S/PV.52 Security Council

According to article 41 of the rules of procedure, the two working languages of the Security Council are English and French. Neither English nor French being my own language, and having an equal sympathy for bath, 1 should like to use them alternately in presiding over these meetings. Sa, with your permission, 1 shall conduct our business today in French, having done so in English last time. • Voir baux officiels Seconde • Voir baux officiels Seconde 13. Credentials of the representative of Australia

The second item on the agenda is the Secretary- General's report to the President of the Security Couneil on the credentials of the representative of Australia to the Seeurity Couneil. This document has been circulated, and if therc is no discussion on it 1 propose that it be . regarded as adopted. 14. Letter fromthe Chairman of the Committee on the Admission of New Members

The next item on the agenda brings us ta the consideration of the main question which we have to deal with today; name1y, the letter from the Chairman of the Committee on the Admission of New Members, dated 2 August 1946, to the President of the Security Council. 1 call on the Acting Secretary-General to read this document ta us. The ACTING SECRETARY-GENERAL (Mr. Sobolev) : "Ml'. President, The Committee entrusted by the Security Council,by its resolutions of 17 May 1946 and 24 July 1946, with the task of examining the applications for membership in the United Nations held its first two meetings 31 July 1946 and 1 August 1946. These meetings were devoted ta a general discussion of the wade of the Committee. In the course of the debate, the Commitee discussed the question of whether it would be entitled consider statements submitted by the applicant States and by Members of the United Nations not members of the Security Couneil, whether it would be entitled ta request informa. tion from them. The following two resolutions were adopted by a majority vote: 1. Resolution of the Australian delegation: 'The Committee will consider written statements of facts from any of the applicant States or from any Member of the United Nations bearing on the applications which the Committee has been instructed ta examine.' The vote on this resolution was as follows: seven votes for, one vote agail1st, and three abstentions. Since the minority view of the Committee was t:hat in adopting both resolutions the Committee went beyond its terms of reference, 1 have the honour, in accordance with the wish of the Committee, to request you to bring these resolutions to the attention of the Sccurity CounciI."

