Foreign Relations of the United States, 1952–1954, United Nations Affairs, Volume III

ODA files, lot 62 D 225, “Trusteeship Council”

Memorandum by the Deputy Director of the Office of Dependent Area Affairs (Robbins) to the Assistant Secretary of State for United Nations Affairs (Key)¹

confidential

[Washington,] January 29, 1954.

• Subject:
• Questions of Particular Interest to the British at Thirteenth Session of the Trusteeship Council

Of the eighteen items on the agenda of the Thirteenth Session of the Trusteeship Council, the following questions will be of particular concern to the British.

1. British Togoland problems—particularly whether British Togoland shall be unified with French Togoland or integrated into the Gold Coast (some oral hearings have been granted to petitioners from British Togoland on this question).

2. British Cameroons problems—including petitions seeking the unification of British and French Cameroons (some oral hearings have been granted to petitioners from French Cameroons on this question).

3. Tanganyika problems—including the Wa-Meru land problem and possibly questions about the spread of the Mau Mau movement into Tanganyika (no oral hearings have thus far been requested concerning Tanganyika).

A brief account of the principal issues involved in the problems, follows.

British Togoland Problems:

The problem of the future status of British Togoland will probably be the most difficult issue before this session of the Trusteeship Council. This narrow land-locked strip of territory in West Africa which has been under British mandate or trusteeship since World War I, has been administered as an integral part of the Gold Coast. It has a population of less than 400,000 compared with almost 4,000,000 in the Gold Coast. It is the smaller portion of the former German Togoland. The other portion, now the trust territory of French Togoland, which is not integrated with the neighboring French territory of Dahomey, has a population of over one million.

A movement to unify the two trust territories, which was started by the Ewe Tribe in the south of both trust territories and the Gold Coast, has obtained increasing support in the United Nations. The Eighth General Assembly adopted three resolutions on the Togoland unification problem.² Resolution 750 A, which was adopted by a vote of 46–0–9 (US, UK), recommends the reestablishment of the Joint Council for Togoland Affairs with the power to consider and make recommendations on the question of unification and expresses the hope that a formula will be achieved acceptable to all “which will facilitate the unification of the two trust territories”. Because the phrase just quoted prejudged the wishes of the inhabitants, the United States voted against its inclusion. When the phrase was retained, the United States abstained on the resolution as a whole.

Resolution 750 B, which was adopted by a vote of 52(US)–1–4 (UK), recommends the introduction of universal, direct, and secret suffrage in both trust territories.

Resolution 750 C, which was adopted by a vote of 37(US)–3–12(UK), expresses the opinion that further changes in the constitution of the Gold Coast may necessitate revision of the trusteeship agreement for British Togoland. A paragraph whereby the Assembly would have stated that the integration of British Togoland into the Gold Coast before both Togolands had attained self-government or independence would be contrary to the principles and purposes of the International Trusteeship System was narrowly defeated in plenary by failure to obtain a two-thirds majority. It demonstrates, however, the considerable opposition in the United Nations to any plan for complete integration of British Togoland into the Gold Coast.

The near passage of the above mentioned paragraph was a great shock to Dr. Nkrumah, the Prime Minister of the Gold Coast, whose party, the CPP, ardently supports integration of British Togoland into the Gold Coast.³ Since the adoption of these resolutions by the Assembly he and his party have carried on an active campaign in British Togoland to obtain support for integration. There are now a large number of petitions before the Council favoring integration, as well as a number favoring unification with French Togoland. Nkrumah has stated that the British Togolanders should be allowed to decide their own future and this will apparently be the principal issue in British Togoland in the general elections to be held next summer.

The problem of the British will be to demonstrate convincingly to the General Assembly that the people of British Togoland genuinely desire integration with the Gold Coast, as such a step would involve termination of the trusteeship agreement for British Togoland, which requires General Assembly approval. The British might be asked whether, in order to strengthen their case before the Assembly, they intend to invite the Trusteeship Council to send observers to the elections in British Togoland this summer.

A source of difficulty in the United Nations will probably be the feeling of many United Nations members that both trust territories should be allowed to express their views simultaneously on unification as well as on some form of association with the neighboring British or French territories. The French will presumably object to any plebiscite in French Togoland. The British might be asked whether they know the French attitude on this point as well as what the French attitude is towards the elections which they are planning in British Togoland.

The President of the Council (Ambassador Munro of New Zealand) has, with British concurrence, granted oral hearings to three members of Nkrumah’s party from British Togoland. It is understood also that the British are including some British Togolanders as advisers on their delegation to the Council. These advisers will also presumably be persons who favor integration with the Gold Coast. Under these circumstances it may be expected that the parties in British and French Togoland which favor unification of the two territories will also ask for hearings. The United States has in the past taken the view that these parties represented a substantial segment of the population and should be heard. However, as there have been no requests from these parties thus far, the question has not been raised in the Department at this time.

