UNITED NATIONS ORGANIZATION



Election of Offieers of GA Commidttees

  Mr. Sandifer, in raising this problem, pointed out that while most
of the officers who were elected at the first part of the session in
London would be present at the current meetings, according to present
information, the Chairmen of Committees 2, 3, and 4 as well as four of
the Rapporteurs and two Vice Chairmen would not be present. He
pointed out that the absence of the Chairman created a problem re-
garding the composition of the General Committee.31 He presented
for approval the recommendations contained in Document US/A/26.32
These provided that the United States should support a proposal to
elect as the three new chairmen the heads of the Delegations from
those States which held the chairmanships in London, and that the
United States should generally favor filling the vacancies for Vice
Chairmen and Rapporteurs by election of members of the same dele-
gations which held the positions in London.
  It was brought out in the discussion that Foreign Minister
Olszewski of Poland would probably be adequate as the new Chairman
of Committee 2 although his knowledge of French was only fair and
hie did not speak English. In response to a similar question regarding
Ambassador Blanco as Chairman of Committee 4, Ambassador
Dawson stated that, although elderly and iiot in good health, Blanco
was an experienced diplomat with excellent knowledge of French and
fair knowledge of English, and that he would be adequate as
Chairman.

Decision
  The four recommendations in Document US/A/26 were approved.

  3'This subject was discussed informally on October 19 between Mr. Andrew
Cordier, Executive Assistant to the Secretary-General of the United Nations
(Lie) and Mr. Durward V. Sandifer, Principal Adviser, United States Delega-
tion Staff (Chief of the Division of International Organization Affairs in
the
Department) and two members of Mr. Sandifer's staff. Mr. Cordier "indicated
that Secretary-General Lie was in favor of allowing the vice-chairmen of
these
committees to serve as chairmen. . . . [Mr. Sandifer] expressed the view
that
it would be more satisfactory to elect a new chairman from the state holding
the chairmanship in London, so that the same distribution of states on the
Gen-
eral Committee would be continued and the principle would be recognized that
chairmen were elected in part for their individual capacities. Mr. Cordier
ex-
pressed sympathy with this view and urged that some work be done on it prior
to the Thursday morning plenary session when such elections as were decided
upon would take place." (JO Files, document US/A/19) The United States
Dele-
gation staff had produced two working papers by October 21 which embodied
in
tabular form the principle of selection of new committee chairmen from the
country holding the position at London. (IO Files, documents US/A/24 and
US/A/25, neither printed)
82 Not printed. This U.S. Delegation position paper is found in the IO Files.



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