(translated tram French) : l would ask members of the Security Council to let me know if they desire any further information, in which case 1 shall request the Chairman of the Committee ta take his seat at the Council table in order ta give us that informa- •tian. 1 take it there are no requests for supple- D1entary information, and 1 therefore declare the discussion open. sei! seignements voir, Comité afin de donner ces renseignements. complémentaires? la discussion ouverte. Mr. GROMYKO (Soviet Uruon) (translated tram Russian): 1 wish to make an observation On the Committee's report. Undoubtedly, the Committee established by the Security Council ta examine applications from certain States for tnembership of the United Nations must facilitate the work of the Security Council in this connection. It must examine with careful attention the applications' received from countries wishing ta become Members of the United Nations and submit its propositions to the Security Council for consideration. The Committee can fulfil this task when it has an opportunity of examining all the facts it considers necessary and also the various material re1ating to any application for membership. Consequently, there can be no doubt that the Committee must examine the facts and material relating to the admission of any States to membcrship of the Organization. This is the Committee's task, otherwise it cannot properly fuIfil its l'ole as the Security Council's assistant in this connection. russe): rapport Conseil présentées reçus doute, sécurité. et pays Unies, l'examen trouyera la toutes miner, ciation mission. que nées l'admission de C'est ment dans Je doute mité qui l'Organisation Etats et sidère tel, auxiliaire, destiné d'admission tions. Lors aura Conseil constitutionnel, 1 will venture, however, to express doubt as to the expediencyof al10wing the Committee to apply direct to States who have made application for membèrshlp or to other States Members of the United Nations, for various kinds of additional material and information. 1 consider that only the Security Council as such has this righ~. The Committee is an auxiliary, working organ'created for the sole purpose of ~aking a preliminary examination of applicatIOns from States for membership of the United Nations, and of submitting its propositions. In examining these applications the Comrnittee should study and utilize the material which the Security Council, as the constitutional organ, has at its disposaI. Of course, the question Of course, questions of principle may arise, wbich may merlt consideration in the meetings of the Security CounciI. In such cases this material should be transmitted to the Committee by decision of the Security Council. These are my observations on the report sub- . mitted by the Committee for the examÎnation of applications for memhership. It seems ta me that in its previons meetings the Committee went a little further than should have done and itself decided its own rights and functions with regard to the examina- .tion of applications for membership. 1 rcfer the decision concerning the right of the Committee ta apply directly to States to make appropriate enquiries. I repeat that in my opinion only the Security Council, the constitution organ of the United Nations, should possess such a right and the Security Council may, if deems it expedient and necessary, transmit the Committee for examination all-I stress the ward-ail the material and documents relating to any application for membership. 1 have no other observations to make for the time being C?n this report. Ml'. JOHNSON (United States of America) While. the Security Council has of course the right ta review any of the acts of its Comnrlttee th . e Clrcumstances under which the two resolutions were adopted by the Committee make clear that a majority of the Committee~and, assume, also of the Council-believe that the passage of these resolutionsconstitutes a legitimate exercise of the Committee's functions. Our position in the Committee has, from the first, been that the Committee should have the authority, withinbroad lirpits, to interpret own terros of refer'ence. We believe that in estab1is~ing the Committee and directing it exam~ne and ta report on applications for membership, the Security Council intended that the Committee should take the necessary steps produce a useful report based on aIl the information which it could acquire from authoritative i , ~ . The Committee was established by the Council as a committee of the whole, each member of the Council being represented on the Committee, and it was intended by the Council that this Committee should act as a reviewing body ta screen the evidence and to offer its conclusiom; to the Council. We are reluctant to believe it was intended that after the Committee bad made its report ta the Council, interested States shauld approach the Council itself with new evidence sa that the Council would be forced ta take the time and trouble ta perform what shauld have been the Committee's function. ~ As a matter of fact, the Committee, from the beginning, proceeded on the basis of the powers embodied in the two resolutions. At its fil-8t meeting it agreed that the Secretary-General should be instructed to request the governments of aIl applicant States to make representatives available in New York to answer any questions the Committee might feel it necessary to pose. This was done before the two resolutions contained in the letter of the Chainnan had been introduced at the following meeting of the Committee. There was no objection to tbis proposaI. -. Moreover, when the resolutions were under discussion in the Committee, the United States representative was careful to suggest that if the resolutions were approved and if any member wished to appeal ta the Council, the Committee shauld hold up action under the terms of the resolution until the Council's decision had been taken. No representative indicated to the Committee that he wished to make such an appeal to the Council. Therefore, at the third and fourth meetings of the Committee, it Was accepted as a matter of course that written statements of fact might be received from any of the applicant States or from any Member of the United Nations which might bear upon the applications the Committee had been instructed to examine. In accordance with the terms of tlùs resolution, a memorandum has been submitted ta the Committee by the reprcsentative of Greece. lt is now being studied by the members of the Committee. Furthermore, the Secretariat of the United Nations has sent telegrams to the applicants for membership, requesting that they make representap.ves available at the scat of the United Nations to answer questions. Replies .have been received from Albania and Transjardan, and the representative of Albania is aJready present in New York. Conformément un mémorandum représentant l'objet Comité. Unies demande mandant au siège chargés ses ont jordanie à New-York. Ml'. HsrA (China): 1 see that the second resolution was intl'oduced by the Chinese delegation. l do not believe it is necessary for me to defend or uphold every action by my colleague in the Gommittee, because aftel' all it is the work of the Committee as a whole and not of one individual delegation. Furthermore, l think you will agree wlth me that in this work not every representative has the opportunity of consulting his colleagues before taking part in a discussion of this kind. So, in what l am going to say) 1 do not intend to attempt, in any way, a defence of my colleague. .À$ l see h, thcre are two sides; two aspects. There is first the legal side. Probably there is something to be said for the point of view put forward by the representative of the Soviet Union. It is possible, though 1 am not sure, that the Committee may have exceeded the power stated in the terms of reference. On the other hand, these two resolutions seem to be quite reasonable, as their purpose, as the representative of the United States has put it, was purely to facilitate the work of the Committee. For examplc, suppose the resolution were put in a different way: that whenever the Committee desires information from the governments applying for membership it will be ob- .tained through the Security Council. If that were the case, 1 do not quite see how the Security Council could refuse such a request, because it is purely for information purposes. l suppose the Committee took the view that, in order not to go into all this unnecessary process, it took the liberty of, shaH we say, transacting the business direct. Therefore, whatever the legal side, 1 see no objection to these two resolutions, whose /lole purpose is to facilitate the work of the Commîttee. Mr. HASLUOK (Australia): The Australian delegation had the houour of moving one of these two rcsolutions in the Committee on the Admission of New Members, and 1 should like, réclamer question nécessaire ce vait a en pourrait lui de tendant ment du a approuvées. n'est renseignements, dans tante sentant aucune des renseignements, outrepassé demander ment. Notre de Our delegation cannot share that view, simply because we believe that a committee must have powers sufficient for the performance of its functions. Moreover, when we have a committee which is composed of representatives of exactly the same States as are represented on thc Council; representatives who are presumably in constant touch with their principals on this Council, it seervs to us slightly unreal ta suggest that that Committee is likely to do anything which this Council would not do. ' son~ suffIsants tions. composé les sont leurs semble que intentions Je ciderait un cette représentant à ce tient 'S.' "r 1 cannot imagine any circumstances in which the Committee would decide to make requests for· information of a character which would be' unacceptable to this Council. And, for that reason it seems to us that the objection of the representative of the Soviet Union to allow the Committee ta exercise this power does not come very close to the real situation. We have seen circumstances in which the Security Council has shown a certain amount of jealousy of other organs of the United Nations, but we did not expect to see an occasion when the Security Council would become jealous of the organswhich it had itself creàted. r i' +' ir Nous Conse~l ses Nations à voir des i , , , The reason why our delegation abstained was that serious doubt was raised as to the power of the Committee to take exclusively in its own hands the interpretation of the mandate given to it by the Security Council. Considering this, and remembering that in the meantime we wouId have a lot of other wor1e ta do in the Committee, we thought it more expedient and proper ta refer the matter back to the Security Council in order that the Council might take its proper share in the interpretation of the terms of reference given to the Committee. l would like to reiterate that it is necessary, in arder that the Committee may expedite its work and do it thoroughly, that it should have as much power and as wide a range of activity as possible. And if we speak of any power be10nging exclusively to the Council, this ought not to impede the Council from giving sorne of that power to the Committee, and this might seem more important when we remember the very limited time at our disposai to accomplish our work. l do not know if it would serve any useful purpose if we referred to the mandate given to the Sub-Committee on Spain and compared the connections and sources of information that Sub-Committee had at its disposaI in arder to accornplish its work. Ml'. PARODI (France) (translated trom French): From the strictly legal point of view, l do not see, in the texts· dcfining the wor1e of the Security Council or of the Committee, any nùe or article precluding the Committee from having the powers laid down in the two resoIutions which have been referred to us. Rule 39 of the rules of procedure of the Security Council provides that the Council may invite members, the Secretariat or other persons' whom it considers competent ta supply information. That ruIe gives the Security Council certain powers, but that does not necessarily mean that committees set up by the Council sha11 not have similar powers. On the other hand, the resolution under which the Committee was set up mere1y instructed it ta make a study and prepare a report. Whilst there is no legal objection arising from the language of the provisions thernselves, there are very good reasons of expediency to give the Committee the powers defined in the two resolutions. If the Committee wishes to undertake a serious study and proposes to submit a useful report to the Security Council, it must of necessity first study the problem which it has been asked to deal with. It follows that the Committee must examine aU the information at its disposaI and 1 should like to add one more remark. In the course of the discussions in the Committee it was agreed, on the other hand, that as the Assembly is the final authority on applications for admission, it will always have the constitutional power to hear objections which any State, whether or not a member of the Security Council, may wish to l'aise. l should Iike to point out that it would be very odd if we had to wait until the matter was before the Assembly before the case could be fully studied in the light of possible objections. Since the Security Council has to make recom- IUendations to the Assembly, it must perforee collect aU the information which will ultimately he placed before the Asssembly. For the same reasons of sound procedure, what applies to the Security Council in relation to the Assembly also appIies ta the Committee on Admission of New Members in relation to the Security Council. ' These are the observations 1 wished to make and which cause me to give my approval to the two resolutions adopted by the Committee. Ml'. MICHALOWSKI (Polaud): The Polish delegation, in the Committee on the Admission of New Members, voted against the resolution submitted by the Chinese delegation and abstained from voting on the Australian resolutian. In principle, we are not oppJsed to the consideration of statements of facts conceming applicant States or the right to ask for further information. We consider, however, that the Committee, in adopting both resoIutions, went bev,md its rights and tenns of reference. 1 , should like to draw your attention to a precedent. The Spanish Sub-Committee of this Council received a special authorization From the CounciI to ask for infonnation. 1 think that the Committee on the Admission of New Members needs similar authorization. M. l'anglais): chargé nouveaux soumise tenue En à l'examen cernant d'admission, infonnations cependant deux son sur chargé ce Conseil des chargé nouveaux torisation Il trop désire de ce nir tions. 1t seems to me, however, that it is now perhaps too late for auy further discussion. 1 should like only to draw the attention of the cornmittees of this Coundl to the fact that they must be more careful in the future with their resolutions. Ml'. PADILLA NERva (Mexico): l want to a few observations regarding statements lnade by some members of the Council. . M. l'anglais) au membres du J'estime ses Comité 1 con~ider that ~he Com.mittee has not gone beyond lts powers 111 adoptmg these resolutions. The Committee very clearly has, as its terms of ~pecific inform~tion on questions that it neecls m order ta clanfy or farm an opinion. , ~urthermore, 1 consider that in this question lS mvolved not only the powers of the Committee under its mandate, but also the right of other State Mem~ers of the United Nations. Wc know that aecordmg ta Article 4 of the Charter it is the. Organizatioll, which is the United Nations, whlch has to pass judgment as to the admission of a State and giv~ its opinion in that respect. !f one of thesc natIons has the right to do that ID the Assembly, as was clearly pointed out by the reprcscntatIve of France then it has 1 1 • h . , aso t le ng ~ to st;nd mformatioll to the Committee for consIderatIon. TIle Corn.mittce cloes not have to frame its rcport accordmg to those opinions but t' 1 l ' . ,cer am y t lOS~ co~ntf1es have the dght to send these commnmcatlons spontaneously, and if the Committee hw; the l'1ght to consider them. 1 consider al80 that if we are going to ado t the procedure that any inforrnation .p t tl (' . commg o le ,oJ1umttce, or any information ded by the Comll1ittec, has tohe rcqueste~e\ t through the Security COUl1ci! this will r~ f· t" ,mean, 111 ,le ,conve,rhng t~c Sccurity Council into a channel tn.ohtmn that mformation It W' Id ,. 1 } l' . ou aJ.:iO lave t le r~su t, whlch is not desirable at ail th tI Secu:;lty ~Olmcil :will discuss whether'or ~tot l~ certam kmd of mformation already receivcd shoulcl he made known to the C . 1 h h · ommIttee, or W let cr t e Commlttee should h cl . cl 1 k 1 . e epnve of t le now edge of those facts. C' 1 th!nk that it is at a later stage when the •omrmttee ha., presented it, report'to the Se-

