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'.f, ••. United Nations FIRST COMMITTEE, llllth GENERAL MEETING Wednesday~ 16 November 1960, ASSEMBLY at 10.55 a.m. F/FTEENTH SESSION Official Records NEW YORK CONTENTS of the existing frontiers; if old political entities had Page had to be reconstituted, independence would not have Agenda item 79: been achieved in the conditions of peace and harmony The problem of Mauritania (continued) which everybody had noted with gratification. General debate (continued). • . • • • • . • • 145 3. At a time when the whole continent of Africa was confronted with complex problems, it would be the part of wisdom to avoid reopening the question of the Chair man: Sir Claude CO REA CCeylonl. existing frontiers. From a purely historical point of view, Senegal also could lay claim to a part of Mauri­ AGENDA ITEM 79 tanla, the part lnhabited by black races, but it re­ frained from making any such claim because it The problem of Mouritania (A/4445 and Add.l) (continued)* considered that in Africa the interests of political GENERAL DEBATE (continued) stability should prevail over any other consideration. The Mauritanian controversy might set up a danger­ 1. Mr. THlAM (Senegal} said that Mauritania bor­ ous precedent and draw the countries of Africa into dered on Senegal, and that the valley of the Senegal a vicious circle of territorial claims which would River, which separated the two territories, was in­ sow discord and provoke disturbances at a time when habited on both sides by peoples of Senegalese orlgin the countries concerned needed to devote all their who belonged to the same ethnie group, spoke the energies to the tasks of national development. The same language and had the same traditions and cul­ problem of Mauritania had unfortunately been pre­ ture. Moreover, for a number of years until three sented in a context which was historically obsolete. years ago, when both countries had been given in­ In the present era, the only principle on which the terna! autonomy, Senegal and Mauritania had had the destinies of a people could be decided was that of same capital, St. Louis. Even now many of the Mauri­ self-determination: it was for the Mauritanians, and tanian Government's administrative services were them alone, to determine their future. still located in St. Louis. Thus, the close relations 4. To satisfy Morocco1s present claims the United between Mauritania and Senegal were of very ancient Nations would have to declare itself against the standing, long antedating the colonial era. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, when Morocco independence of Mauritania or refuse to admit that country to membership. At a time when a draft was still a sovereign State and had not yet been placed under French protectorate, Mauritania was resolution proclaiming the independence of all coun­ under French administration; it had first been ad• tries under colonial administration was being pre­ ministered as a naependent territory of Senegal n, pared, under item 87 of the General Assembly's after which it was made a separate territory under agenda, public opinion would be unable to understand the rule of a governor. Today, Mauritania was a such contradictory behaviour on the part of the United member of the customs union and the monetary union Nations. True, it had been asserted that the present Government of Mauritania did not represent the of the West African States; it had recent!y talœn part in a conference of Heads of State of French-speaking Mauritanian people and was controlled by foreign Powers. But even if that were true, the designs of African States held at Abidjan in October 1960, and those foreign Powers could certainly not be thwarted had decided to co-ordinate its policy with that of the other part!cipating States. Consequently, Maur!tania by standing in the way of Maurltanla's independence and maintalning the colonial system in that country. was undeniab!y linked with the African countries Moreover, if the Mauritanian people wanted to be­ south of the Sahara by bonds of fact and law. Ail those come part of the Moroccan nation, it would have clrcunnstances justified the Senegalese delegat!on's greater freedom to do so when it was independent. It interest in the prob!em of Mauritania. had also been argued that Mauritanla's budget was 2. The Sherlfian Government ln its White Paper!