Editorial Note
On September 8, 1952 the Indian Alternate Representative to the United Nations, Rajeshwar Dayal, informed an officer of the United States Mission to the United Nations that the Government of India within the coming week intended to propose that the matter of racial conflict in the Union of South Africa be inscribed on the agenda of the United Nations General Assembly. Dayal explained that the racial situation in South Africa was different from that in the southern United States. The United States, according to the Indian diplomat, was sincerely striving to solve the problem and each year showed some progress; but in the Union of South Africa the Afrikaners, who dominated the country, had no desire to solve the problem and only aggravated it. When the United States diplomat suggested that the inclusion of such an item might clearly contravene Article 2 (7) of the United Nations Charter, which excluded United Nations intervention in matters “essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any state”, Dayal replied that his government envisioned this item as [Page 925] merely a continuation of the item previously considered by the General Assembly, which concerned the treatment of people of Indian origin in the Union of South Africa. India was now expanding consideration to include Negroes. When the United States diplomat, speaking personally, speculated that the introduction of this new item might increase the possibility of the Union of South Africa withdrawing from the United Nations, Dayal said that he did not expect the Union Government to withdraw, but considered it a risk which he and his associates were willing to take. (Telegram 223 from New York, September 9, 1952; 745X.00/9–952)