ODA files, lot 60 D 257, “Colonial Policy”
Memorandum by the Director of the Office of Dependent Area Affairs ( Gerig ) to All Officers of the Office
- Subject:
- Formulating a Colonial Policy Position
As you know, we have for some years been attempting to clarify and to formulate a United States position with respect to the colonial problem, both as it affects our policy in U.S. territories and as it affects the position we should take in the United Nations with respect to the general colonial question.
Over the years we have tried to build up by an inductive process a United States position and have arrived at a description which we call “a middle-of-the-road” policy. Last year we had a Committee on “Colonial Policy” consisting of representatives of seven or eight Bureaus in the Department which did not succeed in clarifying the question very much beyond our earlier position. This Committee is still in existence but has not met in some months. The question arises whether we should not activate it again.
The change in Administration and the special interest which Secretary Dulles has displayed in the past in the colonial question affords an opportunity to re-think the question. This is the more necessary as the Secretary has himself stated that “the United States policy has become unnecessarily ambiguous in this matter”. We are confronted also with the necessity of helping the new Administration find, if possible, a position which may in some respects differentiate it from the previous Administration.
It is therefore necessary for UND to go into this question again with a view to making available for top-level decision an analysis which would enable them to consider whether a different policy or a different emphasis on existing policy is needed.
I believe, therefore, that UND should immediately undertake the following steps:
- 1.
- Assemble all the relevant references to the colonial problem which Secretary Dulles has made since 1946. It would also be relevant to assemble similar statements by the President and perhaps by Ambassador Lodge. (Miss Armstrong might do this.)1
- 2.
- Assemble any important unofficial opinion or views of prominent Americans or organizations—church, labor, Negro, etc.—which might have relevance to the question. (Mr. Nosiglia and Miss Sawyer.)2
- 3.
- I believe that in the near future we should re-convene the Colonial Policy Committee in order to consult the other Bureaus as to whether further meetings would be profitable or whether any conclusions or [Page 1162] recommendations might be drawn from previous meetings. (Mr. Robbins and Mr. Strong might explore this question, using such records of the Committee as might be useful.)3