U.N. Presence In S.W. Africa Urged

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29985, 21 November 1962, Page 6

U.N. Presence In S.W. Africa Urged

(N .Z.PA.•Reuter—Copyright)

NEW YORK, November 20.

The United Nations General Assembly’s Trusteeship Committee has overwhelmingly adopted a draft resolution calling for United Nations officials to go to South-west Africa.

The resolution was adopted by 96 votes to nil, with one abstention (Portugal), and South Africa did not take part in the vote. Thirteen delegations were absent. Britain voted for the resolution “with reservations” and described it as a constructive effort to move forward. The resolution would have the Assembly request the Secretary-General (U Thant) to take all necessary steps in order to establish an effective United Nations presence in South-West Africa. The Assembly is also asked to reaffirm “the inalienable” right of the people of SouthWest Africa to independence and national sovereignty, and to condemn South Africa tor ! its continued refusal to heed j Assembly resolutions on the territory. The resolution, 00-spon- • sored by 45 Afro-Asian and ' Caribbean States, was adopted latter a three-week examination of the situation in the j territory, which is administered by South Africa under Ithe terms of a League of i Nations mandate granted in 1921. It called the aiutataon in South-West Africa a serious threat to international [peace. The United States sought by an. amendment to state i that the situation might lead to such a threat, rather than I constituting one now. This amendment was defeated by 57 votes to 24, with 14 abs|tentwnis. The South African delegate, Mr Brand Fourie, said his delegation was not tak,mg part in the vote, in support orf its view that the

question of South - West Africa was sub judice while the mandate was being considered by the International Court of Justice, at the request of Liberia and Ethiopia. He asked whether the committee, by referring to the situation as a threat to world peace, was repudiating the conclusions of the chairman and vice-chairman of the special committee on South-West Africa—Mr Victorio Carpio, of the Philippines, '.nd Mr Salvador Martinez he Alva, of Mexico—in a communique issued in Pretoria last May, after their visit to the territory. This controversial communique. issued in the names of the two delegates and of the South African Government, denied previous Assembly assertions that the situation in the territory constituted a threat to international peace. The chairman has since denied co-authorship of the document, which has also been disclaimed by the South-West Africa Committee. The resolution adopted today would atoo have the Assembly urge South Africa to refrain from “forcible removal” of the indigenous people of South-West Africa from their homes, and from using the territory as a base tor armed forces. Tourist Publicity.—Miss New Zealand (Miss Maureen Kingi) arrived in Melbourne today to spend two days in Melbourne trying to attract more tourists to New Zealand. —Melbourne, November 19.