BASIC LEGAL TERMS OF THE AGREEMENT

Coming to the substance of the agreement, it does not grant sovereignty to the United Nations. It does grant to them at the site certain controls, but only those controls which are specified. All others are retained by the United States and the laws-Federal, State, and local-apply except as we have granted areas of control to the United Nations. Those areas of control do permit the United Nations within the district to place into effect regulations of its own for the governing or regulation of the site itself, and grants the site what we call inviolability, which is like the status of an embassy in Washington, which prevents the authorities of the country within which the embassy is located from executing process or carrying on arrests within the area which is inviolable. Nevertheless the agreement provides that the headquarters district may not be used as a refuge for criminals, or to permit the evasion of service of process, and the obligation upon them is stated in the agreement not to permit the headquarters site to be so used.

RIGHT OF ENTRY INTO UNITED STATES FOR OFFICIAL ACCESS TO

UNITED NATIONS

That is a brief but I believe accurate statement of the fundamental relationship in the matter of he application of the law. Now as to the entry into the headquarters district, a broad grant is made of the right of the member nations to have their representatives, and to have the officials of the United Nations, and other categories of persons specified in section 11 free to come to the headquarters of the United Nations on the business of the United Nations or on the business of the several sovereign states with the United Nations. However, that grant of authority, which seems clearly essential-and is one which we would insist upon if the headquarters were located elsewhere-does not grant freedom of access of any such persons to the United States generally; only to the headquarters district or the vicinity thereof, where they may reside. It is not contemplated that the blocks in the city were the headquarters will be, will afford residential facilities for all who come or are attached to the United Nations; but with that exception the persons who are permited to come are not granted access generally to the United States.

Mr. SMITH. But they do come into the country.

Mr. FAHY. They come into the country in order to go to the district and to live, to the extent necessary, in the vicinity of the headquarters on their official duties. The agreement provides that in case of abuses of such privileges of residence by any such person, in activities in the United States outside his official capacity, it is understood that the privileges referred to in section 11-that is, the right of entry-shall not be construed to grant him exemption from the laws and regulations of the United States regarding the continued residence of aliens, with certain provisos with respect to the manner of administering and enforcing the deportation laws, requiring the Secretary of State's approval before the Attorney General can actually deport anyone [with U.N. status]. That is a balancing of the two situations-on the one hand, the right of entry is granted because you have to let them come;

we cannot act as a screening agent on who would represent them. But then we provide that if they abuse that privilege by conduct outside their official capacity, they come into conflict with the existing laws, as they may now or hereafter be, of the U.S. Government in the matter of the right of aliens to remain in the United States which, in simple terms, means our deportation laws.

NEED FOR FEDERAL POLICE OVERSIGHT

Mr. SMITH. In other words, we would have to set up a police agency to follow these people?

Mr. FAHY. We have to set up some administrative machinery to protect ourselves.

Mr. SMITH. Is that suggested anywhere in this legislation?

Mr. FAHY. No, sir. That is up to us, I think, just how we should go about administering our own laws. We have not bound ourselves on any limitation as to the manner in which we can administer the laws of the United States in relation to the rights granted here.

Mrs. BOLTON. When you say it is up to us, do you mean to say that we should consider it here and include something concerning it in this legislation?

Mr. FAHY. Not on the agreement. It may be that we will need some legislation; I do not know.

Mrs. BOLTON. But we will not know that until we are established and running, is that the idea?

Mr. FAHY. And see what the problem is. In the meantime, of course, we have our own Immigration and Naturalization Service and the FBI who now have the responsibility to see that aliens who have overstayed, or who are illegally in the country are not permitted to continue in violation of the law. That is what I meant by administration. Mrs. BOLTON. But by that remark you are not saying that we should be considering an amendment to the bill?

Mr. FAHY. No, Mrs. Bolton.

Mrs. BOLTON. I was just clearing up my own thinking on the matter.

