740.00119 Council/9–1745
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Deputy Director of the Office of Near Eastern and African Affairs (Allen)63
Mr. Tesemma64 called to say that he had just received an urgent instruction from the Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs, (Mr. Aklilou, whom I had met in San Francisco) instructing him to call on me and emphasise that the Ethiopian Government was much disturbed by two recent developments: (1) Yugoslav representatives had been invited to participate in the London Conference regarding the Italian peace treaty but no such invitation had been issued to Ethiopia and (2) [Page 224] reports in the American press that the United States favored an international trusteeship for the Italian colonies in Africa.
Mr. Tesemma referred to the several assurances which have been given Ethiopia that his Government would have full opportunity to present its case before the Council of Foreign Ministers. As regards the international trusteeship, he pointed out that Ethiopia had presented a claim for both Eritrea and Somaliland to be incorporated into Ethiopia.
On the first point, I said that while I had received no specific information on the subject it seemed clear to me that the invitation to Yugoslavia to send representatives to London had resulted from the fact that the immediate question for discussion in London was the Italian-Yugoslav border. I reminded Mr. Tesemma that no Greek representatives had been called to London, due evidently to the fact that questions of direct concern to Greece had not yet been reached. I expressed the opinion that it might be some time before the question of the Italian colonies in Africa came under active consideration, since this question has been referred to the Deputies of the Foreign Ministers for consideration and might not be discussed until after the present Foreign Ministers’ meeting has ended. Whenever it was reached, I felt confident the Ethiopians would be called.
As regards the international trusteeship, I said that I had no idea what the newspaper reporters were basing their stories on. No official statement had been made on this subject as far as I was aware.
During a subsequent informal chat, I asked Mr. Tesemma how his Government justified a request for the incorporation of Italian Somaliland. He said that the claim was based on ethnic, economic and religious grounds, all of which called for the union of Somaliland with the Ogaden. I expressed the personal view that Ethiopia would be ill-advised to attempt to take over Italian Somaliland, even if the Colony were awarded to Ethiopia. The physical and economic difficulties of governing the Italian Somaliland were, in my opinion, too great for Ethiopia to undertake. The job would require more strength than Ethiopia possesses. I thought that Ethiopia would benefit most from a strong government in Somaliland with assured rights to Ethiopia for trade, grazing and access to the sea. If Ethiopia were able to look to the United Nations for a guarantee of its rights in this connection, Ethiopia would be well advised not to press for title to Somaliland, with the many attendant headaches and expenses involved.