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(3) Single Power, Multiple, or United Nations Trusteeship. —A basic point of agreement among the Arab, Asian,, and Eastern European States was their rejection of a single Power trusteeship for any of the colonies on the ground that such a solution was intended to satisfy imperialist ambitions and would be a source of future discord. Trusteeship under such conditions, one delegate observed, was a mere fig-leaf. No enthusiasm was shown for suggestions that trusteeship be granted to a group of Powers, but considerable support was accorded by many delegations to the solution now proposed by the Soviet Union —the institution of a system of trusteeship in which the United Nations itself would be the administering authority. Under such a system, it was contended, the interests and welfare of the inhabitants would automatically be safeguarded and the principles of the Charter would be upheld. The fact that there was no precedent for this was not regarded as a decisive objection, for the work of the United Nations Secretariat indicated that an international colonial service could be formed and could function effectively. Undoubtedly the system would involve additional expense for the United Nations, but if the result of this outlay was international security the price would in reality be small. Critics of the proposal considered that administrative difficulties and the very great financial burden entailed were decisive objections. They contended also that the Trusteeship Council as at present constituted was not fitted to perform such a function and warned that certain elements, while ostensibly serving the purposes of international administration, would in reality take advantage of their presence in the territories in order to advance their ideological opinions. (4) The Partition of Eritrea.—Almost all delegates recognized the justice of the Ethiopian claim to an outlet through Eritrea to the Red Sea, but opinions were sharply divided as to whether Ethiopia should receive any territory additional to that containing the port of Assab. On the one hand it was contended that Eritrea was a completely artificial entity which satisfied none of the requirements of racial, economic, or political unity and that the opportunity should be taken of rationalizing existing boundaries so as to combine various parts of Eritrea with the neighbouring territories to which they were naturally linked. Under such a provision Ethiopia would receive the territory suggested for transfer by the United States and the United Kingdom delegations, while the Western Province might go to the Sudan, with which it was geographically, and to a large extent ethnically, related. On the other hand it was asserted that the United Nations should not be a party to a crude division and parcelling out of territories. Doubts were expressed concerning Ethiopia's fitness to govern those areas and the propriety of transferring outright to Ethiopia Eritrean