British Cameroons Problems:

The trust territory of British Cameroons consists of two disconnected narrow strips of territory along the eastern border of Nigeria., with a population of about one million compared with over 20 million in Nigeria. It is administered as an integral part of Nigeria and is much smaller than French Cameroons, which has a population of over three million and is administered by the French as a separate entity. The most interesting recent development affecting British Cameroons is the endorsement by the Nigerian Constitutional Conference, which reconvened this month in Lagos, of proposals whereby Southern Cameroons will become a quasi-federal territory within the new Nigerian Federation, with its own regional legislative and executive council and representation in the Nigerian Federal Legislature and Council of Ministers. Northern Cameroons is not included in the proposal but will remain a part of the Northern Region of Nigeria. While it is understood this corresponds to the wishes of the inhabitants of Northern Cameroons, the failure to include Northern Cameroons in the new separate Cameroons Region may be criticised in the Trusteeship Council and the General Assembly as failing to recognize the distinct trusteeship status of that part of the Territory.

While the desire for unification of the two Cameroons seems to have much less support than the Togoland unification movement, it has grown in recent years, possibly partly because of the attention it has received in the United Nations. The unification movement exists almost entirely in the southern part of both territories. The British might be asked how the decision to establish Southern British Cameroons as a separate Region in the Nigerian Federation may be expected to affect the unification movement.

It should be noted that the 1952 United Nations Visiting Mission concluded that there was relatively little popular interest in the unification movement in either territory. However, two groups from French Cameroons (KUMSZE and NGONDO) which, in varying degrees, favor unification, have been granted oral hearings at this session of the Council. Ruben Um Nyobe, of the extremists French Cameroons party (Union des Populations du Cameroun) has also requested a hearing but the position on his request cleared in the Department is that the United States will oppose granting him a hearing.

Tanganyika Problems:

The most difficult problem concerning Tanganyika to arise recently in the United Nations has been caused by the removal of members of the Wa-Meru Tribe from their land on Mt. Meru in order to make it available to modern cattle raising, which is, in practice, carried on only by Europeans. A resolution adopted by the Trusteeship Council at its Eleventh Session recommended various measures to alleviate the difficulties of the Wa-Meru and asked the Administering Authority to keep the Trusteeship Council informed of further developments in the matter of their resettlement. At the Seventh General Assembly a resolution asking the Administering Authority to restore the lands of the Wa-Meru failed to receive the necessary two-thirds vote, and no resolution was adopted. The question also received relatively little attention at the Eighth General Assembly. However, particularly in view of the fact that India has become a member of the Council, efforts may be made to raise the Wa-Meru question again at this session of the Council.

Reports that the Mau Mau movement has begun spreading from Kenya into the northern part of Tanganyika may also arouse questions in the Council. The British appear to have taken adequate measures to deal with this problem but we might wish to ask them whether there are any questions we might ask them in the Council which would assist them to place this matter in its proper perspective.

1. Drafted by Curtis C. Strong of the Office of Dependent Area Affairs.
2. Published and unpublished documentation on the Togoland question at the Eighth General Assembly is in the ODA files, lot 62 D 225, “Ewe Problem”. For the legislative history of the question and the report of the Fourth Committee, see United Nations, Official Records of the General Assembly, Eighth Session, Annexes, fascicule for agenda item 31. “The Ewe and Togoland unification problem: special report of the Trusteeship Council”.
3. This reaction of Nkrumah’s was briefly reported by the Consulate General at Accra in Accra telegram 45, Nov. 27, 1953, 10 a.m., not printed (320.14/11–2753). The matter was more fully reported by William E. Cole, the Consul at Accra, in his despatch 106, Dec. 8, 1953 (320.14/12–853). Cole said that in conversation with Reginald H. Saloway, Minister of Defense and External Affairs, Gold Coast Government, the information was conveyed that Prime Minister Nkrumah was “very annoyed over the resolutions about Togoland adopted by the UN Fourth Committee” and that Nkrumah had “summoned the Indian Commissioner in West Africa, Raja Rameshwar Rao, the Lebanese Consul, and the Liberian Consul General into his presence to upbraid them for the attitude taken in the UN by the delegates of their countries….” Cole reported that Saloway had spoken “with much appreciation” of the statement made by Frances Bolton in the Fourth Committee on Nov. 19, 1953 (see USUN’s press release 1823 of Nov. 19, 1953, p. 1336).