St. Paul recorder. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1945-05-18

phase, the question of the stat
question mark.
With the exception of the three
American Negro consultants to the
American delegation, DR.. W. E. B.
Dubois, Mrs. Mary Mcleod Be-
thune and Walter White, the peo-
pies basically concerned and who
will be vitality affected politically,
economically and socially - whose
very existence depends upon a
meaningful revision of the "Man-
date System not have a voice
inside the conference.
eve seek no ACKNOWLEDGMENT,
territorial or other"
That was opening statement of
the Atlantic Charter, and is the
basis of the discussion of Trustee
ships.
In the Atlantic Charter, by prom
Using not to add to their territories
and to heed the freely expressed
wishes of the people concerned"
the governments of Great Britain
and the United States repeated a
promise made in World War /.
At the end of the last war, the
victorious nations felt that they
could not violate that promise, but
on the other hand, they were not
disposed to hand colonies back to
the defeated nations.
The Mandate Concept
They got around the problem of
creating under the covenant of the
League of Nations, new concept
the concept of mandates" Instead
of being handed over to the vic
tors, in the immemorial tradition of
war, the Colonial lands of Germany
and the possessions of Turkey were
mandates" to the victors. A few,
like Syria, Iraq and Palestine were
scheduled for independence in the
not-too-distant future. (Syria and
Iraq got theirs after the fall of
France, the mandatory power.)
Lesser territories were put in
charge of, or inundated to" va
rious of the victors, including Brit
ain, France, South Africa, Aus
traia, New Zealand and Japan.
Those nations gradually included
the mandates in their Colonial sys-
TENS, except that they submitted
annual reports to the League of
Nations. Great Britain, long in
famous for her Colonial System, is
arguing vehemently for the con-
tinuation of the mandate system
which has given her complete power
over the natives of the areas under
her jurisdiction.
Everyone is making very certain
that no nation except the van
pushed will lose any colonies or
former mandates without it's per-
mission. And permission is con-
sidered unlikely. The French, for
example, will retain Indo-C China,
and the British Palestine.
The conflict cannot be completely
resolved here at San Francisco, be-
cause it has been declared by all
parties that no specific territories
will be discussed here. That is a
matter for the Peace Conference.
The hope here is to work out a
framework under which territories
involved in the Peace Conference
can be handled. Thus far the
United States, Britain, Australia
and France have developed such
proposals to be added to the World
Organization Charter. Russia and
China have been involved in the
discussions, but have thus far set
forth no official plan.
MOlOtOv Speaks
Molotov, speaking for the Soviet
delegation, stated at a press con-
ference Monday, May 1.-THE Sow
let delegation realizes that from
the viewpoint of the interests of
international security we must first
of all see to it that dependent coun-
tries are enabled as soon as pos
sible to take the path of national
independence. This should be pro-
NOTED by a special organization of
the United Nations which must act
with view to expediting the real
ization of the principles of equality
and self-determination of nations.
The Soviet delegation will take an
active part in the consideration of
this problem in its entirety"
American Proposals
Probably the most important sec
ton of the American suggestions
to the Colonials is the right to
petition the World Organization.
The U. S. proposals state that
the trusteeship commission should
have the right to send investigators
to non-strategic areas and that pc
titions regarding grievances may
be addressed to it. The British pro-
vide only for reports" by the
trustee powers. Neither proposal
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