320/10–1851
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Deputy Director of the Office of Dependent Area Affairs (Jones)
Subject: General Assembly Questions
| Participants: | Ambassador Jooste, Embassy of the Union of South Africa |
| Mr. M. I. Botha, Second Secretary, Embassy of the Union of South Africa | |
| Mr. Hickerson, UNA | |
| Mr. J. Jefferson Jones, III, UND | |
| Mr. Taylor, UNP1 |
[Here follows discussion of certain questions to come before the General Assembly.]
South West Africa
Ambassador Jooste said that in the last communication of the Union Representative to the Ad Hoc Committee on South West Africa the [Page 694] Union Government had indicated that it was prepared to continue the discussions on the basis of the proposal which it had made to the Ad Hoc Committee. He reiterated the South African position that it could not submit reports on the administration of the territory. He then said that the Committee had rejected the South African proposal on the basis that it did not fall within the Committee’s terms of reference and indicated that South Africa would look with favor upon the re-establishment of the Committee or a similar committee with broader terms of reference which would permit it to consider the South African proposal. Mr. Hickerson expressed doubt that such a course was feasible. Ambassador Jooste said that he hoped that the General Assembly would not take the position that the counter proposal of the Ad Hoc Committee constituted the only basis for a future agreement between the United Nations and the Union with respect to this question. He added that he hoped that the General Assembly would appreciate, as he was certain that the Ad Hoc Committee had, that South Africa in its negotiations with the Committee had made an honest and sincere effort to arrive at an agreement on this complicated question.
[Here follows discussion of other General Assembly questions.]
- Paul B. Taylor of the Office of United Nations Political and Security Affairs.↩