If nobody else wishes ta speak, l shall try to sum up the discussion. r think that at least one thing has come out dearly from the discussion of the problems brought up this aftemoon, and that is that applications from the govemments of States wishing ta become Members of the United Nations will be referred to the Committee as a matter of course. That is the intention of the resolution we adopted a few weeks aga under which applications for admission have to be referred ta a committee composed of a representative of each of the members of the Security Council for examination and report to the Security Council. 1t wouId also seem that there is no objection, or at least no serious objection, ta the Committee considering written statements from any of the applicant States, or from any Member of the United Nations, bearing on the applications which the Committee has been instructed to examine. les doit mission. du revient curité confiance pour difficile l J l ~ i But there seems to be a certain difTerence of opinion on whether the Committee may approach governments of Member States or of applicants for the purpose of asking them for information having a bem'ing on the applications for admission before the Security Council. l should like to try and find Sorne common ground for agreement between the variaus points of view stated today. l think that the dclegate of France was quite right when he said that, from the strictly legal point of view, there were no valid objections to the two resolutions being adopted by the Committee which was intellded to examine these applications for admission. On the one hand, 1 think we ought to remember that in this matter it is not the Committee which has the final say, but the Security Council itself. We have full confidence in the ability of the members of the Committce to bring the examinatian of the applications ta a success~ul conclusion, even though it may be very dIfFicult. On the other hand, time is short and if the . les devaient terait le au temps. du ayant pouvons avec questio~s which are now being studied by the Commütee were to be referred ta the Council there would inevitably be a delay of severa! days. The Council would, in its turn, refer these matters back to the Committee, and there would be a loss of time. The date on which th~ tcrm of office of the Committee expires is qlllte near. Since the Committee has our full confidence, 1 think we can trust it to act prudently. That is a point from the speech made Ml'. GROMYKO (Soviet Union) (translated fram Russian): 1 do not insist on a vote, but 1 wish to say that 1 maintain my opinion on this matter. r repeat that 1 do not insist on a vote and therefore accept your proposaI.

