Office of the Historian

350/2–52454

Memorandum of Conversation, by the Director of the Office of African Affairs (Utter)

confidential
[Washington,] February 24, 1954.
  • Subject:
  • Belgian Concern over American Representative’s Statement in Trusteeship Council.
  • Participants:
  • Mr. Georges Carlier, Counselor of the Belgian Embassy.
  • Baron Dhanis, Belgian Congo Affairs Attaché, Belgian Embassy.
  • Mr. John E. Utter, AF.

At their request, Mr. Carlier and Baron Dhanis called on me today to express to me the concern with which the Belgian Government viewed the possible repercussions to the speech which Mr. Sears gave in the Trusteeship Council on February 10, 1954 on the French Cameroons. Mr. Carlier informed me the Belgian Ambassador had already spoken to Assistant Secretary Key on this matter but that he and Baron Dhanis felt that it was advisable and necessary to bring it directly to the attention of the African Office.

Reference was made to Assistant Secretary Byroade’s speech of November 1, 1953, entitled “The World’s Colonies and Ex-Colonies: A Challenge to America,” before the World Affairs Council of Northern California, at Asilomar, California, and the subsequent speech of the Secretary in Detroit regarding the Colonial policy of the United States Government. Mr. Carlier stated that these speeches had been received with great pleasure by his Government and there was a feeling among the administering powers that the United States, without yielding its traditional sympathy toward the evolution of peoples to self-government, was at last becoming more realistic in its views regarding colonialism. According to Mr. Carlier the extreme language used by Mr. Sears could only lead to stirring up trouble among Africans and be used to incite revolt against the administering powers. He said that with proper encouragement it was conceivable that the troubles in Kenya could spread to Ruanda–Urundi and thence to the mining district of the Congo. The end result, he continued, would be to start a chain of events which could only play into communist hands. The stability of the Katanga area, so rich in strategic materials, he remarked, was as much the interest and concern of the United States as it was of Belgium; therefore caution should be used in public statements made by American representatives, especially since these statements were broadcast around the world. Mr. Carlier said that he had never in his experience received such an annoyed and violent message as the one from his Minister in Brussels regarding Mr. Sears’ speech.

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Mr. Carlier hoped that the Department might take the necessary precautions to avoid the repetition of speeches tending to inflame the passions of Africans against their Administering Powers. This he felt could best be achieved if our public utterances were guided by the policy already established by the Secretary and Mr. Byroade.