POWERS' DUTY TO DEPENDENT PEOPLES

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 147, 23 June 1945, Page 6

POWERS' DUTY TO DEPENDENT PEOPLES

CRAMORM'S SPEECH

Undo Conference Greatly Impressed British Official Wireless Rec 2.30 p.m RUGBY, June -22. The most remarkable achievement of the United Nations Conference, is how Lord Cranborne, Secretary of State for the Dominions, at Wednesday's session of the San Francisco Conference described the agreement on trusteeships. He said that the first part of the chapter consisted of a general declaration of policy towards territories, and the second part with that limited catelorj of territories which came under a system of international trusteeship. Dealing with the general principles of Colonial policy, incorporated in the first part, Lord Cranborne sad the United Kingdom could fairly claim a share of credit. The United Kingdom had long experience of colonial government, and from that experience and that of the other colonial Powers there .had been gradually evolved certain general principles of colonial government. Britain believed, he said, that the time had come when these general principles ought to be confined ma general declaration for the guidance of herself and other colonial Powers, and for the information of the world. The principles were inevitably of a very general character, because each dependent territory must be administered differently on account of varying traditions of culture and the capacity of the people.

Train People in Government One general principle, he declared, could be laid down which applied to all dependent territories. In every area, whether backward or advanced, there must be a duty on a colonial Power to train and educate the people to govern themselves, and that, as he saw it, was the mam purpose of colonial government. It naa been for many years, and he hoped it always would continue to be the purpose of His Majesty's Government. It was a purpose which must be unswervingly pursued.

Of General Romulo's address to the commission, in talking of freedom as the goal of all dependent peoples, Lord Cranborne said they were all in favour of freedom, but freedom for many of the territories affected meant assistance, guidance and protection. Many were small, poor and defenceless, and many were extremely backward. Were we to take away a helping hand such territories would rapidly lose what they had gained. What we could give theniVere liberty and free institutions. We could gradually train them in the management of their own affairs,' so that when independence ultimately came they would be ready for 1 it.

.. ."What Do Colonies Want? ■The Chaptef dealing with non-eelf-governing peoples, he saidy was not a self-contained instrument. It was part of the charter, with one overriding ajni—to eliminate the frightful* scourge of war, which had caused-untold misery twice in a generation.

"What do the peoples of these colonial. territories want?" asked Irfjrd Cranborrie in conclusion. "They want liberty. Let us give them liberty. They want justice. Let us give them justice. They want all that we comprehend in the term of free institutions. Let us give them that Let us train them and educate them and give them the benefit of our resources and our experience. Let us help them to climb the rungs of the ladder of self-government. That is the purpose of this chapter, so that ultimately,, dependent or independent, they may play their full part in a peaceful, prosperous and independent world." ~ j •■■■ ,