1 thank the de1egate of the Soviet Umon for his statement. Before adjourning the meeting, 1 calI upon the delegate of Egypt who wishes to make an observation. Ml'. FAWZI (Egypt): 1 have a brief, though belated, remark to make about the translation of a certain passage of what 1 said. It seems that the interpreter added the words, "on the basis of documents submitted to the Committee". l did not mention any documents. 1 spoke only about the interpretation of the mandate given to the Committee. That is one point. Another point concerns the resolution that you are proposing now....

May 1 say that 1 proposed no resolution. Ml'. FAWZI (Egypt): Weil, 1 refer to what you have just said; whatever youcall it. 1 wish ta say, if 1 may, that it would be clearer to give a mandate to the Committee to get in touch with aU sources of information about its work. Thirdly, when it comes to voting on this matter, l would like to reserve the opinion of! my delegation that this should not create any sort' of precedent for cases which may vary from the prffientone. Le naissance teraient résolution vernements de l'Organisation Nations Unies. Je 1 do not think we need go any further than that. Since no CormaI resolution has been submit. ted to the Council, l think we neecl not take a .vote. Etant été présenté lieu M. J'accepte venez Mr. FAWZI (Egypt): 1 gladly ac"cept the inlterpretation you have now given us. The meeting rose at 5 p.m.