299 Department of External Affairs to Australian Delegation, United Nations

MOST IMMEDIATE

Your U.N.941. [1] This threatened exercise of the veto in a field in which no such privilege exists is indefensible. To begin with, the threat should not be taken seriously. If the Assembly were to be in any way influenced by the Soviet threat of withdrawal in this instance, the same threat would be used in other matters in which the Soviet view was not accepted. You should strongly support the case for San Francisco and in fact in the light of this threat there should be increased rather than decreased support from other members. [2]