S/PV.96 Security Council

Before coming to the matters that are associated with the agenda, I should like to arinounce that I have received from the representative of the Brazilian Government, Mr. Ra-oul Fernandes, the following communication: ."Please accept and transmit to all members of the Security Council my warm appreciation of their moving tribute to the memory of Ambassador Leao Velloso. . "(signed) Raoul FERNANDES" 26. Adoption of the agendQ . The PRESIDENT: The first item if! the adoption of the agenda. Has any member of the Security Council any DE SECURITE QUATRE-VINGT-SEIZIEME SEANCE Tenue aLake. Su~cess, New-York, le mardi 28 janvier 1947, all heures. President: M. N. J. O. MAKIN (Australie). Presents: Les representants des pays suivants: Australie, Belgique, BrCsil, Chine, Colombie; France, Pologne, Syrie, Union des Republique$ socialistes sovietiques, Royaume~Uni, Etats..Unis d'Amerique. 24. Ordre du iour provisoire 1. Adoption de l'ordre du jour. 2. Lettre relative aux incidents survenus dans le detroit de Codou, adresse au Secretaire gen6- ral par le representant du Royaumf;;-Uni au ConseiI desecurite (document S/247).1 25. Communication du Gouvernement b:esilien Le PRESIDENT (traduit de l'anglais): Avant de passer aux questions qui ont trait a notre ordre du jour, je voudrais vous faire savoir que j'ai re~u, du representant du Gouvemement bresiIien, M. RaouI Femandes, la communication suivante: "VeuilIez agreer et transmettre a tous lea membres du Conseil de securite mes vifs remerciements pour l'emouvant hommage qu'lls ont rendu a la memoire de rAmbassadeur Leao Vclloso. "(signe) RaouIFERNANDES" 26. Adoption de I'ordre du iour Le PRESIDENT (traduit de l'anglais): Notre premier point est l'adoption de I'ordre du jour. Les membres du Conseil de securite ont-ils des. I have read the telegram received a few days ago, from the Prime Minister of the Albanian Republic. He requests the Security Council to postpone the consideration of this question until the arrival in New York of the replesentative of Albania. I think the request of the Albanian Government is understandable and legitimate. In view of this, we should decide, today, that the Security Council shall proceed to consider this question only after the arrival in New York of the representative of the Albanian Government. The PRESIDENT: I would suggest to the representative of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics that this pOint might possibly be more appropriately raised when we examine item 2 of the agenda, when I shall be glad to give him the opportunity to express his views with regard to this matter. I think it is essential for me to communicate to members of the Security Council, this morning, the communication which was addressed to the Government. of Albania, as well dS the reply we have received; the Council will then be in a position to know exactly what should be done with regard to the discussion of this matter. Do I take it that the agenda, as set out, meets with members' approval? 27. Suite de la discussion sur la plainte du Royaume-Uni contre I'Albanie 27. Continuation of the discussion of the Urdted Kingdom complaintagainst Albania Le PRESIDENT (traduit de l'anglais): Avant d'entamer la discussion du point 2, je voudrais vous dire qu'il etait dans mes intentions de reunir le Conseil de securite vendredi. Cepen- clant, comme nous n'avions pas re~u de reponse du Gouvernement albanais, j'ai juge preferable de remettre la seance du Conseil a ce matin. Dans l'intervalle, nous avons re~u une reponse a la communication adressee au Gouvemement albanais, et je me propose de donner lecture du message qui avait ete envoye a ce Gouverne- ment et de la reponse que nous avons re~ue. M. David Gwen, Secretaire general par interim, a adresse au colonel-general Enver Hoxha, President du Conseil des Ministres de la Repu- blique populaire d'Albanie, la communication suivante:' "Me referant amon teIegramme du 15 jan- vier, j'ai I'honneur de vous faire savoir que .. The PRESIDENT: With regard to item 2, be- fore actually proceeding with that item, I should like· to intimate that it was my desire that we might meet on Friday, but in view of not having received a reply from the Government of Al- bania, I felt it would be more appropriate to defer the meeting of this Council until this morn- ing. In the meantime, we have received a reply to the communication which was addressed to the Government of Albania, and I propose to read both the communicatioll which was sent to the Government of Albania and the reply we have received. The following communication was addressed by Mr. David Owen, Acting Sec- retary-General, to Colonel-General Enver Hoxha, President of the Council of Ministers of the People's Republic of Albania. It reads: "With reference to my cable of 15 January, I have the honour to inform you that the Does any member of the Council wish either to speak or ask a question on this matter? Mr. ZURAYK (Syria): Just for record pur- poses, I wish to ask if the reference to the Article of the Charter is the correct one, whether in this communication it is Article 43 of the Charter or Article 32?

