320/10–3152
Memorandum by the Special Assistant and Planning Adviser, Bureau of United Nations Affairs (Sanders) to the Secretary of State
Subject:
- Treatment of Indians in South Africa1
The memorandum which follows is sent to you at the suggestion of Ambassador Jessup.
Attached, as Tab A to this memorandum, is the draft resolution which the Indians apparently will sponsor in the Ad Hoc Political Committee on the question of the Treatment of Indians in South Africa.2
The draft resolution which India proposes this year is largely similar to the resolution which the General Assembly adopted on this question a year ago. Last year’s resolution is attached as Tab B.3
There are two types of differences between last year’s Assembly resolution and the one which India proposes this year:
- (a)
- The Indian proposal this year has a milder preamble, and
- (b)
- The Indian proposal this year provides for a United Nations Good Offices Commission in place of a commission consisting of a member nominated by South Africa, a member nominated by India and Pakistan, and a neutral member.
At the Sixth Session of the General Assembly, the resolution shown as Tab B was adopted by a vote of 44 to 0, with 14 abstentions. During the voting in Committee on individual paragraphs, the United States abstained on the two preambular and operative paragraphs relating to the Group Areas Act and voted against the provision for inclusion of the item in the agenda of the next Assembly session. In the voting on [Page 968] these three paragraphs, the United States was in a small minority. The United States voted for the resolution as a whole.
The Department position paper on this item calls for a United States Delegation vote in favor of a resolution along the lines of the resolutions adopted by the General Assembly in 1949, 1950 and in January of 1952.
At a meeting this morning of Ambassador Jessup, Ambassador Cohen, and Mr. Sprague, the following points were agreed upon as a recommendation as to how the United States Delegation would deal with the proposed Indian resolution:
- (1)
- The United States should support and vote for the resolution as a whole.
- (2)
- The United States should urge the Indian Delegation to omit from their resolution the paragraph calling on South Africa to suspend the implementation of the Group Areas Act, and should urge the Indians also to omit from their resolution the provisions looking toward automatic inscription of this item on the Assembly’s agenda next year.
- (3)
- If the Indian Delegation does not make changes in the resolution along the above lines, the United States should, at an appropriate time in the Committee, indicate its view that these provisions of the resolution should be altered, but the United States Delegation should not itself propose amendments.
- (4)
- If the paragraphs of the resolution in question are voted on separately, the United States Delegate should abstain on the paragraph calling upon South Africa to suspend the implementation of the Group Areas Act, and he should have discretion either to abstain or vote against the final paragraph of the resolution (providing for the inclusion of this item in the agenda of the Assembly’s next session).
- Pursuant to Resolution 511 (VI), adopted by the General Assembly on Jan. 12, 1952, the question of the treatment of people of Indian origin in the Union of South Africa was placed on the provisional agenda of the General Assembly’s Seventh Session. Following consideration by the General Committee on Oct. 15 and 16, the General Assembly rejected a formal proposal by the Union of South Africa to exclude the item from the agenda and referred the matter to the Ad Hoc Political Committee, which considered the item from Nov. 3–11, 1953.↩
- Not printed. The text of the Indian draft resolution is contained in telegram Delga 77 from New York, Oct. 29, 1952. (320/10–3152) This text was handed to members of the U.S. Delegation by the Head of the Indian Delegation, Mme. Vijaya Pandit.↩
- Tab B is the text of General Assembly Resolution 511 (VI), Jan. 12, 1952. (UN document A/L.27)↩