United Nations FOURTH COMMITTEE 727th GENERAL MEETING Tuesday, 3 December 1957, ASSEMBLY at 10. 45 a. m. TWELFTH SESSION Official Records ''NEW YORK CONTENTS Trusteeship Agreement should be terminated. In one or two such cases, the political aspects of the problem had been the sole basis of dec:ifion, while the moral Agenda item 13: and legal aspects which were in his view just as Report of the Trusteeship Council (continued) important, had been almost completely ignored. To General debate (continued). • • . • • • • • • • • • • • • 415 prevent being caught unawares and in order that Supplementary statements of the petitioners • • • • 417 judicious decisions might be based on all the relevant political, moral and legal aspects of each particular case, it would seem desirable to have some kind of Chairman: Mr. Thanat KHOMAN (Thailand). an advisory committee on trusteeship questions, com­ posed of some twelve or fifteen members, to deal with such important issues as the Assembly might be AGENDA ITEM 13 called upon to decide. The setting up of such a com­ mittee would be in full conformity with the provisions Report of the Trusteeship Councii(A/3595 and Corr. 1, of Article 7, paragraph 2, and Article 22 of the A/3718 and Corr.1, A/C.4/372 and Add.1, A/C.4/ Charter. Indeed, committees of a similar kind had L.512 andCorr.1 and 2, A/C.4/L.513, A/C.4/L.514, already been created to help consider various aspects A/C.4/L.515) (continued) of United Nations work. The Military Staff Committee GENERAL DEBATE (concluded) advised and assisted the Security Council on that Council's military requirements for the maintenance of At the invitation of the Chairman, Mr. Charles international peace and security; the Advisory Com­ Assai~. Mr. Paul Soppo Priso and Mr. Jean Ekwabi, mittee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions representatives of the Groupe d'action nationale du dealt with administrative and budgetary questions; the Cameroun, Mr. Ndeh Ntumazah, representative of One Economic and Social Council had several functional Kamerun, Mr. Felix Roland Moumi~, representative commissions and sub-commissions to help assist it in of the Union des populations du Cameroun, Mr. Dika the performance of its functions, etc. Surely, a com­ Akwa, representative of the Confed~ration des syndi­ mittee such as was here envisaged should be a boon cats ind~pendants du Cameroun, and Mr. Jacques to the General Assembly in the better performance Ngom, representative of the Confederation g~nerale of its functions on trusteeship questions. kamerunaise du. travail, took places at the Committee table. 3. For example, now that obviously some Trust 1. Mr. CARPIO (Philippines) said that one cardinal Territories would soon be able to attain the final point of Philippine foreign policy was its implacable objective of self-government or independence, the stand against colonialism, old or new. His delegation committee might well be asked to study all the prac­ had thus followed closely the annual discussions on tical, political, moral or legal aspects of such the reports of the Trusteeship Council. All too often, Territories attaining merely self-government or in­ such discussions took a stereotyped form of bitter dependence; whether they should be integrated or criticisms against details of policy or its implemen­ annexed as parts of neighbouring colonies or of the tation by certain Administering Authorities, as though metropolitan countries administering them, or whether those Authorities did no good at all in their adminis­ neighbouring Trust Territories should be joined to tration of their Territories. His delegation was make single units for self-government or indepen­ satisfied that while the administration of the Terri­ dence. Obviously, decisions on those and other similar tories gave much room for improvement, the tempo questions must depend on the particular circumstances of their development towards the objectives of trustee­ of each Territory, which it should be the work of the ship had nevertheless now become much more ac­ committee to consider thoroughly, so that future celerated than ever before. For that reason, he did decisions of the General Assembly, taken on the basis not propose to indulge in the routine type of critical of the committee's work, would be in full consonance debate, but rather, to survey the situation in the light with the principles and objectives of the doctrine of of recent trends, in the hope that the General As­ the sacred trust. sembly might wish to take such steps or make such 4. Such a committee might well be entrusted, too, studies as would facilitate arriving at just decisions with the study of certain other important problems in full conformity with the letter and spirit of the in order to facilitate fuller implementation of the Charter. Assembly's functions with respect to special missions 2. During the past three years, the Assembly had set up to study on the spot, especially, such questions been suddenly faced with the problem of determining as those raised by the Cameroonian petitioners. Such the future of some Territories which had allegedly missions set up by the Assembly would have the reached the final objective of trusteeship and for advantage of greater flexibility in their composition which it was consequently requested that the relevant and, hence, greater freedom of decision thana visiting 415 A/C.4/SR.727 416 General Assembly - Twelfth Session - Fourth Committee mission set up by the Trusteeship Council, which mount issue was, for the present, the question of must be constituted of an equal number of Adminis­ integration or unification. tering Authorities and non-administering Powers. 