Editorial Note
Proposals for United States-United Kingdom talks on colonial matters at the United Nations, along the lines of the 1950 Washington [Page 624] colonial policy discussions were broached informally by British representatives at New York on November 20, 1950 (for memorandum of conversation, see Foreign Relations, 1950, volume II, page 473); the 1951 talks would be held in London. The initial British suggestion that the talks be held in January 1951, before the eighth session of the Trusteeship Council, did not prove to be feasible; nor did subsequent entertainment of a May date. In a meeting on May 7 between the Assistant Secretary of State for United Nations Affairs (Hickerson) and officers of the British Embassy, tentative agreement was reached on a date between late July and October; the dates were finally set at October 10 through 13. Informal discussions with the French Embassy in August and September resulted in an arrangement for United States-French talks in Paris after the London talks.
On July 10 an exchange took place between officers of the Department and the British Embassy regarding the proposed agenda for the talks, work on which began in the Department as early as April. In July and August work was pushed by officers of the Bureau of United Nations Affairs and the geographic bureaus on the preparation of position papers, many of which appear below.
Documentation regarding the above-described events is located in Department of State decimal files 350, 700.022, 741.022, and 751.022; and in ODA Files, Lots 60 D 512 and 62 D 228. Memoranda, position papers, and the minutes of the Paris meetings come exclusively from the lot files named, which were office working files of the Office of Dependent Area Affairs.