DEPARTMENT OF STATE Memorandum of Conversation
DATE: February 5, 1951
PARTICIPANTS: Dr. Roberto Urdaneta, Minister of War of Colombia Dr. Don Eduardo Zuleta-Angel, Ambassador of Colombia
The Secretary of State Mr. Edward G. Miller, Jr., Assistant Secretary of State Mr. John D. Hickerson, Assistant Secretary of State
COPIES TO: S, ARA, UNA, UNP, FE, USUN
The Columbian Ambassador brought Dr. Urdaneta in to call on the Secretary by appointment at 11 o'clock this morning. The Secretary opened the conversation by congratulating Dr. Urdaneta for the outstanding job which he has done as Chairman of the Political Committee of the General Assembly, and the patience and skill with which he has handled a difficult situation.
Dr. Urdaneta expressed appreciation for the Secretary's comments. He said that it had been a long hard session and that he hoped very much that the work of the committee could be completed by Wednesday or Thursday. Dr. Urdaneta said that he felt that the General Assembly should not formally adjourn but that it should recess to meet again on the call of the chairman. The Secretary and Mr. Hickerson expressed full agreement with this and added that Senator Austin had been instructed to strongly support this course of action.
Dr. Urdaneta said that last Friday on the suggestion of the Soviet representative on the Political Committee and after consultation with Ambassador Gross, he had sent a telegram to Chou En Lai informing him that the Committee was that day holding its first meeting to discuss the Soviet charges of U.S. aggression against China and that the second meeting of the Committee would be held on Tuesday, February 6. He said that he did not anticipate that the Chinese Communists would send a representative back to Lake Success to take part in these discussions. He added that the Committee had given the Chinese Communists every consideration and every opportunity to be represented and that they had chosen to send General Wu back to China when they knew the items would shortly be coming up.
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Dr. Urdaneta inquired what attitude the United States would take in regard to the Formosa item on the agenda. Mr. Hickerson stated that when the item is reached, the U.S. Representative will propose that the Committee postpone indefinitely any further discussion of this matter but leave it on the agenda. Under this procedure the Interim Committee could, if it considered it desirable, study the matter and make recommendations to the next regular session of the General Assembly or indeed to a special session if one should be held. Dr. Urdaneta said that in his opinion this was a wise course. He added that he hoped that Senator Austin would in his statement refer to the desirability of a plebiscite. He said that last autumn he mentioned the desirability of a plebiscite to Vyshinsky who said that this was completely out of the question since Formosa had been settled by the Caire Declaration and that, moreover, 90% of the people of Formosa strongly supported the Chinese Communist Government. He said that he then inquired why if that were true Mr. Vyshinsky could have any objection to a plebiscite but he did not receive a good answer to his question. Mr. Hickerson said that Senator Austin's statement would refer to the Secretary's opening address to the General Assembly on September 20 when the Secretary suggested that in connection with the consideration of the Formosan problem the General Assembly might wish to endeavor to ascertain the wishes of the Formosan people themselves. He added that specific mention of the plebiscite might well touch off a discussion that would unduly prolong the work of the Committee.
Dr. Urdaneta then stated that he would like to discuss the desire of the Colombian Government to proceed with plans for implementing the Uniting for Peace Resolution adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations. He said that Colombia wished to proceed forthwith to create within its national armed forces an entire division of infantry troops for U.N. action overseas. He said that the main obstacle was that of equipment, since the artillery equipment of the Colombian Army was of Czechoslovakian origin and most of the rifles were German. He said that he had an appointment later in the day to see General Marshall to discuss this problem with him.
Mr. Miller stated that he believed our government would be entirely sympathetic with his proposal and that in the planning for the Foreign Ministers Conference to be held in March, the Departments of State and of Defense had been actively considering methods of implementing the Uniting for Peace Resolution, and that in this connection both Departments were fully aware of the materiel problem. Mr. Miller stated that it would be of tremendous importance to the success of the Conference if Colombia, having already committed a battalion of infantry to Korea, should go further and begin prior to the Conference the implementation of the Uniting for Peace Resolution. Mr. Miller said that he had discussed
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this matter with Ambassador Zuleta with the hope that the Colombian Government would be able at the Conference to assume leadership in regard to the military item on the agenda. Mr. Miller expressed the hope that he would have an opportunity of discussing with Dr. Urdaneta the entire agenda for the Conference prior to the Minister's return to Colombia.
The minister then brought up the question of Colombia's relations with the International Bank, and said that he hoped that it would be possible for the Bank to make progress in the implementation of the recommendations in the Currie Report. He added the hope that criticism of Mr. Lauchlin Currie's appointment as Adviser to the Colombian Government, after having acted as head of the International Bank Mission to Colombia, would not prejudice the plan. Mr. Miller said that as far as the Department of State was concerned, our desire was to cooperate in every way possible with the Colombian Government in its effort to implement the Currie Plan, and he did not feel that the criticism of Mr. Currie was responsible or justified. Mr. Miller alluded to the fact that the Colombian Minister of Public Works was currently in Washington, and that we were helping him in every way possible.
UNA:JDHickerson:mss ARA:EFMiller, Jr.:hd 2/5/51