745K.021/1–2954
The Department of State to the British Embassy1
secret
Aide-Mémoire
The information contained in the British Embassy’s Aide-Mémoire of January 29, 1954 concerning Togoland is appreciated by the Department and has been given the most careful consideration.
The Department considers that the plan to introduce a revised electoral register, with full adult suffrage, in the trust territory of Togo-land under United Kingdom administration represents an important step in the political advancement of the territory which is in conformity with General Assembly Resolution 750 B (VIII) and which should be welcomed by the Trusteeship Council. The Department understands why, until the revised electoral register is completed, it is impossible for the Administering Authority to re-establish the Joint Council for Togoland Affairs on a basis of universal adult suffrage pursuant to General Assembly Resolution 750 A (VIII). It considers the Administering Authority’s explanation acceptable and believes that it should be acceptable to the Trusteeship Council. It will so advise the United States Representative on the Council.
The Department also appreciates the reasons which have lead the Governments of the United Kingdom and France to seek to defer to the Trusteeship Council’s Fourteenth Session the study which the General Assembly in Resolution 750 C (VIII) asked the Council to make of the future status of the trust territories of British and French Togoland, “having particular regard to the special circumstances created by the constitutional and political situation in the Gold Coast.” [Page 1351] It agrees that it would be impracticable for the Council to attempt at its current session any definitive re-examination of all aspects of the problem pursuant to Resolution 750 C (VIII), particularly in view of the fact that the new constitutional arrangements for the Gold Coast and British Togoland are still under discussion. There would, however, seem to be no reason why, if members of the Council desired, some preliminary consideration of the matters raised in Resolution 750 C (VIII) should not be undertaken at the Council’s current session. Some members of the Council might, for example, wish to have the Council consider how it would proceed with the study and what information it would require. They might then wish the Council to adopt a, resolution requesting the Administering Authorities concerned to supply to the Fourteenth Session of the Council full details as to the Gold Coast constitutional changes insofar as they affect the two Togo-lands, as well as their views on the future status of the two Trust Territories. A resolution along the above lines, rather than an outright proposal by the Administering Authorities to defer to the Fourteenth Session the study asked for by the Assembly would probably attract more support in United Nations bodies.
It will be recalled that the 1952 United Nations Visiting Mission to Trust Territories in West Africa in its report on British Togoland considered that “if an appreciable further measure of self-government is to be accorded to the Gold Coast and if it is considered desirable, as in the past, to apply these constitutional changes to Togoland as an integral part of the Gold Coast, the Visiting Mission considers it inevitable that the Administering Authority will feel obliged to consider whether the responsibility vested in it by the Trusteeship Agreement can be reconciled with the authority which may be transferred to the Government of the Gold Coast in respect of the Trust Territory.” Moreover, the General Assembly, in Resolution 750 C (VIII), expressed the opinion “that further changes in the constitution of the Gold Coast … may to the extent that they provide an increased measure of self-government necessitate revision of the existing trusteeship agreement in respect of the Trust Territory insofar as concerns the existing administrative union.”
It is the Department’s understanding that constitutional changes providing an appreciable further measure of self-government will be introduced in the Gold Coast and applied in British Togoland between the Council’s Thirteenth and Fourteenth Session. While neither the Visiting Mission nor the General Assembly took the position that the Trusteeship Council should study such changes before they were applied to British Togoland, there may nevertheless be a feeling on the part of certain Members of the United Nations that to defer the Council’s study of the effect of these changes on the two Trust Territories until after they have been introduced in British Togoland would involve [Page 1352] a certain abdication of responsibility on the part of the Trusteeship Council.
In the Department’s view the policy being followed by Her Majesty’s Government of introducing full adult suffrage in British. Togoland and providing an opportunity for the inhabitants to participate in an election, which will doubtless indicate the views of the inhabitants as to the future status of their territory, represents statesmanship of a high order and is fully in accord with the principles of the Trusteeship System. The Department is, however, concerned that the matter be handled in a way which will ensure maximum approval in the United Nations. It is with this aspect in mind that the Department has raised certain questions of procedure. The Department presumes that Her Majesty’s Government is primarily concerned lest at this stage in the evolution of new constitutional arrangements the Council attempt to arrive at conclusions and recommendations as to the future status of the two Trust Territories. The Department agrees that such an attempt would be unwise and will so advise the United States Representative on the Trusteeship Council. Thus, to the extent indicated above the United States is prepared to support deferral of the study asked for in Resolution 750 C (VIII) to the Council’s Fourteenth Session. Insofar as questions of procedures and tactics are concerned, the Department agrees that, as the Embassy’s Aide-Mémoire suggests, they could most appropriately be further discussed in consultations between the United States and United Kingdom Delegations in New York.
The Department would also like to inquire what the reaction of Her Majesty’s Government would be if, as appears likely, a proposal were made by a Non-Administering Member that the Trusteeship Council send an observer or observers to be present in British Togoland when the general election is held there next May and June, and to suggest that this question also be discussed by the Delegation in New York.
- Handed by Robbins to Mr. Campbell, Colonial Attaché, British Embassy, and to Barbara Salt, First Secretary, on Feb. 12, 1954, 12: 30 p.m.↩