The Secretary-General of the United Nations presents his compliments to
the Secretary of State of the United States of America and, in
accordance with the resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 10
December 1952, has the honour to invite His Excellency’s Government to
transmit to him in writing, by 1 May 1953, a statement of the views of
the Government on the subjects contained in the terms of reference of
the Ad Hoc Committee which is instructed to
continue and carry out a more thorough study of the factors which will
have to be taken into account in deciding whether a territory has or has
not attained a full measure of self-government.
A memorandum setting forth the details relating to the problems on which
statements are invited is attached.
[Attachment]
Memorandum on the Factors to be Taken into
Account in Deciding Whether a Territory Has or Has Not Attained
a Full Measure or Self-Government
By resolution of the General Assembly adopted on 10 December 1952 an
Ad Hoc Committee of ten members,
comprising Australia, Belgium, Burma, Cuba, Guatemala, Iraq,
Netherlands, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland,
United States of America and Venezuela, was appointed in order to
continue and carry out a more thorough study of the factors which
will have to be taken into account in deciding whether a territory
has or has not attained a full measure of self-government.
In its terms of reference the Ad Hoc Committee
is invited to take into account, inter alia,
the list of factors (A/2178) prepared in 1952 by the Ad Hoc Committee set up under General
Assembly resolution 567 (VI) and the statements transmitted by
governments in compliance with the aforementioned resolution and,
further, to take into account the following additional elements:
- (a)
- The possibility of defining the concept of a full measure
of self-government for the purposes of Chapter XI of the
Charter;
- (b)
- The features guaranteeing the principle of the
self-determination of peoples in relation to Chapter XI of
the Charter;
- (c)
- The manifestation of the freely expressed will of the
peoples in relation to the determination of their national
and international status for the purposes of Chapter XI of
the Charter.
Paragraph 8, of the resolution of 10 December 1952 invites the
Members of the United Nations to transmit in writing to the
Secretary-General, by 1 May 1953, a statement of the views of their
Governments on the subjects contained in the terms of reference of
the Committee.
Paragraph 9, of the resolution of the General Assembly also requests
the Secretary-General to convene the Ad Hoc
Committee so that it may begin its work not later than four weeks
before the opening of the 1953 session of the Committee on
Information from Non-Self-Governing Territories. The
Secretary-General will accordingly send in due course a notification
informing the Governments concerned of the date and place of the
meeting of the Ad Hoc Committee.
Attention is also drawn to the resolution adopted by the General
Assembly on 20 December 1952 as regards the cessation of the
transmission of information under Article 73e
of the Charter in respect of
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the Netherlands Antilles and Surinam. This
resolution in its operative part decides that the Ad Hoc Committee should examine carefully in 1953 the
document submitted by the Netherlands Government relating to this
matter, in the light of the aforementioned resolution on factors,
and report to the Assembly at its eighth regular session.
The text of both of the above-mentioned General Assembly resolutions
is enclosed.
As may be noted, to the resolution of 10 December 1952 (document
A/2296) an annex is attached containing (a) a
list of factors indicative of the attainment of independence, (b) a list of factors indicative of the
attainment of other separate systems of self-government, and (c) a list of factors indicative of the free
association of a territory with other component parts of the
metropolitan or other country.
Other documents which may be found relevant are the following:
- (i)
- part four of the report of the Special Committee on
Information transmitted under Article 73 e of the Charter (Document A/1836);
- (ii)
- the report of Sub-Committee 9 appointed by the Fourth
Committee at the sixth regular session of the General
Assembly to study the question of factors and the report of
the Fourth Committee to the General Assembly at its sixth
regular session (Document A/2057);
- (iii)
- the report of the Ad Hoc Committee
on Factors (Non-Self-Governing Territories) (Document
A/2178) which records the views expressed by various members
of this Committee in 1952 and lists a number of factors
which will have to be taken into account in deciding whether
a Territory has or has not attained a full measure of
self-government;
- (iv)
- the replies of the Governments laid before the 1952 Ad Hoc Committee and the working
papers prepared by the Secretariat (documents A/AC.58/3,
A/AC.58/4 and A/AC.58/5).
It may be recalled that the Special Committee on Information examined
during its 1951 session the documentation on the subject of factors
submitted for its consideration and comprising:
- (v)
- documents A/AC.35/L.8 and A/C.4/L.112 which are now
incorporated in Chapter III of Volume I of the Summaries and
Analyses of Information transmitted to the Secretary-General
during 1950, and
- (vi)
- documents A/AC.35/L.30 and A/AC.35/L.30/Add.1, including a
summary of the points raised in the determination of a
Non-Self-Governing Territory from the San Francisco
Conference to the fourth session of the General Assembly and
of citations from commentaries made by various authors on
the interpretation of the Charter of the United
Nations.