/ too small and that independent Maur!tania would be and the Nouakchott Government !nits "aide-mémoire" forced to cal! upon other States for subsidies. But of advanced arguments which were diametrlcally op­ al! the former territories of French West Africa posed and based on contradictory facts and asser­ only two, Senegal and the Ivory Coast, were not tions. In any event, the countries of Africa, like the receiving subsidies in order to balance their budgets; European States, had in the course of hlstory under­ that had not prevented the others from becomlng gone many frontier changes. As a result of those lndependent States and from being present in the changes, ethnie groups had occasionally been split United Nations today as Members of the Organization. into two communities, each under a different ad­ Furthermore, the very fact that the United Nations ministration. But the independence of the African was organizing a system of assistance to under­ (;ountrles had rightly been established on the basls developed countr!es testified to the fact that those • Re~umed from the l I09th meeting. countries were acknowledged not to possess sufficient li Kingdom o[ Morocco, MJnlstry of Foreign Affairs, White Paper on means to cape with al! the obligations of their newly• Maurltania (Rabat, 1960)" won independence. 145 A/C.1/SR.1111 146 General Assembly - Fifteenth Session - First Committee 5. There appeared at present to be two trends in responsible ta a higher authority, the Sultan of Mo­ Mauritania. Sorne \vanted to be merged with Morocco, rocco, to whom they paid homage, whose envoys they and spoke of "reunification" · On the other band, the received and in whose name they offered prayers. present Government of Mauritania, supported by its The annals of French history wez'e full of doctunents National Assembly, wished ta maintain the independ­ attesting that the emirs of Mauritania paid allegiance ence of the territory. The Senegalese delegation ta the Sultan. A French Government publication on be!ieved that that was an internai problem which it Moroccan affai1·s, the Yellow Paper, contained a was not the business of the United Nations ta solve. series of letters and reports from French officials If at some future time, as a result of the freely ex­ in West Africa emphasizing that the occupation of pressed will of the Mauritanian people, the inte­ Mauritania could never be dissociated fromMoroccan grationists succeeded in achieving unification with affairs and that the conquest of Mauritania was only Morocco, that would certainly meet with no opposi­ one aspect of the general plan for the domination of tion from the United Nations. Only the future could ail of Morocco. Various documents dated 1906 and tell which path Mauritania and its people would 1907, reproduced in that publication, made it clear choose; until that choies was made, the Sengalese that the Sultan of Morocco was the supreme authority delegation could not take any position which might be in Mauritania. regarded as standing in the way of the independence 9, In April 1855, when France had embarked on its of Mauritania. military adventure, the Sultan of Morocco had sup­ 6. Mr. SHUKAIRY (Saud! Arabia) said that the prob­ plied the Emir of Trarza with military equipment lem of Mauritania was the sequel to the question of and had given him full authority to repel the French Morocco, which had finally been settled by the acces­ aggression. In 1857, under the command of the Emir, sion of the latter country to independence and its the Moroccan forces, including those of Mauritania, admission to membership in the United Nations. had taken the offensive and crossed the Senegal River. Mauritania was an integral part of Morocco, which After that victory, an agreement had been concluded France had severed from Moroccan territory in the between the Emir and France under which France nineteenth century and on which it now wished to im­ had been required, inter a!ia, ta pay a duty of 3 per pose independence by its militacy presence. Thus, cent of the cost of rubber shipped down the Senegal the complaint before the Committee was directed not River. That agreement had corne to an end in 1902, against Mauritania or its people, but against France, which year had marked the beginning of large-scale which wished to give Mauritania an independence operations by France to annex Mauritania. The tribes fashioned ta suit French interests rather than the in all the provinces, under the command of their aspirations of the Mauritanian people. emirs, had bravely resisted the French invasions; 7. Mauritania had always been part of Morocco, but the struggle had been one between Morocco as a ernbracing the southern provinces of that country and whole and France. Only after having proclaimed ils protectorate over Morocco, in 1912, had France been extending up to the Senegal River. Those provinces able to conqtter Mauritania. The French administra­ had been named after tribes of the area, and the tion of the south had then become separate from that term "Mauritania" had first been used by France to designate those provinces in 1904; that exp!ained why of the north, but MauI'itania had still not on that account becoroe detached from the history of Mo­ Mauritania as such did not appear in the annals of rocco. international history.

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