The Fourth Committee, after long discussion, adopted by 27 to 20 a resolution sponsored by the Indian Delegation, the United States voting in the negative. The resolution included a provision authorizing the Trusteeship Council to examine the report on South West Africa for 1946. When the plenary meeting decided that the question was important and required a two-thirds majority, a Danish amendment was offered to assure passage of a resolution. This deleted a clause implying that the Union was under a legal obligation and provided a less rigid time-limit for the submission of a trusteeship agreement. The United States voted in favor of, and the Soviet Union against, the Danish amendment, which was adopted by the General Assembly by a vote of 36 to 9, with 11 abstentions. The amended resolution was carried by a vote of 41 to 10, with 4 abstentions.

3. The Trusteeship Council

In the course of 1947 the Trusteeship Council held two sessions at Lake Success, the first from March 26 to April 28 and the second from November 20 to December 16, when the Council recessed until February 1948.

In view of the fact that the eight trusteeship agreements approved by the General Assembly on December 13, 1946, had designated Australia, Belgium, France, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom as administering authorities, these powers automatically became members of the Trusteeship Council. The other three great powers the Soviet Union, the United States, and China-became nonadministering members. In order that the total membership of the Trusteeship Council should be equally divided between administering and nonadministering states as required by article 86 of the Charter, the General Assembly in 1946 elected two other members-Mexico and Iraq. After the trusteeship agreement for the former Japanese Mandated Islands came into force, the United States became an administering member; hence the General Assembly in 1947 elected two more nonadministering members-Costa Rica and the Philippine Republic-to restore the balance in the Council. The Soviet Union failed to take its seat at either session of the Council.

At its first meeting Francis B. Sayre, United States Representative, was elected President of the Trusteeship Council and Sir Carl Berendsen (New Zealand), Vice President.

Benjamin Gerig was designated by the President of the United States as United States Deputy Representative and took the United States seat at the Council table during the presidency of Mr. Sayre. The Council devoted much of the first session to the consideration and adoption of its rules of procedure. The draft provisional rules

recommended by the Preparatory Commission were considerably modified in the light of the experience of other organs of the United Nations and were then adopted unanimously.

The Council also gave attention to its relationship to the Economic and Social Council and to the Security Council. It consulted with the former on matters of mutual concern, and its representatives participated in certain of the deliberations of the Committee on Negotiations with Inter-Governmental Organizations.

Both the Trusteeship Council and the Security Council considered, late in 1947, the methods by which the United Nations should supervise United States administration of the trust Territory of the Pacific Islands. Neither the Charter nor the trusteeship agreement made clear what functions the Security Council was to perform and to what extent it was to direct the functions of the Trusteeship Council with respect to this trust territory. The Security Council asked its Committee of Experts to consider the question, and the Trusteeship Council asked its President, and two other members of the Council to be appointed by him, to consult with the Security Council about the matter. Having completed its organizational work, the Council was able to begin its important work of supervising the administration of the 10 territories which had been placed under trusteeship by the end of 1947 and of preparing for the administration of the City of Jerusalem. Its regular supervisory work relates to reports, petitions, and visits.

4. Reports

The Trusteeship Council adopted a provisional questionnaire as called for in article 88 of the Charter, using a United States draft as a working paper. The questionnaire thus adopted was transmitted to the administering authorities to be the basis for their annual reports on conditions in the trust territories. The administering authorities, the Economic and Social Council, and the specialized agencies were asked to comment on the provisional questionnaire. At the second session the Council decided to postpone any revision of the questionnaire until its next regular session, when all the comments will have been received.

At its second session, the Trusteeship Council considered reports for 1946-47 from Australia as administering authority for New Guinea, and from New Zealand as administering authority for Western Samoa. These reports covered the period immediately before and after the territories were placed under trusteeship, and the report on New Guinea was based as far as possible on the Trusteeship Council's provisional questionnaire. Final action on the New Guinea report was deferred until the Council reconvenes in February 1948.

The Council also examined, under the authority of the General Assembly, the report on the mandated territory of South West Africa submitted by the Union of South Africa. It adopted a resolution proposed by the United States inviting the Union Government to supply supplementary information before June 1948 on some 50 questions in order that the Council might submit its observations to the General Assembly at its next session.

