CO537-4800 — Page 31

A/AC.38/SR 2

Page

Mr. FARRAG (Egypt) proposed that the Committee should request the General Assembly to instruct the Fourth Committee to define the term "on-Self-Governing Territory" with a view to determining those territories concerning which information should be transmitted under

Article 73 e.

The CHAIRMAN suggested that the Egyptian representative might

submit his proposal in writing.

Mr. RYCKMANS (Belgium) recalled that the Egyptian representative

himself had stated that the question was outside the competence of the Committee; logically, therefore, the Committee was not competent to adopt a resolution on it. The Egyptian representative was free, however,

to request his Government to place the question on the agenda of the

General Assembly.

Mr. FARRAG (Egypt) replied that it was precisely because the

Committee itself was not competent to establish a definition of the term "Non-Self-Governing Territory" that it should ask the General Assembly to

do so.

Such a definition was indispensable; the Committee could not do

its work properly unless it knew exactly which territories it was expected

to deal with.

Mr. HOOD (Australia) said that under Article 73 e States had

bound themselves to transmit information concerning territories for which they were "respectively responsible". There was nothing in that Article

to suggest that the Committee or, for that matter, the General Assembly itself had any right to indicate to those States the extent of their

responsibility. That right belonged exclusively to the States themselves.

It was however the opinion of the Australian Government that

Administering Authorities should interpret Article 73 e in the widest

sense and should transmit information regarding all the territories under

their administration which were not fully autonomous in internal matters.

The Australian Government fully intended to pursue that course.

/Mr. FLETCHER-COOKE