I have the honour to report that, as your deputy, I attended the
opening meeting of the Executive Committee of the Preparatory
Commission of the United Nations, at Church House, Westminster,
this morning.

A great number of those present had attended the San Francisco
Conference and I was able to renew many of the associations we
formed there. In many instances delegates asked after you. M.

Gromyko, in particular, asked me to convey his greetings to you
and said that, although a number of his most difficult contests
had been with the Australian delegation, he had formed a very deep
admiration of you. The Netherlands, Brazilian and Chilean
delegates were specially cordial and I feel confident that we can
maintain the common interests we discovered at San Francisco. I
also had a very friendly talk with the delegate of Iran and formed
the impression that, so far as that country becomes freer to act
independently, we will find that it shares our viewpoint. I had,
of course, been in close touch with the Canadians-Pearson [1] and
Reid [2] -for some days before the conference assembled.

I have reported on the business of the meeting by telegram and
have also forwarded the papers relating to its business to the
Department of External Affairs.

There is one other matter to which I feel constrained to refer.

When I made a formal call on Mr. Bruce shortly after my arrival in
London, he read to me a telegram which he had addressed to the
Prime Minister on August 8th expressing some doubt regarding the
adequacy of the Australian delegation to the Executive Committee.

[3] Although it must be admitted that my absence of diplomatic
rank may be a disadvantage in such a gathering, I do not by any
means share all of Mr. Bruce's misgivings and I trust that I may
still deserve your confidence in my ability to do all the duties
required of me on the committee. Although several of the
delegations are headed by the Ambassador of the country concerned,
it does not appear to be the intention that these leaders should
in fact carry out the day-by-day work of the committee and the
position of these delegations is not greatly different from that
of the Australian delegation, which is in fact headed by the
Minister for External Affairs with a senior official as a deputy
to attend the business sessions. In view, however, of the
intention to press on with the work of the committee as rapidly as
possible, I do think that some further expert assistance on the
delegation is necessary, and in this belief I despatched my
telegram, Precom 1, of August 10th. [4]

PAUL HASLUCK