5. Petitions

At its first session the Trusteeship Council began its examination of petitions relating to trust territories, including the following:

1. A petition from the leaders and representatives of Western Samoa requesting that the territory be granted self-government, that New Zealand should act as protector and adviser to Samoa, and that "the unnatural division of Eastern and Western Samoa be held in abeyance until a meeting could be convened". A visiting fact-finding mission, as indicated below, was sent to Western Samoa.

2. A petition from former Italian and German residents in Tanganyika protesting against repatriation and requesting permission to remain in the territory. The Council approved the general policy being followed by the administering authority and decided that no action by the Council was called for at this time.

In its second session, the most important of the many petitions considered was one from the All-Ewe Conference concerning the trust territories of Togoland under French and British administration. For the first time the Council heard an oral presentation, by Sylvanus Olympio of the Ewe, of a petition delivered by the special representative of a trusteeship people. This petition urged the unification of all the Ewes in Togoland, as well as those in the Gold Coast, under one administration, and suggested that a plebiscite be held to choose the administering authority. The United Kingdom and France, while opposing the creation of a united Eweland as an encouragement to the fragmentation of Africa, proposed to remove as far as possible obstacles impeding the movement of persons and goods across the frontier, to alleviate fiscal and cultural differences, and to create a consultative commission, on which the Ewes would be represented, to implement the program.

After considerable discussion the Council unanimously approved a resolution welcoming the joint proposal of the administering powers as an "earnest and constructive initial effort" to solve the immediate problem, recommending the fostering by the administering authorities of the capacity of the Ewe people for self-government through free

discussion among themselves and through increasing opportunities for education, and inviting the administering authorities to present to the Council a more precise statement of the proposed measures of coordination and to consult with one another and with the Ewes with a view to undertaking further measures. The Council also decided that the first visiting mission of the Trusteeship Council to the territories in question would give special attention to the problems set forth in the petition and to the implementation of the Anglo-French proposals.

6. Visits

One of the most significant functions of the Trusteeship Council, which was never possessed by the Permanent Mandates Commission of the League of Nations, is that of periodic visits to trust territories. At both sessions the Council considered measures insuring that the United Nations budget should provide for periodic visits to trust territories on the basis of one visiting mission each year. At its second session the Council made preliminary arrangements for a visit to Tanganyika and Ruanda-Urundi during 1948.

One of the most notable achievements of the Council during the year was the appointment, as a result of the petition referred to above, of a visiting mission to Western Samoa and the consideration of its report. The visiting mission consisted of Francis B. Sayre (U.S.), Pierre Ryckmans (Belgium), and Eduardo Cruz-Coke (Chile). It spent nearly two months in the territory and traveled extensively throughout the area consulting with the leaders of public opinion and the inhabitants in general. It made many specific recommendations in the political, economic, social, and educational fields. In the political field it recommended, among other things, that the indigenous inhabitants should be given a larger share in the administration of their territory and that Western Samoa should be given a larger measure of local autonomy vis-à-vis the New Zealand Government. The Trusteeship Council at its second session examined the report of the visiting mission and resolved that at the present time the people of Western Samoa should be accorded the measure of self-government recommended in the report and that "the people of Western Samoa should be encouraged and assisted to assume increasing responsibilities in selfgovernment and ultimately be accorded full self-government as soon as they are capable of assuming the responsibilities involved".

7. City of Jerusalem

In addition to its regular trusteeship work the Council dealt with the question of a statute for the City of Jerusalem, as a result of the

resolution on the future government of Palestine adopted by the General Assembly on November 29, 1947.28 The Council subsequently set up a working committee of six members-Australia, China, France, Mexico, the United Kingdom, and the United States-to prepare a draft statute.

The Working Committee, after electing the United States Deputy Representative as chairman, discussed the principal points of the General Assembly resolution and then established two drafting groups to prepare specific parts of the statute on the basis of views expressed. The Working Committee reconvened early in 1948 to complete the draft statute. The Trusteeship Council will reassemble in February 1948 to approve the statute and appoint the Governor of the City of Jerusalem.

CONCLUSION

The constructive work done by the organs of the United Nations, the specialized agencies, the Caribbean Commission, and the South Seas Conference indicates what may be accomplished if all nations cooperate for a common purpose. The United States is prepared to do its part, under the Charter, in this great work. The well-being of the millions of inhabitants of trust territories and of other non-self-governing territories is, and will continue to be, a matter of concern to our Government and our people.

28 For text of resolution, see appendix I, p. 164.