A/AC.28/SR.2 Pégo 6
Article 73 e of the Charter.
The French Government, in its
communication, approached the question from a different angle and ! stated that the provisions of that Article should normally "cease to apply to territories whose peoples have attained a sufficient degree of culture, prosperity and self-government". In spite of their different approach, the two Governments agreed that the decision which territories were non-self-governing lay entirely with the Administering Authorities.
In the view of the Indian delegation, the question at what stage of
development of a Non-Self-Govorning Territory an Adminstering Authority could, without reference to the United Nations, decide that it was no longer non-solf-governing was extremely complicated and involved legal
and constitutional considerations far beyond the competence of the
Committee, which was severely limited by its terms of reference. He noted in passing that, even within thoro limitations, the Committee had already performed useful work and had justified its existence by the
help which it had been able to give to the populations of Non-Self-
Governing Territories. It was in the belief that the Committco would
become of increasing value to those populations that the Indian delegation
took part in its work.
In view of those limitations, ho fully endorsed the remarks of the Egyption representativo and in particular the suggestion that the Fourth
Committee should consider under what conditions a Non-Self-Governing
Territory might be said to have outgrown its status. It was of vital
importance to the populations of those Territories that they should
enjoy the protection extended in Chapter XI of the Charter until they had
progressed to a point at which they could apply for membership in the
United Nations. Cessation of transmission of information should not
be based on any other reason,
Fourth Committee to consider.
The whole question was, however, for the
In conclusion, he said that representatives on the Committee of countrie
which had no Non-Self-Governing Territories under their administration
had been endeavouring to observe loyally the limitations of Article 73 e, and appealed to representatives of the Administering Authorities to
act in the same spirit and to give the most liberal and enlightened interpretation possible to the terms of that Article. The Committee
should not permit its jurisdiction to be reduced by the gradual disappearance of Non-Self-Governing Territories which the Administering Authorities no longer wished to consider as such, No State could afford to ignore the recent march of events in Agia and Africa; no Stato
/should seek
•