IO Files
Memorandum of Conversation, by Mr. J. Jefferson Jones, III, Adviser, United States Delegation to the Trusteeship Council
confidential
Subject: The Ewe Question
| Participants: | Mr. Awni Khalidy, Iraqi Delegation |
| Mr. J. Jefferson Jones, III, United States Delegation |
Mr. Khalidy stopped me just outside the Trusteeship Council chamber to discuss the Ewe question. He reiterated his reservations to Council action along the lines the United States had in mind. He went into considerable lengths in his argument that the United States should support a resolution along the lines of the draft which he had given us. He said that he would be perfectly willing to give the administering authorities another chance and to authorize them to submit to the Council definitive proposals for settlement of the question at the next session of the Council. He also said that unless the administering authorities were confronted with a Council demand for action, they would let the question drag on interminably.
Mr. Khalidy said that he would like to bring to the attention of the United States Delegation his firm view that, unless some definitive progress was made toward solving this problem, there would be an “eruption of violence” in the Ewe areas. He referred to the New York Times news article of recent date regarding rioting in the Gold Coast and French Togoland and said this was merely a foretaste of what would happen unless concrete steps were taken at once to work towards a settlement of the problem.
Mr. Khalidy said that he thought that the United States was deeply concerned in the problem for two reasons: (1) In case of another world war, it was likely that the Mediterranean Sea would be closed to the free world in the same way that it was during the last war. If this proved to be true, western Africa would become vital to the Western nations in their communications with the East. Consequently, it behooves us to attempt to win the sympathetic understanding of those peoples who would probably control that area of Africa within the next several years. (2) Unless progress was made in solving the Ewe problem, there would inevitably be a tendency on the part of the Ewe people to fall under the domination of more extremist elements, particularly the Communists. Mr. Khalidy thought that for this reason, if for no other, the United States would wish to follow a policy which would retain the friendship of the Ewes.
In my reply to Mr. Khalidy, I advanced again the reasons which form the basis of the United States attitude with respect to Trusteeship [Page 602] Council consideration of the Ewe problem. I took advantage of the occasion to ask Mr. Khalidy to clarify the statement which he had previously made to me with respect to the possibility that he might be able to vote for the United States resolution rather than abstain. He replied that if the United States resolution, as finally presented, contained a sufficient number of his ideas, he might be able to vote for the resolution as a whole although abstain on certain paragraphs. I pointed out the difficulty in the way of amalgamating the views of the two delegations in one resolution, and particularly the fact that such a resolution would “go in two directions at once”. I said, however, that we should be glad, of course, to give consideration to his suggestion.