I thank the representative of Syria for drawing our attention to this. In the original cable which has been forwarded to the Government of Albania, I note that the Article mentioned is Article 32. There has evidently been some typographical error in the typing of this document. We shall, of course, take note of this essential correction. Thank you. Sir Alexander CADOGAN (United Kingdom) : I cannot take exception to anything that has been said here. Plainly, in a case of this kind, all 1 f.s the represe!ltative of Syr!a later pointed out, the Article here mentioned should In fact be Article 32 of the Charter. Sir Alexander CADOGAN (Royaume-Uni) (traduit de l'anglais): Monsieurle President, je n'ai rien a objecter aux remarqu~ qui onf. ete formu- The Council has a lot of work in front of it during the coming weeks. I had hoped that we could have disposed of this case before turning to other matters. Therefore, I do think there is need for an urgent handling of the matter. I wonder if it would be possible for the Council to agree to send another telegram today to the Albanian Government, acknowledging the one we have just received from them, pointing out the urgency, and perhaps referring to the period which the Albanian Government have already had for making the necessary prep~:ra­ tions, and urging them to indicate to us by telegraph, at the earliest possible moment, the date on which their representative can be expected to be here and attend the session 'of the Council.

Does any other member wish to speak? Mr. GROMYKO (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) (translated from Russian): I do not think there is any need for a communication of the kind suggested by the United Kingdom representative, for the simple reason that we have ol' the People's Republic of Albania. This telegram stated that the representative of Albania was about to leave, and that the date of his arrival in New York depended solely on means of transportation. Therefore, taking into consideration the nature of the telegram we have just r~ceived from the Government of the People's Republic of Albania, I think there is simply no sense in sending a second communication of this kind to the Albanian Government.

I wish to make a statement to the Council on this matter. The Albania."1 Government was warned on "1.5 January that the case would be coming before thl;; 8ecurity Council, and it was officially notified on 20 January that the Security Council had decided to invite the Albanian Government to participate, without vote, in the discussions. I therefore propose to the Council that we should adjourn until next Friday morning and that, in the meantime, the Albanian Government be asked to state definitely when its representative will reach New York, and if that representative cannot reach New York by next Friday or soon afterwards, to give the Council such information as will satisfy it that there has been no. undue or avoidable delay in arranging for Albanian representation at the discussion of this case. I place before the Council the proposal I have made: that further consideration of item 2 be deferred until next Friday, and that the Council be adjourned until Friday at 11 a.m. In the meantime, a communication should be sent to the Albanian Government asking it to state an approximate date on which they feel their representative could conveniently be here to attend the meetings of the Security Council. Mr. LANGE (Poland): I quite concur witll your proposal to ask the Albanian Government to infOI'IIl us of the approxinlate date on which Tout en reconnaissant qu'll existe des difficultes de transport, le Conseil de securite est normalement en droit d'attendre qu'on lui indique, au moins d'une fa~on approximative, la date d'arrivee du representant de l'Albanie. Il y a la une question de courtoisie. Le Conseil a egalement besoin de cette indication pour etablir son ordre du jour et son programme de seances. L'organisation de nos travaux interesse les representants de ooze Gouvernements. On est en droit de s'attendre a ce que le Gouvernement albanais, tout en ayant le soud de ses convenances personnelles, puisse egalement tenir compte de celles des membres de ce Conseil et fasse son possible pour en faciliter le travail. Le Conseil a invite le Gouvernement albanais a prendre part aux discussions relatives a la plainte deposee contre lui. Ce n'est que justice, et la Charte nous prescrit de proceder ainsi. Toutef(\~, ie devoir qu'imposent au Conseil le