67

3*—A 2

Soviet Union, which had said that it might not claim at all. The question was put twice to the Soviet delegation as to whether the Soviet Union claimed to be a " State directly concerned " in respect of any of the eight territories, but produced no direct reply. When considering the Rapporteur's report an this question several of the Arab delegations declared their claim to be regarded as " States directly concerned " in the event of promotion of a trusteeship agreement for any Arab country or for countries in which there were Arab inhabitants or communities which might be placed under trusteeship. Finally, the United States formula was approved by the sub-committee by 13 votes in favour, 3 against (Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia), with India abstaining, and the draft agreement for Western Samoa was formally approved by the sub-committee by a vote of 12 in favour, 3 against (Soviet Union, -Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia), with 2 • abstentions (India and Iraq). The other draft agreements were approved by similar votes, except that China abstained in respect of New Guinea. Full Committee When the draft agreements were reported back to the full Committee three proposals for modification that had already been rejected in sub-committee were revived and, on this occasion, received the support of the majority. None of these proposals was acceptable to the sponsoring Powers, however, and when that had been' made plain each of the draft agreements was put to the- vote and approved without these proposed amendments. The delegations responsible for the promotion of the trusteeship agreements explained in each case the reasons why these modifications would not be acceptable. In the case of Western Samoa, to which only two of the proposals applied, the representative of New Zealand pointed out that they were not, in fact, suited to conditions in the territory. The Samoan people, anxious for early self-government, would not receive favourably an agreement providing, for example, that the trusteeship agreement should remain in force for ten years. Indeed, as the sub-committee had already been informed, the reaction of the Samoans to the draft agreement was that they desired self-government immediately, and it would no doubt be one of the first duties of the Trusteeship Council, when established, to consider a petition from the Samoans to that effect. A proposal that the agreement require that the territory be surrendered free of financial encumbrance and with the sovereignty of the peoples intact could only be regarded as an imputation of bad faith on the part of New Zealand. When the agreements were put to the vote in the Committee several members took advantage of the opportunity then afforded to explain their votes. A number of them, regarded the agreements as not entirely satisfactory, but indicated that they would, nevertheless, vote to approve them in order that the Trusteeship Council might come into