The Evening Star (February 7, 1946)
France asks UNO to reconsider New York as temporary capital
Problems seen in huge foreign colonies and fact city is biggest in America
LONDON (AP) – Russia and China expressed their approval today of the Stamford-Greenwich-Westchester area of Connecticut and New York as permanent headquarters of the United Nations, but France asked a long delay and a reconsideration of New York City as the interim site.
French Representative J. Fouques Duparc said, in a continuance of last night’s debate in the Permanent Headquarters Committee, that the decision should be postponed until September or next year.
“Huge foreign colonies in New York City and the fact that it is the biggest city in the United States might present problems if it were the interim site,” Duparc said.
“New York has a huge Jewish colony. Suppose the Palestine question came up. Do you really think we could debate it in law and order? Do you think a question involving the United States could be discussed calmly and peacefully in the biggest city in the United States?”
Discussing complaints from citizens in the area recommended as headquarters, he said he wondered “whether we are doing our part in the United Nations in creating some new kind of displaced persons in the United States itself.”
The United States delegation met today and generally favored the idea of allowing the selection of a permanent site to slide for a time if that would help solve the present difficulty.
American delegates said New York probably would become temporary headquarters as matters stood. Since the United Nations will be in temporary quarters three to five years it was suggested that the choice of the permanent site might profitably be put aside for many months.
However, the delegation remains officially neutral.
Chief opponent of the inspection committee’s recommendations at last night’s meeting was Australian Delegate W. R. Hodgson, who charged that the inspection committee “didn’t do their job” and proposed that the selection of the site be left until September when “the whole of the United States should be considered.”
Mr. Hodgson, referring to the Greenwich-Stamford-Westchester area recommended by the inspection committee, declared: “They don’t want us – we got no invitation.”
He also objected to the selection of New York City as the interim headquarters, declaring that in choosing this site the committee had violated the understanding that it would pick a locality free of pressure and power politics.
“There is more pressure and power politics in New York than anywhere in the world,” he declared.
Mr. Hodgson offered three objections to the Inspection Committee’s report:
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The committee reported on only two sites and recommended one when they “had no right to recommend one.”
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The committee did not examine all available sites.
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He was not convinced that the recommended site was the best because of its climate and “the feelings of the population.”
Formal offers from two areas
In reply to Mr. Hodgson’s charges that the UNO was not wanted by the people in the Greenwich-Stamford-Westchester area, Dr. Stoyan Gavrilovic of Yugoslavia, head of the Inspection Committee, said the group had had formal offers from two sections in the area – Xale Farms and Mianus River Valley.
Delegates from Britain, Uruguay and Brazil supported the committee’s recommendations.
Carlos Salamanca of Bolivia, however, backed Mr. Hodgson’s suggestion that final choice of a site be postponed. He also proposed that San Francisco replace New York as the interim site.