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examine the operation of administrative unions and report to the Council at each session.

The report of the Trusteeship Council on administrative unions was presented to the fifth session of the General Assembly. No specific action was required by the Assembly, and it decided to postpone further consideration of the question of administrative unions until the sixth session of the General Assembly in 1951.

The United States Delegations to the Trusteeship Council and the General Assembly have played an active role in the work of these organs on the question of administrative unions. The United States was a member of each of the Trusteeship Council's ad hoc committees on administrative unions and is a member of the Standing Committee on Administrative Unions recently established by the Council.

On the substance of the question, the United States has taken the position that, since administrative unions are authorized by the trusteeship agreements, they cannot be declared illegal as such. In certain cases administrative unions have positive advantages in avoiding fragmentation of colonial areas and in benefiting the inhabitants by making possible a higher level of administrative services. The United States has also taken the position that the essential thing is not to seek a final opinion by the Trusteeship Council or the General Assembly approving or condemning administrative unions but rather for the Trusteeship Council to keep the operation of each administrative union under constant observation in order to insure that it continues to conform with the basic objectives of the trusteeship system and the terms of the trusteeship agreements. In assessing the operation of individual administrative unions, the United States has taken the position, first, that the separate status and identity of the territory be maintained until the inhabitants reach a stage of political advancement which will enable them to determine for themselves the form of their government and political associations, if any, into which they may wish to enter; second, that the political, economic, social, and educational advancement of the trust territory ought not to be subordinated to the interests of any other territory in the Union; and, third, that the operation of the administrative union should not prevent the Council from receiving separate financial, statistical, and other records necessary for the performance of its functions.

4. Resolutions of the General Assembly on Trusteeship Questions

The General Assembly at its fifth session adopted 11 resolutions on matters arising out of the report of the Trusteeship Council to the Assembly. One of these resolutions was a general resolution by which the Assembly took note of the report of the Trusteeship Council. Five others dealt with procedural questions relating to the work of the Trusteeship Council and the form of its report to the Assembly. The remaining five, all of which were supported by the United States, dealt with substantive trusteeship matters. One of these, relating to the desire of the Ewe people in French and British Togoland for unification, is discussed above in the sections relating to those trust territories.

In a resolution on educational advancement in trust territories, the General Assembly recommended that the Trusteeship Council continue to devote particular attention to long-range programs of educational development in trust territories and requested that the Council include in its annual reports to the Assembly its observations on such programs and the progress made with regard to them. The Assembly adopted a resolution recommending that the administering authorities make full use of technical-assistance programs on behalf of the trust territories for which they are responsible. In another resolution the General Assembly, in line with actions taken previously by the Assembly and the Trusteeship Council, recommended "that measures be taken immediately to bring about the complete abolition of corporal punishment in all trust territories where it still exists", and requested "the administering authorities of those territories to report on this matter next year to the General Assembly."

The General Assembly adopted unanimously a resolution entitled "Rural Economic Development of the Trust Territories." In his opening address before the plenary session of the General Assembly, Secretary Acheson had stressed the importance of problems relating to the use and ownership of land in the efforts to advance human well-being. The United States joined with Denmark, Mexico, the Philippines, and Syria in preparing an appropriate resolution relating to land problems in trust territories. Under this resolution the Trusteeship Council is asked to undertake a study of existing policies, laws. and practices relating to land, land utilization, and the alienation of land in trust territories; to make appropriate recommendations to the administering authorities; and to report to the next session of the General Assembly. The Trusteeship Council will undertake during 1951 the studies envisaged in this resolution.

B. ACTIVITIES RELATING TO

NON-SELF-GOVERNING

TERRITORIES OTHER
THAN TRUST TERRI-
TORIES

1. Information on Non-Self-Governing Territories

In the Charter's Declaration Regarding Non-Self-Governing Territories (chapter XI), members administering dependent areas other than those under trusteeship undertake to insure the advancement of the peoples concerned, to protect them against abuses, to develop self-government, to further international peace and security, and to promote constructive measures of development. In article 73 (e) of chapter XI, such members further assume the specific obligation to transmit regularly to the Secretary-General of the United Nations "for information purposes, subject to such limitations as security and constitutional considerations may require, statistical and other information of a technical nature relating to economic, social, and educational conditions" in the non-self-governing territories.

