CO537-4800 — Page 29

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

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