Editorial Note
In the year 1952, policy makers in the Department of State made a strenuous effort to formulate a comprehensive and clear statement of United States policy on colonial questions, with particular reference to the United Nations as a forum for making statements of public policy. These 1952 efforts occurred in a definite historical setting, going back to at least 1948, when on July 20, 1948 the idea of a “colonial policy paper” was propounded by Philip C. Jessup, Acting Chief of the United States Mission at the United Nations, in a letter to Dean Rusk, Director of the Office of United Nations Affairs, not printed (ODA files, lot 62 D 228, “Background, 7—The attitude of the United States on the colonial question”). Rusk picked up the idea, which he circulated in the Department of State in a memorandum of July 27, 1948, pointing out the need for a “long-range policy with respect to emergent nations.…” (ODA files, lot 62 D 228, “Background, 7—The attitude of the United States on the colonial question”). There followed a paper dated September 10, 1948, drafted by William L. Yeomans of the Division of Dependent Area Affairs, entitled “Summary of United States Policy Towards Non-Self-Governing Territories” (ODA files, lot 60 D 512, “Col/Pol US Policy Dependent Areas (Gen’l)”); and the insertion of the following passage in Secretary of State George C. Marshall’s general debate address to the Third General Assembly at Paris on September 23, 1948: “We have noted with particular interest the report of the Secretary-General on the work of the United Nations relating to the millions of people who are not yet fully self-governing. We are mindful of the obligations undertaken in the Charter for the political, economic, and social development of these peoples. We believe that all possible assistance and encouragement should be given to them, to the end that they may play [Page 1076] their full part in the family of nations—either as independent states or in freely chosen association with other states.”
The Yeomans paper of September 10, 1948 was a simple and rough two-page “summary”; but it was the precursor of a long line of drafts each more ambitious and longer than the preceding, beginning with a draft for a Rusk speech in June/July 1949. There followed later in July and in August 1949 the first drafts of a full blown policy paper on “United States Policy Toward Colonial Areas”. These were pushed in particular by Benjamin Gerig, Director of the Office of Dependent Areas, but never reached any finished stage. With the steadily deteriorating situation in the Fourth Committee of the Fourth General Assembly in late 1949 (as between the Administering Authorities and the non-colonial powers) with the United States finding itself squarely in between, the need for formulating a consensus within the Department of State on a general colonial policy for the United States seemed suddenly to become urgent. The Assistant Secretary of State for United Nations Affairs (Hickerson) mounted an initiative on December 23, 1949 (see Foreign Relations, 1949, volume II, pages 369 and 370) which led directly to the paper, printed infra.
This paper was the third of three complete drafts that were produced by the Colonial Policy Review Sub-Committee, January–April 1950, after approximately 20 meetings. Although it was cleared through all the bureaus at the working level, it never was cleared at the Assistant Secretary level. This was probably due more to the pressure of time than any other factor. It was necessary to finalize the paper in late April (April 26, 1950) for use as a background paper for the use of United States delegates to the London Foreign Ministers’ Conference in May 1950. It provided the basis for the United States document, “United States Policy Toward Dependent Territories”, May 1, 1950 (Doc. FM D F–3/1) (see editorial note, Foreign Relations, 1950, volume II, page 440).
Unpublished documentation on the historical background and drafting history of this 1950 paper is in the following files retired by the Office of Dependent Area Affairs (ODA files: lot 60 D 512, “Col/Pol: U.S. Policy Dependent Areas (Gen’l)”; lot 62 D 228, “7—The attitude of the United States on the colonial question”; “Col/Pol: Bureau comments”; “Col/Pol: Col. Pol. Paper ‘50 (Preparation of draft)”; “Col/Pol: US Col. Pol. (Early draft papers)”; “Col/Pol: Col. Pol. Paper ‘50 (Texts of drafts)”; “Col/Pol: Fon. Min. Conference, May ‘50”.)
Attention was again focused on this 1950 paper in mid-1952, when proposals were advanced for still another review of the United States position with regard to the dependent areas and the colonial powers who ruled those areas.