Message to F. Roosevelt (Correspondence Vol. 2, No. 227)

I am in receipt of your message on the Dumbarton Oaks discussions. It is my wish, too, that those important discussions be brought to a successful close. This may play a prominent part in furthering cooperation between our countries and promoting future peace and security as a whole.
The voting procedure in the Council will, I feel, be of appreciable importance to the success of the International Security Organisation because it is essential that the Council should base its work on the principle of agreement and unanimity between the four leading Powers on all matters, including those that directly concern one of these Powers. The original American proposal for establishing a special voting procedure in the event of a dispute directly involving one or several members of the Council who have the status of permanent members is, I think, sound. Otherwise the agreement we reached at the Tehran Conference, where we were guided by the desire to ensure above all the four-Power unity of action so vital to preventing future aggression, will be reduced to nought.
This unity implies, naturally, that there must be no suspicions among the Powers. As to the Soviet Union, it cannot very well ignore the existence of certain absurd prejudices which often hamper a genuinely objective attitude to the U.S.S.R. Furthermore, other countries should likewise weigh the likely consequences of lack of unity among the leading Powers.
I hope you will appreciate the importance of these considerations and that we shall arrive at an agreed decision on this matter.

September 14, 1944