While the Charter contains no provision for a United Nations body to examine this information and make recommendations concerning conditions in non-self-governing territories, as the Trusteeship Council does for trust territories, the General Assembly in 1946 established for one year a 16-member Special Committee on Information Transmitted under Article 73 (e). In 1947 and again in 1948 the General Assembly voted to reestablish the Committee for another year and in 1949 gave it a 3-year tenure with the proviso that the question of the continuation of the Committee and its terms of reference would be reconsidered in 1952.

The Special Committee has met each year a few weeks before the opening of the General Assembly. Its powers are more limited than those of the Trusteeship Council. The Committee may not single out individual administering members or non-self-governing territories for specific recommendations but may make general recommendations in the economic, social, and educational field for all territories. In further contrast to the Trusteeship Council, the Special Committee does not have the authority to examine petitions or to send visiting

missions to the territories concerned. Nonetheless the Committee, like the Trusteeship Council, provides a useful forum for the exchange of experience on the development of dependent areas. Like the Trusteeship Council, the Special Committee reports to the General Assembly, where its work is reviewed in the Fourth Committee.

A noteworthy feature of the discussions on non-self-governing territories during the 1950 sessions of the Special Committee and of the Fourth Committee was that these discussions were more harmonious than on earlier occasions. The Special Committee took most of its decisions by a unanimous vote, and even in the Fourth Committee there were few questions on which the voting revealed the sharp cleavage between administering and nonadministering members which had been so conspicuous in the previous year. Consultations with both groups in which the United States participated, prior to and during the fifth session, contributed to this development of better understanding. Much credit for the improved atmosphere should go to those administering members who, in spite of reservations they had made about the legality of the Special Committee, participated in its work and in that of the Fourth Committee in a helpful and constructive manner and to those nonadministering members who made useful contributions to the discussions.

2. The 1950 Session of the Special Committee on Information Transmitted Under Article 73 (e) of the Charter

This Committee is composed of eight members transmitting information and eight other members elected by the General Assembly. It met from August 18 to September 12 at Lake Success. The Committee had before it information on over 60 non-self-governing territories, including information on Alaska, Hawaii, Guam, American Samoa, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands, transmitted by the United States. Australia, Belgium, Denmark, France, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom are the other members which transmit information on non-self-governing territories. The elected members of the Special Committee in the 1950 session were Brazil, Egypt, India, Mexico, the Philippines, Sweden, the Soviet Union, and Venezuela. The Soviet Union did not, however, send a representative.

At its 1950 session the Special Committee tried for the first time a new method which had been proposed by the United States and Mexico

the previous year in an effort to make the work of the Special Committee more constructive and valuable. Instead of trying to discuss economic, social, and educational conditions in over 60 territories every year, it was agreed that each year the Special Committee would give particular attention to one of these three fields and that for 1950 the field for particular consideration would be education.

This experiment proved highly successful. Four members of the Special Committee (Australia, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States) sent experts on education who were able to draw on long experience as education officers. At the close of the session the Committee adopted unanimously a resolution expressing its appreciation for the contributions of the experts. A number of nonadministering members also made effective and useful contributions. The results of the Special Committee's discussions of education were embodied in a special report on education which recorded the Committee's conclusions on a wide range of subjects relating to education in non-self-governing territories.

(a) THE SPECIAL REPORT ON EDUCATION

In general the Committee found that in non-self-governing territories "a realization of the need for education is widespread and strong," that the peoples of the territories require assurance "that all practicable steps are being taken as rapidly as possible to provide them with adequate means of education," that "education in its broadest sense is a necessary basis for progress in economic, social, cultural, and political knowledge and responsibility," and that solution of the problem of education "must be solidly based on the economic resources, cultural aspirations, and general conditions of the peoples."

The Committee further agreed that the eradication of illiteracy is "a problem of the utmost urgency in the majority of non-self-governing territories" and that in order to eradicate illiteracy "facilities for primary education should be developed as rapidly as possible.” The Committee recognized in this connection the importance of correcting any present inequalities in the education of girls, of special schemes for the teaching of adults, and of the speedy provision of suitable reading materials for school children and newly literate adults.

On the controversial question of the language of instruction, the Committee agreed that whenever possible the first approach to the inculcation of literacy should be through the mother tongue. In cases where an indigenous language is already sufficiently developed

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