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(St Helena) has ever sought integration with the UK. Future abandonment by the UK for political, economic or military reasons could not be ruled out, but the UK's moral position would be more defensible and withdrawal made less painful if the islanders were
granted free access to the UK. The overall principle might be that scattered settlements of UK citizens would exist and would have
their own local governments but the territories in which they were settled were, if expedient, disposable.
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24. UN Trusteeship Chapter XII of the UN Charter establishes an
international trusteeship system. This system is not available to
independent States, but it is arguably open to the UK as
administering power to place populated territories under the system.
However, if the UK remained the administering authority the costs to
the UK would remain much the same. A UN administering authority
would be likely to be opposed by a substantial majority of UN
members, including Western countries, on the grounds of financial
implications for UN members especially in the light of the current
financial crisis of the UN.
25. The UN has only acted as an administering authority (as a
temporary measure) in the case of West Irian in 1962: following an
agreement between the Netherlands and Indonesia in August 1962, the
Netherlands transferred the administration of the territory to a
United Nations Temporary Executive Authority (UNTEA) which was
established to administer the territory until sovereignty was
transferred to Indonesia in May 1963. UNTEA, thus became the
Government of the territory for the period of its administration and was assisted by a UN Security Force (UNSF) in the task of
maintaining law and order.
26. Other attempts to get the UN to act as Administering Authority
on behalf of Trieste and Jerusalem were made in 1947. Both
arrangements were meant to be permanent and envisaged the
appointment of UN Governors to administer the territory and city but
were never implemented. The League of Nations was responsible for
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