POSSIBLE ENTRY INTO UNITED STATES OF UNDESIRABLE PERSONS

Mr. SMITH. But there is no doubt, is there, that the participating nations have the right, without notice to us, to bring into this country anybody they want to bring in who is identified with their particular government?

Mr. FAHY. Yes. That I think is a fair statement of it, Mr. Smith. They can form their own delegations. But they may not bring them into the country generally.

Mrs. BOLTON. They may bring them into the area of the United Nations headquarters?

Mr. FAHY. Which does not give them freedom in the United States generally. The laws of the United States apply outside the area and the place of their residence in the vicinity of the area.

Mr. SMITH. You say it does not give them freedom, but certainly this country will not set up a police agency to screen the activities of these individuals. That would be almost impossible, would it not?

FORCE OF U.S. LAW AFFIRMED

Mr. FAHY. Mr. Smith, there are provisions that bear on that. [Section 13 (e) of the agreement provides:]

The Secretary-General shall, at the request of the appropriate American authorities

the Secretary-General is the administrative officer of the United Nations

enter into discussion with such authorities, with a view to making arrangements for registering the arrival and departure of persons who have been granted visas valid only for transit to and from the Headquarters district and sojourn therein and in its immediate vicinity.

Then there is another provision [section 13 (c) of the agreement] to the effect that this right of entry

does not prevent the requirement of reasonable evidence to establish that persons claiming the rights granted by section 11

that is, the right of entry

come within the classes described in that section, or the reasonable application of quarantine and health regulations.

Mr. SMITH. Why should not this bill contain some provision which would leave no doubt as to the handling of that matter?

Mr. FAHY. I think it does as it comes to you now. The Senate placed in the resolution this provision

Mr. SMITH. You are now referring to Senate Joint Resolution 144? Mr. FAHY. Yes, sir; as it passed the Senate, there was added to the resolution a new section.

Mr. SMITH. What page are you reading from?

Mr. FAHY. I am reading from Senate Calendar No. 580, Report No. 559,3 on page 7. Those amendments were recommended by the committee and approved by the Senate and it comes to you now with those amendments. The first one is as follows:

Nothing in the agreement shall be construed as in any way diminishing, abridging, or weakening the right of the United States completely to control the entrance of aliens into any territory of the United States, other than the headquarters district and its immediate vicinity and such areas as it is reasonably necessary to traverse in transit between the same and foreign countries. Moreover, nothing in section 14 of the agreement with respect to facilitating entrance into the United States by persons who wish to visit the headquarters district and do not enjoy the right of entry provided in section 11 of the agreement shall be construed to amend or suspend in any way the immigration laws of the United States or to commit the United States in any way to effect any amendment or suspension of such laws.

I think the agreement, without that amendment means exactly that, but in order, as you say, to make it perfectly clear, the Senate did add that provision to the resolution.

Mr. SMITH. I am sure you appreciate that there are in both bodies some people who feel that this matter of immigration should not be tampered with, and if there is going to be anything that might bring about a leak whereby people may come into this country outside our

3 See appendix VI, p. 338.

laws, unless there are proper restrictions, they will oppose the legislation vehemently.

Mr. FAHY. Yes.

4

Mr. SMITH. Mr. Lodge conducted these hearings at the previous meeting; have you offered for the record a copy of the Agreement? Mr. FAHY. Yes. I have found that a most convenient copy is contained in your House Document No. 376.5 That is the one that I have been using in all the hearings. It is set out in full there. I think it is contemplated that the resolution will embody a copy of it.

PRESIDENTIAL LATITUDE ALLOWED BY SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION 144

There are one or two other things that I should call to your attention. We did cover this ground with Mr. Lodge and Mrs. Douglas, who were present at the previous hearings; but if you approve the resolution in the form as it comes over from the Senate, attention should be called to the fact that although it approves the agreement as it has been submitted, it does give some latitude to the President. The terms of that latitude are stated in the resolution, Senate Joint Resolution 144, on page 4:

* * * with such changes therein not contrary to the general tenor thereof and not imposing any additional obligations on the United States as the President may deem necessary and appropriate, and at his discretion, after consultation with the appropriate state and local authorities, to enter into such supplemental agreements with the United Nations as may be necessary to fulfill the purposes of the said Agreement.