texte de la Charte comme les principes de la simple justice est d'adresser l'invitation au Gouvernement albanais et de lui donner dans une mesure raisonnable la possibilite de se faire representer id. Ni la Charte, ni les principes de la justice ne nous obligent a ajoumer constamment la discussion de I'affaire et a attendre, pour en traiter, le ban vouloir du Gouvernement albanais. Il appartient au Conseil de decider, compte tenu de toutes les circonstances, a que! moment il desire commencer l'audition de cette affaire, et s'il y procedera ou non en I'absence du representant de l'Albanie. Le Conseil a le devoir d'entendre la plainte formulee par le Royaume-Uni; il a encore davantage le devoir d'examiner une affaire qui a ete regulierement portee devant lui, conformement aux dispositions de la Charte, afin de s'acquitter ainsi de I'obligation qui lui incombe a ce titre, en ce qui conceme le reglement pacifique des differends. Je" propose done au Comeil que nous remettions nos debats avendredi matin. D'ici la, nous demanderons au Gouvernement albanais de'nous faire savoir exactement quand son representant arrivera a New-York, et, s'il ne peut arriver a New-York vendredi prochain ou un peu plus tard, de fournir au Conseil des indications suffisantes pour le convaincre que Ies dispositions prises par le Gouvernement albanais pour se faire representer aux debats n'ont pas subi de retard excessif ou qui se pouvait eviter. Je propose done au ConseiI de remettre a vendredi prochain I'examen du point 2 et de s'ajourner jl.1SClu'au meme jour, a 11 heures; dans I'intervalle, une communication serait adressee au Gouvernement albanais pour lui demander de nous indiquer approximativement a quelle date il estime que son representant pourrait etre ici pour assister aux seances du Conseil de securite. M. LANGE (Pologne) (traduit de l'anglais): Monsieur le President, j'approuve entierement votre proposition de demander au Gouvernement I just want to say, for instance, that even by plane, it usually takes a week to get from here to Poland. Judging from my last experience, I waited four days in Wat:saw for the arrival of a Royal Air Force plane to take me to London, and in addition, I waited a further two days at Gander, thus making a total of six days; therefore, I have the impression that it is rather difficult to expect the Albanian representative to be here as early as Friday. By holding a meeting then, we may be merely wasting our time for he may not have arrived. Furthermore, although I do not know whether the Albanian representative has already left or when he will be leaving, I think he will probably need a few days to assemble his documents, his evidence, etc. Thus, I think it might indeed be preferable to leave the fixing of the exact date of our next meeting to the discretion of the President. Mr. GROMYKO (Union of Soviet Socialist Repub!ics) (translated from Russian): It was already obvious, on the eve of this meeting of the Council, that we would not be able to deal with the substance of the case today, because the representative of Albania had not arrived. I think the Security Council may find"itself in the same position if, today, we were to set a definite date for the consideration of this question,-let us say, this week, even next jfriday,-for the simple reason that, in view of transportation difficulties, none of us can say when the representative of Albania will arrive here; if we decide to hold a meeting on Friday, we may find ourselves in the same position as that in which we are today. I cannot see why we should place ourselves in this position and convene merely in order to adjourn without having done anything with regard to the substance of the question. I think the proposal put forward by Mr. Lange would be the best solution of the problem. I thought it necessary to add these remarks to those I made at the beginning of the present meeting. I repeat that I do not see any necessity either to adopt your second proposal to dispatch a special communication to the Albanian Government, for the simple reason that we have just received a relevant and, in my opinion, a clear reply from the Government of Albania. Why should we indulge in this unnecessary exchange of telegrams? The PRESIDENT: Does any other member wish to speak on this question? et~particulierement dans l'est de I'Europe. Je citerai simplement un exemple: meme si l'on voyage par avion, il faut d'ordinaire une semaine pour aller d'ici en Pologne. Si j'en juge par ma derniere