Office of the Historian

862S.01/2–446

The British Ambassador (Halifax) to the Secretary of State

No. 71
Ref: 419/19/46
Washington, February 4, 1946.

Your Excellency: I have the honour to invite your attention to Chapters XII and XIII of the United Nations Charter which provide for the establishment of a system of International Trusteeship. As Your Excellency is aware, Article 77 of the Charter provides that the International Trusteeship system may be applied to territories at present held under Mandate, and that it is a matter for subsequent agreement which territories shall be placed under the Trusteeship system, and upon what terms.

2.
As Mr. Bevin informed the General Assembly of the United Nations on 17th January, it is the intention of His Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom to enter into negotiations for placing Tanganyika, the Cameroons and Togoland under British mandate under the Trusteeship system.
3.
I have the honour to transmit for Your Excellency’s information drafts of the terms of Trusteeship32 which His Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom propose for Tanganyika, the Cameroons and Togoland under British mandate. At the same time I am to place on record the understanding of His Majesty’s Government that these drafts are communicated to Your Excellency without prejudice to the interpretation, to be eventually adopted, of the phrase “States directly concerned” in Article 79 of the Charter.33

I have, etc.

For the Ambassador
John Balfour
  1. Not printed. See British Cmd. 6840, June 1946, for the draft terms of agreement for Tanganyika and British Cmd. 6863, July 1946, for the Cameroons and Togoland drafts.↩
  2. In telegram 1314, Delun 207, February 3, 11 a.m., the United States Delegation in London initiated an exchange with the Department, extending over a period of about 10 days, regarding a proposed reply to the British note transmitting the draft trusteeship agreements. Nothing came of this exchange. (880.014/2–346)↩