The reason for that was that it might be-although we hope notthat when a matter comes before the General Assembly, some slight changes might be desirable in drafting or rewording some provision, and this resolution would permit the President to agree, without coming back to Congress, provided the changes are not contrary to the general tenor of the agreement which Congress now has before it, and do not impose any additional obligations on the United States. It is simply that it does not put us in a straitjacket. In other words, it is a two-sided affair.

Mr. SMITH, In light of previous experience in some of these matters, we were questioning the use of the word, in line 10 on page 4 "deem”. This committee has thrashed that matter out pretty thoroughly in considering other bills and we have just about decided that we should change the word "deem" to "find," so that it would read "may find necessary and appropriate." Would there be any objection on the part of the Department to that?

Mr. FAHY. Not at all; no, sir. I think that would be approved.

PRIVILEGES AND IMMUNITIES

There is one other principal feature which goes along with all these international agreements. I am now referring to section 15 on page 10 of House Document 376. There are set forth the provisions granting

* Subcommittee No. 6 met in executive session on July 9 and 14, 1947 to consider the United Nations headquarters agreement, S.J. Res. 144; see appendix VI, p. 316. Transcripts for these sessions were apparently not made; only minutes appear in the committee's files. 5 See appendix VI, p. 318.

what we call privileges and immunities and [listing the persons] who are included within the classes for diplomatic or kindred privileges.

One [class] would be the principal resident representative [s]; for example, the principal Russian, whether Mr. Molotov or Mr. Gromyko, whoever it may be; or the principal representative of France or of England, and so forth, who may have the rank of an ambassador. That is no enlargement of what we do now with respect to foreign representatives.

Then second, such resident members of their staffs as may be agreed upon between the Secretary General, the Government of the United States, and the government of the member concerned. That gives us a control over that, so that we do not allow them to go down the line too far to grant diplomatic privileges or kindred privileges to too many people.

Then third, every person designated by a member of a specialized agency as its principal representative, with the rank of ambassador or minister plenipotentiary, which is the highest rank at the headquarters of the agency in the United States.

Then fourth, such other principal resident representatives of Members to a specialized agency and such resident members of the staffs of representatives as may be agreed upon between the principal executive officer and the Government of the United States and the government of the member concerned, whether residing inside or outside the headquarters district, shall be entitled in the territory of the United States to the same privileges and immunities, subject to corresponding conditions and obligations, as it accords to diplomatic envoys accredited to it. And so on.

That goes I think no further than the need of the operations of the United Nations, if its Members are to function with headquarters in the United States.

ADDITIONAL FEATURES OF THE AGREEMENT

I have already covered this matter of entry, in section 11-what I think are the principal features. There are a great many other provisions in the agreement. There is a description of the land. There is an annex set forth. There is a provision, if they need an airdrome or radio facilities outside the area now in the district, we will try to make an agreement with them about it, by way of a supplemental agreement, but we are not doing more than that now in this agreement.

There is a provision that they may call upon the New York City authorities, which in this case would be the appropriate American authorities, as the expression is used for police protection, which would be granted, of course, by the city in any event.

There is an interesting little annex on page 14 of this document:

The Secretary-General agrees to provide passes to duly authorized employees of the City of New York, State of New York, or any of their agencies or subdivisions, for the purpose of enabling them to inspect, repair, maintain, reconstruct and relocate utilities, conduits, mains and sewers within the Headquarters district.

Then there is a provision at the end of Section 8 regarding their right to make regulations in the district; that the section shall not prevent the reasonable application of fire protection regulations of the appropriate American authorities.