experience, j'ai·attendu quatre jours a Varsovie I'arrivee d'une avion de la Royal Air Force qui devait me transporter de Varsovie a Londres. Aces quatre jours de retard sont venus s'ajouter deux autres jours d'attente a Gander, ce qui fait un total de six jours. J'ai donc I'impression qu'on ne peut guere compter que le representant de l'Albanie puisse etre ici des vendredi. Si nous nous reunissons a cette date, nous rlsquons de perdre purement et simplement notre temps, car il pourrait ne pas etre arrive. De plus, bien que j'ignore si le representant albanais est deja parti, ou quand il partira, je pense qu'il lui faudra probablement quelques jours pour reunir sa documentation, ses preuves, etc. Il serait donc certainement preferable a mon sens de laisser au President le soin de fixer la date exacte de notre prochaine seance. M. GROMYKO (Union des Republiques sodalistes sovietiques) (traduit du russe); Monsieur le President, il etait evident des hier que nous ne pourrions pas traiter aujourd'hui la question quant au fond, puisque le representant albancis n'est pas arrive. Je crois que le Conseil de securite risquerait de se trouver dans la meme situation s'il fixait aujourd'hui une date precise pour l'examen de cette question, par exemple, cette semaine, et meme vendredi prochai~, pour la simple raison qu'etant donne les difficultes de transport, personne d'entre nous ne peut predire la date de l'arrivee du representant albanais. Si nous decidions de nous reunir vendredi, nous pourrions nous heurter alors ala meme difEculte qu'aujourd'hui. Je ne vois pas pourquoi nous nous mettrions dans cette situation, et nous reunirions seulement pour nous separer sans avoir aborde le fond de la question. Je crais que la proposition de M. Lange representerait la meilleure solution du probleme. J'ai tenu a ajouter ces observations aux remarques que j'avais faites au debut de notre reunion. Je repete que je ne vois pas non plus la necessite d'adopter votre seconde proposition d'envoyer un teIegramme special au Gouvernement albanais, pour la simple raison que nous venons de recevoir du Gouvernement de l'Albanie une reponse a ce sujet, a mon avis, parfaitement claire. A quoi bon proceder acet inutile echange de telegrammes? Le PRESIDENT (traduit de f anglais): Un autre membre du Conseil desire-t-il prendre la parole ace sujet?

I thank the representative of Poland for the suggestion he has made; possibly we might be able to find common agreement by the suggestion that the Council be adjourned to a date when the President would find it imperative to call the Council, and that, in the meantime, I should communicate with the Albanian Government with the view of ascertaining the approximate date at which it could have their representatives here in New York. If this proposal could be made to represent the unanimous wishes of the Council, I would be very happy to make it in that way. Is it then your wish that the Council shall adjourn to a date to be determined by the Je soumets cette motion aux membres du Conseil. M. LANGE (Pologne) (traduit de l'anglais): Monsieur le President, j'ai deja dit que j'approuve entierement la proposition que vous avez faite et qui tend a demander au Gouvernement albanais d'indiquer la date probable d'arrivee de son representant. Toutefois, je me demande si la question est d'une importance suffisante pour que nous la ~ettionsofficiellement aux voix. Il entre, a mon avis, dans les prerogatives normales du President de prendre toutes mesures qu'il jugera necessaires puisque cette question releve, pour ainsi dire, de la competence administrative du President. Je propose done que nous laissions au President le soin de regler cette question sans la mettre aux voix. Le PRESIDENT (traduit de l'anglais): Je remercie le representant de la Pologne de sa suggestion. Nous pourrions peut-etre nous mettre d'accord sur cette sug-gestion que le Conseil va s'aJourner jusqu'a la date OU le President jug-era indispensable de le convoquer, et qu'entre temps, je me mettrai en relations avec le Gouvernement albanais en vue de connaitre la date approxima.,. tive a laquelle ses representants pourront arriver . a New-York. Si cette proposition pouvait representer l'opinion unanime du Conseil, je serais tres ~leureux de la formuler ainsi. Thc PRESIDENT: The Council stands ad- journed until a datc to be determined by the President. Le PRESIDENT (traduit de l'anglais): La pro-- chaine seance du Conseil aura lieu a une date qui sera fixee par le President.