PROGRESS REPORTED

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIX, Issue 122, 25 May 1945, Page 5

PROGRESS REPORTED

TRUSTEESHIP ISSUE (Official News Service.) SAN FRANCISCO, May 23. Considerable progress is understood to have been made in the past few days in reaching an agreement among the Big Five in respect to the principles, objectives, and machinery of trusteeship for dependent peoples. Discussions have continued on the Chinese proposal that the words 'independence for all colonial peoples should be substituted for the ■ reference to the development of self-gov-ernment in the section dealing with general principles. The major political Powers have contended that a declaration of this type would be inappropriate in all cases. ,«...> Commander Stassen (United States) is said to have informed the committee yesterday that negotiations on the question of inserting the word "independence" in the proposed charter are still proceeding and that he hoped to report to the next meeting. It is 'understood that a compromise has, in fact, been submitted for their accepttance to the Governments of the major Powers, the gist of which is that the charter would list as the aim of the new organisation the fostering of development towards self-government and of independence in forms appropriate to the varying circumstances of each territory. , , ~ . ~ It is thought probable that the public reaction, as reflected in the American Press criticism of the United States delegation's initial attitude towards the Chinese proposal, has been an important factor in bringing about what is hoped will prove a generally acceptable basis for compromise.