UNITED STATES DELEGATION TO THE SEVENTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM OF CONVERSATION
October 22, 1952
SUBJECT: Talk with Panamanian Foreign Minister
PARTICIPANTS: The Panamanian Foreign Minister, Jose Ramon Guizado The Secretary Mr. John C. Pool
At the Secretary's invitation Foreign Minister Guizado called on him today at 12:00. After the usual exchange of pleasantries the Secretary said he had nothing particular to talk about but that he had just wanted to take advantage of the Foreign Minister's presence in New York to have a chat. Mr. Guizado thanked the Secretary for having invited him.
Mr. Guizado asked when the Korean issue would be coming up. The Secretary replied that it did not matter to us, that at the moment it was the third item on the agenda of Committee 1, but that some Delegates evidently felt it should be moved up to first place. He added that the matter would be decided at this afternoon's session. The Secretary said that his view was simply that the items on the agenda should be taken up at the time when they could be discussed most profitably; and that as far as the Tunisian item went, it would be better to wait until Foreign Minister Schuman got here in November. He said that if Hoppenot were to handle it now for the French, he would doubtless have to bring to an issue the question of competence of the Assembly to discuss the matter, and that Hoppenot might have to walk out if the Assembly ruled that it was competent; whereas Schuman, a more moderate man, might be induced, after he had gotten here and sensed the feeling of the Assembly, not to make an issue of the competence factor-thus leaving both sides in a better position of being able to come to some agreement on the whole matter. As for the competence of the Assembly, the Secretary pointed out that both Tunisia and Morocco were sovereign states, which through treaties had given certain rights to the French. It was, therefore, clearly an international matter. The Foreign Minister wholly agreed, and said that all his Latin American colleagues definitely felt that the Assembly should
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discuss such matters.
The Foreign Minister then said that he had recently seen President Aleman of Mexico, who was very much interested in his own proposal regarding the POW issue. The Foreign Minister asked the Secretary whether the proposal was practical. The Secretary pointed out that the proposal could only apply after the prisoners had been exchanged, and that it was accordingly necessary first to get the Communist agreement to exchange them, which automatically brought in the issue of forcible repatriation, to which we could not agree. The Secretary said that when the Korean issue came up he planned to review the whole subject beginning with the Cairo Declaration of 1943 and would endeavor to get the General Assembly's approval of the position which the UN command in Korea had taken. He hoped that a widely supported declaration of solidarity would have some effect on the Soviet bloc.
The Secretary expressed his gratification at the action which Panama had taken in preventing its ships from calling at Communist ports in Asia. This pleased the Foreign Minister, who asked how else Panama could help. The Secretary replied that he knew of nothing particular at the moment, but that in view of the Foreign Minister's statement he would feel free to call on him if such occasion arose. The Secretary said that, in turn, the Foreign Minister should feel free to call on him at any time he felt it desirable to do so.
The principal points which the Secretary made seemed to be new to the Foreign Minister. It is believed that the talk resulted in his having a better appreciation of our position.
No substantive issues in U.S.-Panama relations were discussed.
JCPool:jts