t item ôf' the provisional agenda for each meeting of the Security Council· shallbe the adoption of the agenda." , . The PRESIDENT (translated trom Russian): We are aU familiar with rule 9 of the provisionaI rules of procedure, and no one has objected ta it. 1 have aIready said that 1 shaH put ta the vote the proposaI of the Syrian representative. Mr. LAWFORD (United Kingdom): On a point of order, l am not quite sure how the President can put the Syrian proposaI - what- ever it may be - to a vote before we have adopted the agenda, wmch is the first item.

The United Kingdom representative does not seem to take into account the fact that two proposals may sometimes be identicaI. 1 have aIready said 1 shall put tq the vote the adoption of the agenda, wmch is what the Syrian representative proposed. There is therefores' no cause for controversy. Mr. DE ROSE (France) (translated trom French): The representative of the Ukraine has just allud~d ta the effect wmch might be produced, especia1ly in the sub-continent of India, by a decision of the Council not t9 examine the question tbâay. In connexion with this point, 1 should like to clarify the meaning of the vote wmch we are about to take. The situation in wmch we find ourselves is a result of the Couucil's decision that it would not meet for some time, except in case of emergency. Failure to adopt our agenda today, . or opposition ta its· :idoption on the part of certain members, would·not in any way imply that those members or their delegations had no interest in the two questions wmch were included in that agenda upon receipt of the two communicatioIl..B. It would simply signify that in the judgment of the members of the Council, the matter not being urgent, there was no reason to go back on what had been decided belore the suspension of the Council's work. Consequently, these questions could be examined w~.~u. the Council resumes its normaI routine in Paris.

May 1 give some information ta the French representative? Apparently he did not ~ttend the last meeting of the Security Couneil at wmch l, as President, stated that the.Security Council was meeting on 19 August for the last time befoie su~pending its work, but that, should an emergency arise or should any of the members of the Security Council submit a concrete proposaI with respect to one of the questions of wmch the Council is seized, a meeting of the Council would be called. None of the members of the:;· Security Couucil protestèd· against that ruling. . With this ·in··mind· and on receiving. a telegram [8/985] from the Minister for Foreign For the information of the French representative, 1 wish ta say that there has consequently been no breach of the decision taken by the Security Council with respect ta the calling of meetings between 19 August and 1 September.

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