4/12/50
A H Campbell Esq CMG FCO
36/€
UNITED KINGDOM MISSION TO THE UNITED NATIONS
845 THIRD AVENUE
NEW YORK, N.Y. 10022
UK ATTITUDE TOWARDS THE COMMITTEE OF 24
16 April 1974
Since I arrived I have been giving thought to our relations with the Committee of 24. We have discussed this fully within the Mission, and we have also been able to learn something of the attitudes of other Missions, including those represented on the Committee. My recommendations are set out in this letter.
2.
In brief, I propose that we should not rejoin the Committee, at this stage anyway, but that we should co-operate with it, and its sub-committees, far more closely than we have since January 1971. From informal soundings we have taken in New York I am fairly certain that this will be widely welcomed; that we shall not be pressed to go further; and that we shall be able to influence the Committee's work on some, at least, of our own territories. We should also be able to avoid getting caught up in discussion in the Committee of major issues, such as Namibia and the Portuguese territories, which are not direct British interests, but where we would nevertheless find ourselves unable to agree with the Committee, and therefore permanently on the defensive.
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3. I have been greatly influenced by two considerations. first is that we must distinguish between the territories for which we are responsible, and those for which we are not, but which nevertheless take up much of the Committee's attention. Whatever policy changes may be contemplated in London on Namibia, the Portuguese territories, apartheid, liberation movements and so on, the fact is that we shall never be able to go as far as the Committee, and the Afro-Asian countries generally, would want. There would be no virtue in rejoining the Committee and then having to fight a continuing defensive battle without the supporting presence of our American and European allies.
In my proposal (para 6(b) below) we would participate in discussions on Rhodesia. I do not think we should invite additional trouble by being present to be shot at on other more general matters. More generally, many Western countries have substantial trade and investment interests in Southern Africa; but if we were to rejoin it would be the UK who would be singled out for attack not
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