Office of the Historian

740.00119 Potsdam/7–3045

No. 1426
Text Submitted by the Soviet Delegation1

[Translation]
[Undated.]

Draft Entry for the Protocol

Regarding Trusteeship Territories

The Conference examined a proposal of the Soviet Government regarding the settlement of the question concerning trusteeship territories.2 In this respect the categories of territories as they were defined [Page 1595] in the decision of the Crimean Conference3 and in the Charter of the International Security Organization4 were envisaged. In the Soviet proposals it was provided that the Council of Foreign Ministers be instructed to prepare proposals with respect to the category of territories which have been taken away from enemy states, taking as the point of departure in this respect the necessity of deciding in the near future the question of the forms of trusteeship over the former colonial possessions of Italy in Africa and the Mediterranean Sea. In the Soviet draft the possibility was foreseen of establishing a trusteeship of separate states or a joint trusteeship of the USSR, USA, and Great Britain over the aforementioned former Italian colonial possessions. The Soviet draft also provided that the Council of Foreign Ministers should work out the practical measures with respect to the concluding of definite agreements concerning territorial trusteeship in accordance with the Statute [Charter] of [the] United Nations, including proposals concerning the future fate of the territories, administered on the basis of mandates of the League of Nations.

After an exchange of opinions on this question it was decided to take note of the statement of the Soviet Delegation to the effect that the proposal of the Soviet Government on the question of trusteeship territories would be submitted by it to the September Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs for consideration.

  1. Submitted to the Protocol Subcommittee. Cf. ante, pp. 550–551.↩
  2. Document No. 733.↩
  3. See document No. 1416, section i.↩
  4. i. e., the Charter of the United Nations, signed at San Francisco, June 26, 1945 (Treaty Series No. 993; 59 Stat. (2) 1031).↩