Foreign Relations of the United States, 1947, The British Commonwealth; Europe, Volume III

CFM Files: Lot M–88: Box 111: IC Files

Position Paper Prepared in the Department of State ¹

confidential

[ Washington ,] June 2, 1947.

U.S. Position on Procedural Matters at the Forthcoming Meeting of Special Deputies on Disposal of Italian Colonies

the problem

The problem is to determine the position which the United States should take in the meeting of the Deputies to be held shortly in London for planning the study of the disposition of the Italian Colonies and for establishing a Commission of Investigation to be sent to those Colonies. According to the terms of Annex XI of the Peace Treaty with Italy, the Deputies shall continue the consideration of the question of the disposal of the former Italian Colonies with a view to submitting to the Council of Foreign Ministers their recommendations in this matter. They shall also send out commissions of investigation to any of the former Italian Colonies in order to supply the Deputies with the necessary data on this question and to ascertain the views of the local population. (See Annex A²)

The preliminary meeting of the Deputies to determine the organization and terms of reference of the Commission, as well as the future program of the Deputies, is presently scheduled for June 6, 1947.

recommendations

1. There should be one Commission of Investigation to visit all the Italian Colonies. Representation on the Commission should be limited to the Four Powers primarily concerned and each Power should be represented by one Commissioner, two but not more than four Advisers, and necessary secretarial assistance. A central secretariat and all arrangements for travel and accommodation in the Colonies should be provided by the British Government, the cost to be divided on a pro rata basis among the four Governments. The Deputies should request the British and French Governments to communicate with the appropriate authorities of the Italian Colonies in order to facilitate the work of the Commission of Investigation in those territories.

2. The terms of reference of the Commission should be as follows:

A. The Commission, which shall establish its own itinerary, shall have authority to conduct its investigation in Libya, Eritrea and Italian Somaliland in order to examine political, economic and social conditions as they bear upon the problem. Special attention shall be paid to the wishes and welfare of the inhabitants of the Colonies as well as to the interests of peace and security.

The Commission is not authorized to investigate any matter outside the boundaries of the Colonies, except under instructions from the Deputies, who will obtain permission from the Government or Governments concerned.

The views of other interested Governments, as expressed to the Deputies, shall be taken into consideration; the Commission shall be empowered to hear the views of Italy, Egypt, and Ethiopia, and to receive from the representatives of these countries factual evidence bearing on the problem. These representatives may be heard by the Commission in London and, if requested, in one specified place in each of the three Colonies.

B. The Commission shall proceed to the area not later than (date) and shall submit to the Deputies of the Foreign Ministers on or before (date) (N.B. The date to be inserted here should in no case exceed seven months from the coming into force of the Treaty.) reports of the facts disclosed by the investigation. There shall be three separate reports, i.e. one on Libya, one on Eritrea and one on Italian Somaliland. These reports shall include recommendations, it being understood, however, that such recommendations shall not be binding on the Deputies. Separate reports may be submitted, if requested by the Deputies, after the visit to each territory.

The Commission shall, if it deems it advisable or if requested by the Deputies, make special reports to the Deputies.

C. The Commission shall have authority to call upon the Governments, officials and inhabitants of those territories, and to consider the views of competent witnesses, irrespective of nationality, as well as to call upon such other sources as the Deputies may deem necessary, for information relevant to its investigation.

3. As soon as the Peace Treaty has come into force, and while the Commission is visiting the Colonies, the Deputies should hear the views of the other interested Governments. If this work is completed before submission of the Commission’s report, the Deputies should adjourn.

4. The term “other interested Governments” should be defined as those Governments having territorial claims in the Colonies, such as Italy, Egypt, and Ethiopia, or those who participated actively in the war in Africa on the side of the Allies. It is believed that these might include Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, India, Pakistan, Greece, Ethiopia, Belgium, Poland, and Czechoslovakia, but there should be prior consultation with the British in London to determine whether the armed forces of all of these states actually participated actively in the war in Africa.

5. The following general procedure should govern the participation of other interested Governments in the discussion of the disposal of the Colonies:

A. Ordinarily the views of such Governments should be presented to the Deputies.

B. In exceptional and appropriate instances, however, they should be permitted to present their views to the Council of Foreign Ministers, but every endeavor should be made to keep such consultation to a minimum.

C. The other interested Governments should not be permitted to participate in the work of the Commission of Investigation. Moreover, only Italy, Egypt, and Ethiopia should be heard by the Commission. (See Section 2A)

D. The other interested Governments, if they so desire, should be given the opportunity to submit to the Deputies their suggestions on the terms of reference and the composition of the Commission.

E. The reports of the Commission should be made available to the other interested Governments immediately on completion in order to enable those Governments to express their views thereon.

6. There should be no discussions regarding the final disposal of the Colonies until the report of the Commission has been received. When the report is received, the Deputies should proceed to discuss the disposition of the Colonies. Whenever agreement is reached or, if no agreement is reached, ten months after the coming into force of the Peace Treaty, recommendations or the questions at issue should be referred to the Foreign Ministers, unless the latter instruct the Deputies to continue the consideration of the problem.