8. Mr. GEBRE-EGZY (Ethiopia) said that his delega­ 5. Perhaps, too, such a committee might study such tion was particularly interested in the Trusteeship questions as the representation of indigenous inha­ Council's report, since it related to millions of Afri­ bitants during the consideration of conditions in their cans some of whom were its close neighbours. It respective countries, so that the United Nations would considered that the Administering Authorities were to have a more balanced source of information with be congratulated on the progress they had achieved regard to actual conditions and not have to rely in the African Trust Territories in political, social solely on whatever information might be given by one and economic development. side only, namely, the representatives or special 9. In the opinion of the Ethiopian delegation, the representatives of Administering Authorities. The protection provided for in Chapter XTI of the Charter problems of administrative unions, land tenure and related solely and exclusively to the indigenous land alienation, etc.-none of which had yet been populations of the Territories. Measures should completely and thoroughly studied by standing com­ therefore be taken to promote the political and social mittees of the Trusteeship Council despite the lapse development and the economic well-being of the in­ of years-might also be studied by such a committee. digenous inhabitants, and the Ethiopian delegation 6. A committee such as he proposed might well be hoped that the trend ·of giving preferential treatment of tremendous help not only to the Assembly but also to minorities would cease, since they needed no special to the Trusteeship Council in the solution of basic protection. The multiracial policy was praiseworthy questions concerned with the operation of the Inter­ inasmuch as it was aimed at enabling the inhabitants national Trusteeship System. Members of the com­ of a Territory to live harmoniously together; but mittee might be recruited from among the many it should not supersede the interests of the indigenous qualified representatives of the eighty-two Members of peoples or retard their steady development towards the United Nations, and not merely of the fourteen self-government. members of the Trusteeship Council. Nor could the 10. Ethiopia, with ahistorydatingbackthreethousand setting up of such committee by the General Assembly years, had developed the habit of moderation, but it be legally objected to by the Trusteeship Council as could not be indifferent to the desire of millions of an infringement of the Council's powers, for in ac­ Africans to enjoy what it enjoyed. It appealed to all cordance with Articles 16, 85 and 87 of the Charter, the States concerned to save Africa from political the Trusteeship Council operated only under the disorder. The policy pursued would determine the authority of the General Assembly, to assist the latter future role of Africa, which was awakening to a new in the performance of its functions. Hence, what the life. Trusteeship Council, as an agent, could do, surely the 11. With regard to the Cameroons under 0rilish General Assembly, as the principal could also do. administration, the Council's report seemed to show 7. Commenting briefly on the Trusteeship Council's that the Territory was moving towards the objectives report (A/3595 and Corr .1), he pointed out that of the Trusteeship System as steadily as possible, Somaliland under Italian administration, which was due for which the Government of the United Kingdom was for independence shortly, had two important unsolved to be commended. Some of the petitioners had stated problems: the question of ensuring a viable economy that the Administering Authorities were following a after 1960 and that of the frontier with Ethiopia. In narrow colonial policy to the detriment of the interests Tanganyika, the basic question was whether or not of the indigenous peo.)les. He felt that some clarifica­ the Territory should be developed as an African State tion on the subject ":tS needed. The assurances that or as a multiracial State. In Ruanda-Urundi, the had been given regarding the future of the Cameroons problem was whether political development should under British administration seemed to provide a con­ go side by side with economic, social and educational crete guarantee, since they indicated that the people advancement as parts of an interrelated problem, or would be able to determine what status they wished whether, as seemed to be the policy of the Adminis­ their Territory to have.