UN General Assembly
1950

8. Finally, there is another inconsistency, which does not derive from the letter of the Charter but from the facts. I refer to Chapter XII, concerning the International Trusteeship System, whose purpose is to promote peace and to ensure the economic, political and social advancement of the Trust Territories by the grant of all the freedoms, rights and guarantees likely to lead to their independence. The Latin-American countries, which have developed from the status of colonies to that of free States, are following with keen interest the progress of those territories towards liberation, but we must be careful not to fall into the trap which almost always exists when an attempt is made to speed up the process of emancipation without a careful analysis of the circumstances which qualify a territory for self-government but with political ends in view, the aim being that these populations, dazzled by freedom and an easy prey to communism, should fall under a totalitarian regime which would lead them into a form of slavery much more degrading than trusteeship, which is merely a passing phase in their progress toward independence. This is a situation in which we have to move with prudence and caution.