7. These issues can be taken up at any meeting of the Foreign Ministers which may take place between ten months and twelve months after the coming into force of the Italian Peace Treaty, or, if necessary, at a special meeting.

8. The Deputies should always meet in London except when their presence may be required elsewhere by the Foreign Ministers.

discussion

Commission of Investigation.

Annex XI of the Treaty of Peace with Italy states that “commissions of investigation” shall be sent to the former Italian Colonies. It would appear desirable to restrict the number of commissions to one for the following reasons:

1. The cost and the amount of personnel required to accomplish the Commission’s task would be materially reduced.

2. The experience which the Commission would gain in one area would be of assistance to it in the other areas.

3. The weight given to facts and conclusions would be uniform for all three territories.

4. Both the British and the French have indicated their preference for one commission.

It is also thought that the representation of each country on the Commission should be restricted in number to one Commissioner and not more than four Advisers. The British have indicated that the problem of accommodation and transportation of the personnel on the Commission will be difficult and complicated. It is therefore felt that the Commission should be restricted as much as may be consistent with the effective discharge of its task.

Questions may arise from time to time involving territories neighboring on the Colonies. For example, several of the border areas are indefinite and, in other cases, contiguous states have requested border rectifications. It may prove desirable for the Commission to visit these border areas and to enter the territory of contiguous states in order to complete their knowledge of the problem. It is therefore felt that the Deputies should be empowered to obtain the permission of contiguous states for visits of the Commission to such border areas.

Due to the enormous distances which the Commission must cover and the complexity of the problems involved, it is believed that the Commission should be given as much time as possible, consistent with the time limitation of one year imposed by the Treaty, to undertake its investigations. A period of seven months has, therefore, been recommended as reasonable, inasmuch as the Commission must visit three widely separated areas, hear the views of interested governments having territorial claims in these areas, and write final reports for submission to the Deputies.

Although Annex XI appears only to envisage the Commission as a fact-finding body, it is felt that the Commission should submit recommendations to the Deputies in order that the maximum benefit may be obtained from its investigations. These recommendations would be based primarily on the Commission’s findings in the territories and would not bind the Deputies, who, in framing their recommendations, would, therefore, be free to take into account other pertinent data.

To provide for a possible eventuality whereby the Commission might be unable to agree on a report covering all three Colonies, it is considered preferable for the Commission to submit a separate report on each of the three Colonies. In this way possible disagreement regarding one area would not prevent or delay the forwarding of the views of the Commission regarding the other areas.

Other Interested Governments.

Due to the limited time (three months) allotted to the Deputies for their consideration of the actual disposal of the Colonies, it would be advantageous for them to hear the views of other interested governments while the Commission is in the field. This procedure should not, however, prevent other interested Governments from subsequently submitting additional views after they had had an opportunity to study the reports of the Commission of Investigation.

It is felt that the term “other interested Governments”, which appears in Annex XI, should be given as restricted an interpretation as possible. This end can be accomplished by defining such Governments as those which have territorial claims on the Colonies or those which actively participated in the war in Africa.

This Government is already committed to support the procedure outlined in Section 5 of the Recommendations regarding the participation of other interested Governments in the discussion of the disposal of the Colonies. These commitments have been made in exchanges of communications with the Australian, Italian, and Egyptian Governments. These exchanges of notes constitute Annexes B–F, inclusive.³

Recommendations of the Deputies.

In order that the Deputies may give fullest consideration to the findings of the Commission of Investigation, it would be preferable for them not to discuss substantive matters involving the actual disposal of the Colonies until the Commission’s reports have been received. A further benefit from this procedure would be that the representatives of each country on the Commission would be available in London as advisers to each of the Deputies.

Assuming that the Commission is allotted seven months in which to conduct its investigations and complete its reports, the most equitable distribution of the remaining five months would appear to be three months for the Deputies to form their recommendations and two months for the Council of Foreign Ministers to make its decision.

1. Copies of this position paper were taken to London by John Utter and Philip Bagby, advisers to Ambassador Douglas on the disposition of the Italian colonies. The paper was used during discussions with the British and French on the preparation of an agreed set of positions on questions likely to arise at the forthcoming meetings of the Deputies for the Former Italian Colonies. American and British representatives reached general agreement on these questions at the end of September 1947, but all matters became subject to four-power negotiation at the meetings of the Deputies which opened on October 3, 1947.
2. The Annex, not printed, contained the texts of Article 23 and Annex XI of the Peace Treaty with Italy. For the full text of the Treaty, see TIAS No. 1648.
3. Annexes B and C were the texts of the Australian Embassy aide-mémoire of April 10, 1947, and the Department’s reply of April 21, described in telegram 1762, April 22, to London, p. 577. Annexes D and E were the texts of the Italian Embassy Counselor’s letter of February 18, 1947, and Loy Henderson’s reply of March 7, described in footnotes 1 and 2 to telegram 297, March 1, to Rome, p. 570. Annex F was the text of the memorandum of July 25, 1946, from the Department of State to the Egyptian Legation, not printed, suggesting that the Egyptian Government might wish to make known to the Deputies of the Council of Foreign Ministers its desire to submit its views to any Commission sent to former Italian Colonies (740.00119 Council/7–2546).