Extract from a letter from William P. Fay to Seán Murphy (Dublin)
(111/16:376/56) (Confidential)

[matter omitted]

As I write this report, the news has come that the majority of the Security Council, over the hostile votes of USSR and Iran, have refused to place the question of Algeria on their Agenda. This vote is an implied acceptance of the French thesis that the Algerian situation is an internal French affair and does not constitute a threat to world peace. This result does not exclude the possibility, however, that the issue may be raised on the floor of the General Assembly when it meets in the autumn. By that time it will have become clearer than it is now whether the French military effort has been successful and the Government’s decision as to our attitude will no doubt be guided by the circumstances then prevailing. In arriving at a decision, we shall, too, have to consider how far acceptance of the thesis that Algeria is an internal French affair might have an adverse reaction on any attempt we might make in the future to bring up Partition in UNO. Subject to this, which is more a question of procedure, I should be disposed to recommend that we adopt an attitude generally favourable to France on the question of substance. The reasons are, I think, sufficiently clear from the foregoing summary.