Your 435. [1] There will be no difficulty about having Australia
continue on the Committee beyond our term of appointment on the
Security Council. A resolution will have been adopted in the
Security Council.

2. The problem goes deeper than this, the real problem is how to
ensure that when the report is referred to the Security Council
that it will be dealt with in the way we wish. We are asking New
York to raise the question of voting rights in such circumstances,
maintaining that, in respect of the matter in which we are acting
on behalf of the United Nations, we should retain voting rights
even though no longer members of the Security Council. [2]
However, it is extremely unlikely that we will be able to maintain
this position.

3. The question is raised a month before expiration of our term on
the Security Council which is, in itself, an indication that in
the American view there will be no basis for agreement within that
time. It would seem clear that the Dutch are playing for time so
that, even though we continue on the Committee, we will have no
means of seeing through Committee recommendations.

4. In these circumstances, and having in mind previous reports,
there seems no alternative, but for a report to be submitted from
the Committee to the Security Council immediately. There can be no
objection to a minority report from even one Commissioner being
submitted to the Council.

5. It is a difficult decision to make, and while I know you are
encouraged to hope for success, experience would seem to dictate
the policy based on expectation of failure rather than of success.

If there was some chance of backstopping the Committee in the
Council, we could afford to be more optimistic but the new Council
will have no one who will take the initiative or through whom we
can work.

6. In all the circumstances outlined above, and others that have
been mentioned in our communications, my firm recommendation to
you would be to have the matter referred, by yourself if
necessary, to the Security Council after no more than two or three
days meeting on the ship. This would give us the best part of two
weeks in which to prepare members for subsequent discussions in
which we will have no effective part.

7. Of course, this is not our last weapon and, if we are out
manoeuvred in respect of the Security Council, we will take full
advantage of the newly created Little Assembly [3] to make the
facts, as they appear to us, known to world public opinion at the
time when the Security Council is coming to its decisions.