350/5–754
Memorandum by the Vice Consul at Leopoldville (Drew)1
Memorandum on visit to French Equatorial Africa and French Cameroon of Mason B. Sears, U.S. delegate to U.N. trusteeship council
Mr. Sears visited French Equatorial Africa and the French Cameroon on an informal basis. He indicated to me and to the French that his visit was for the purpose of self-instruction particularly, in regard to obtaining a better comprehension of the native situation; knowledge of the North Cameroon, which he believed very few persons knew; and to obtain the answers to questions he expected would be asked in the Trusteeship Council.
Mr. Sears, his son Philip, and the reporting officer left Brazzaville on April 1 and successively visited in F.E.A., from April 1–5, Fort Sibut, Fort Crampel, Fort Archambault, and Fort Lamy; and in the French Cameroon, from April 5–12, Fort Fourneau, Maroua, Mokolo, Garoua, Ngaoundere, and Yaounde. Mr. Sears and son left Yaounde for Douala by air on April 12 and the following morning for Buea by French official car to the French-British Cameroon border where he was met by the British.
Travel from Bangui to Fort Archambault, was made in the car of the Governor of Oubangui-Chari, because of lack of plane service. Mr. Sears was met at Fort Lamy by the Delegate of the High Commissioner to the Cameroon, Mr. Tirant and by the Chief of External Relations and Cameroon Delegate to the Trusteeship Council last January, Mr. Becquey, both of whom accompanied him throughout the trip from Fort Lamy to Yaounde. The private plane of the High Commissioner was used to travel from Fort Lamy to Yaounde with official cars at each stop in between for local area travel. All other travel was done by regular airlines.
Mr. Sears found the trip in French Equatorial Africa profitable as a point of comparison and preparation for the Cameroon. The Sudan political situation and its possible influence on F.E.A. and the possibility of a Holy War on the part of the Moslems2 was discussed with French officials who expressed little apprehension on either question.
Mr. Sears was disappointed and felt he had been misled by overenthusiastic officials regarding the facility of hunting game at Fort Archambault. He had considerable physical hardship without seeing [Page 246] any game. This hunting expedition was arranged by the French at the suggestion of the French Delegate to the Trusteeship Council, in a telegram from him to the High Commissioner at Brazzaville.
In the French Cameroon, Mr. Sears found his trip much more profitable than he had expected. Although he did not see as much of the native life as he desired—lack of time and not the fault of the French whom he found most cooperative—he left with a much clearer picture of the situation than he had on arrival. Throughout the trip he had stressed to the French his desire to see the native life, indicating that much was known of the European but little of the native. French officials had no pre-arranged program and followed Mr. Sears’ wishes at each point of the trip in as much as time and circumstance permitted.
Mr. Sears was much impressed with the calibre of the French Colonial official in the Cameroon. He saw a much warmer relationship between the African and the white than he had anticipated. He found the French Colonial official unselfish, enthusiastic in his work, and with a real liking for the native. He thought, however, that he did not have a proper realization of the value of public relations at the Trusteeship Council in New York. (The French agreed that they were lacking in this respect but were working to correct it.) Mr. Sears was not sure if the French were on the right track in their method of bringing the Cameroon to self-government. He felt that timing was most important and that if the French were realistic and used good judgment, there seemed to be no reason why good relations with the African could not be maintained later as they exist now, and that the self-governing African would choose to remain associated with the mother-country.
Mr. Sears often mentioned the danger of Communist penetration through the fractionating of Africa. He found nothing new that he did not already know about Communism in the Cameroon but felt that the shadow of Communism should be watched very carefully during the coming years.
Although not always of the same mind as Mr. Sears, French officials were willing to discuss any question brought up. They stressed that they try to understand the African and his problems, to get close to him but not to the same extent as the Portuguese. They illustrated this with examples of how they were encouraging the native to make better use of his natural environment for housing, food, transportation, etc.
The French expressed little fear of Communism in the French Cameroon. However, they felt that the United Nations was aiding Communism by giving too much importance to minor issues by allowing any petitioner to appear before the Trusteeship Council. They cited as an example the recent elections for the Territorial Assembly which [Page 247] showed a gain for the Communist supporters and which they attributed to the influence Ruben Nyobé3 has gained through his association with the Trusteeship Council.
They expressed no particular fear for the French Cameroon on the question of fractionating Africa, They maintain that the French Cameroon people desire political independence as a whole; that they would not be influenced politically by neighbors, although they might be affected economically, more by F.E.A. than by the British Cameroon or Nigeria.
Mr. Sears did not get a satisfactory answer to his oft-repeated questions on plans and time element French had for bringing natives to self-government. The French recognized the danger of going too fast or too slow but also stressed their belief that the length of time depended on too many factors of evolution, within and without the territory, for them to make any sort of long-range planning.
Sultans and native chiefs, throughout the trip expressed satisfaction with the French administration although on occasion dissatisfaction with the Trusteeship Council.
- This memorandum was an enclosure to despatch 270 of May 7, 1954 from the Consul at Leopoldville (McGregor) to the Department of State. (350/5–754)↩
- Riots, provoked by the Mahdist-backed Umma Party in opposition to the National Union Party’s contemplation of unification with Egypt, posed the threat of civil war in the Sudan in the spring of 1954.↩
- Um Nyobé, the leader of the RDA affiliate in the Cameroons, had not followed Houphouët-Boigny’s lead in breaking with the Communists.↩