S/A files, lot 53 D 65, “UNGA 1952—4th Committee”

Memorandum of Conversation, by Philip C. Jessup of the United States Delegation to the Seventh Regular Session of the General Assembly

confidential
  • Subject:
  • Committee Four Items

At lunch today, Bunche discussed a number of questions in the Fourth Committee. He considers the Wameru issue to be one that can cause a lot of trouble. He hoped that the British might be able to make some conciliatory gesture or statement which would help to soften the attack of the anti-colonial group.

[Page 1284]

On the question of Southwest Africa, he said that everyone seemed to have exhausted their ingenuity in thinking up anything which could profitably be done. However, he had asked Wieschhoff (Secretariat) to work on an idea which he expected to have in a day or two and which he promised to show me.

We discussed at length the question of the difficulties posed by the number of requests for oral hearings. Bunche agrees with our views on this point and talked about various ways in which it could be solved. He thought an ad hoc committee to study procedures might be useful and agreed that the work might be done by a subcommittee of the Fourth Committee which could report back to the full Committee during this session. He agreed with my suggestion that a Committee of this type should deal with the matter solely in terms of general procedure and not in terms of the specific petitions or requests currently received. As to an eventual solution, he thought it might be possible for the Fourth Committee to appoint a subcommittee to hear the applicants and to report to the full Fourth Committee, but he was not at all sure this would be accepted by the anti-colonial groups. He did think we could get acceptance for a proposal to the effect that in hearing the petitioners the Fourth Committee would allow them to make a single statement after which the Committee would proceed with other business. In the interval, members of the Committee would be given say 48 hours to submit questions in writing which would be transmitted to the petitioners who would in turn submit their answers in writing. He felt that a procedure of this kind would eliminate much of the waste of time experienced in the cross-examination of the Ewe representatives in Paris last year.

In general, Bunche thinks that the administering powers would be in a very much stronger position if they from time to time take the initiative in introducing proposals instead of always sitting back and waiting until their opponents put them on the defensive in regard to a resolution they don’t like. I told him I had urged this point of view for some time.