Editorial Note
Under date of March 2, 1949, the Secretary of State transmitted instruction no. 4 (not printed) to the United States Representative [Page 435] on the Council of the Organization of American States (Daniels) requesting him to advise the Secretary General of the Organization of American States of United States intention not to appoint a representative to the American Committee on Dependent Territories (810.014/2–949). On March 4, after informing the Governments of the other American Republics of its intention, the Department of State issued a press release reflecting the recommendations of the position paper annexed to Mr. Rusk’s memorandum. The text of the press release is printed in Department of State Bulletin, March 13, 1949, page 319.
The Committee spent considerable time during its first meeting discussing the status of Puerto Rico and finally decided to have the Council of the Organization of American States refer to the member states the question of the Committee’s competence “to study the situation existing in any American territory under the sovereignty and effective jurisdiction of any American state”. At the time of the signing of the Committee’s Final Act, on July 21, 1949, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, and Guatemala had announced in favor of the Committee’s competence, while Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, the United States, and Venezuela announced against (see Annals of the Organization of American States, 1949, page 389). The text of a statement by the Alternative United States Representative (Sanders) before the Council of the Organization of American States, on April 21, 1949, setting forth the United States position on this question is printed in Documents on American Foreign Relations, Volume XI, January 1–December 31, 1949, edited by Raymond Dennett and Robert K. Turner (World Peace Foundation, 1950), page 518.