Editorial Note
The Fourth Regular Session of the United Nations General Assembly convened at Flushing Meadow, New York, on September 20, 1949. The question of the disposition of the Italian colonies was item nineteen on the Assembly’s agenda. The United States had modified its position in the light of the earlier Assembly discussion and the developing facts bearing on the matter, and in an effort to meet what appeared to be the trend of opinion generally, especially with respect to Libya. In his address at the first plenary meeting of the General Assembly, September 21, the Secretary of State said:
“… the General Assembly should work out plans for a united and independent Libya to be carried to completion in not more than three or four years.
“It is the view of my government that the Assembly should agree on provisions enabling the peoples of Eritrea to join in political association with neighboring governments and the peoples of Somaliland to enjoy the benefits of the system of trusteeship.”
As in the spring, the question of the disposition of the Italian colonies was assigned to the First Committee, which undertook its exhaustive examination of a wide range of proposals on the colonial question beginning September 30, 1949. In the course of the work that followed, the United States further suggested that the form of government to be established should be worked out by the inhabitants of Libya through consultation among representatives of its component parts, Cyrenaica, Tripolitania, and the Fezzan. An advisory council should be established to “advise and assist the British and French administrations as to how assistance might be given to the inhabitants with regard to the formation of a government for a unified Libya. …” The United States also reaffirmed its support for union of the eastern provinces of Eritrea with Ethiopia because of the strong ethnic, religious, and economic ties long existing there and again advocated union of the predominantly Moslem western province with the Sudan. The belief was also reasserted that Italy, under a trusteeship agreement approved by the Assembly, could and would “provide an administration which will effectively and promptly assist the people of Italian Somaliland in the economic, political, and social development of their country, and will bring to fulfillment their desire for self-government and independence.”
[Page 586]During the debate other members also presented concrete proposals. The U.S.S.R. proposed immediate independence for Libya but made no provision for the introduction and development of local governmental institutions capable of assuming the responsibilities of statehood. The Soviet proposal also called for the immediate withdrawal from Libya of all foreign armed forces and personnel. For Eritrea and Italian Somaliland, the U.S.S.R. plan envisaged direct United Nations trusteeship for five years, followed by independence.
An Indian proposal called for creation of a united Libyan state within two years, with a United Nations commission of experts to plan for a representative constituent assembly and to approve the constitution that the latter would frame. Pakistan offered a plan which was broadly similar to the United States proposal as regards Libya but which proposed that Eritrea become independent in three years subject to an adjustment providing Ethiopia with an outlet to the sea, and that Italian Somaliland be placed under a direct United Nations trusteeship for ten years with a view to eventual union with other Somali-inhabited territories. Iraq pressed for immediate proclamation of a united and independent Libya and for steps to hand over sovereign powers to the new state as soon as practicable.
To consider these and such other proposals as might be offered the First Committee established Subcommittee 17, of which the United States was a member. The prevailing disposition of opinion in the subcommittee was toward granting of independence within periods so short as to raise some anxiety on practical grounds regarding both administrative arrangements and the readiness of the peoples concerned for steadfast discharge of the responsibilities of full self-government. However, the plan developed by the subcommittee was in the main similar to that proposed by the United States in the cases of Libya and Italian Somaliland.
For the text of the address by the Secretary of State at the first plenary meeting of the General Assembly, see the Department of State Bulletin, October 3, 1949, page 489. For documentation on the deliberations of the First Committee, see United Nations, Official Records of the General Assembly, Fourth Session, First Committee.