350/2–1754
Memorandum by the Deputy United States Representative on the Trusteeship Council (Gerig) to the Assistant Secretary of State for United Nations Affairs (Key)
- Subject:
- Tactics of USDel in Trusteeship Council
In order to avoid any misunderstanding, either in the Department or in French or British circles, I wish to explain the tactics which USDel has been following in the Trusteeship Council.
First of all, I should explain that Mr. Sears, Mr. McKay and I keep copies of the colonial policy statements of Secretary Dulles of November 17 and of Assistant Secretary Byroade of October 30 constantly at our elbow, and we carefully measure our statements and our questions in the Trusteeship Council against these basic documents.
It has been Mr. Sears’ desire, and we have agreed, to change somewhat the nature of U.S. participation in the Council by adopting a selective rather than a comprehensive approach to the problems. In the Council the custom has been—and in the past the U.S. went along with it—to ask a number of questions under each of the four main headings—political, economic, social and educational. Then each Delegate would make a comprehensive commentary running into eight or ten pages covering each of these items in considerable detail. This time USDel decided that instead of this comprehensive treatment it would be better to select two or three of the big items to which we wished to call attention and treat them more briefly. You will see, therefore, that in Mr. Sears’ statements so far made on British Cameroons, French Cameroons and British Togoland, his final statement was only about a page and a half in length and selected one or two large issues such as, for example, (1) the early attainment of self-government for British Cameroons in relation to Nigeria, (2) the impact which this development is almost certain to have in the adjoining French Cameroons and therefore the necessity for the French to be mindful of this development, and (3) the forthcoming elections in British Togoland when the people, under the principle of self-determination, will decide whether to look westward toward union with the Gold Coast or eastward toward unification with French Togoland.
These statements have in no wise, in our view, departed from the Dulles and Byroade statements. They have, of course, applied these principles to particular cases, and in that respect we were fully aware that they needed to be carefully measured. A perusal of these statements (copies attached) will show, I think, that they were couched in courteous and sufficiently general terms, and should give no real cause for criticism.
[Page 1360]One effect of these brief statements has been that the New York papers, almost for the first time, have taken note of our positions in the Trusteeship Council. Moreover, we are informed that USIA finds them much more usable than the general comprehensive statements have been heretofore.
USDel is fully aware that the basic colonial policy position, as outlined in the Dulles and Byroade statements, stresses self-government as the objective for all non-self-governing peoples and in certain cases, where conditions are suitable, a choice of independence or some other alternative following the application of the principle of self-determination. We are also aware, as is clearly pointed out in both the basic policy statements, that there is such a thing as premature attainment of independence which would not only be unrealistic and unenduring, but would open the way for communist exploitation. I think a careful reading of our brief statements to the Trusteeship Council will indicate that we have taken all this carefully into account.
Mr. Sears feels, and we all agree here, that the colonial and trust powers should advance the territories under their charge toward self-government as rapidly as practicable, and in doing so show to all the members of the free world that the colonial question should not be a divisive issue among them, thus playing into the hands of the communists.
I trust this memorandum will suffice to clarify any misunderstanding which may have arisen in regard to our activities here. It might be well soon to have a discussion in the Department at which the Assistant Secretaries and other officers particularly concerned with colonial questions could meet with Mr. Sears and discuss our tactics further.
Mr. Sears has seen this memorandum and agrees with it.