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accordance with the Charter, and that the substituted text was not properly before either the Legal or the Trusteeship Committee. The New Zealand delegate (Mr G. R. Laking) stated that the general -object of the Philippine proposal —namely, to foster the development of non-self-governing peoples —was one with which New Zealand had every sympathy; and the value of regional commissions as one means of attaining this objective was recognized. The New Zealand Government had associated themselves with the Government of Australia in the calling of a Conference to establish just such a commission in the South Pacific. He drew attention to a certain confusion which appeared to exist in the minds of delegates as to the exact nature and purpose of these commissions, pointing out that, although they should serve a very useful purpose in promoting the development of non-self-governing peoples by enabling them through their constitutional bodies to associate together, the Commissions were not directly concerned with political matters, but rather with social, economic, and educational development. He said that New Zealand proposed to vote in favour of the substituted Philippine proposal, which was eventually adopted by the sub-committee by a vote of 9 for, 3 against, with 6 abstentions. For the third time the full Committee rejected a recommendation of the sub-committee. On the motion of a text introduced by the Soviet delegation, and by a vote of 16 to 12 (New Zealand voting with the minority), the Committee deleted a proposed reference to the good work done by the Caribbean Commission on the ground that the Commission was " not known " to the United Nations, and inserted a new paragraph recommending that the Economic and Social Council " together with the administering authorities " should organize the convening of a Regional Conference of representatives of such territories. Though the reference was to territories as such there was no doubt that a number of delegates were ignorant of the very considerable extent of legislative representation which already exists constitutionally in almost all of these territories, and that they hoped for conferences of individual people from the territories. In view of the plain inference that a constitutional Government should surrender some degree of control of its own affairs, the New Zealand delegation found it necessary to vote against the amended proposal. The representatives of the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Belgium, France, Denmark, and the Netherlands (all of whom had voted against the proposal) made declarations following the vote that no resolution can be accepted as affecting the sovereign rights of the administering States. The report of the Fourth Committee on this subject provoked a long debate in the General Assembly. On the one side there were strong pleas by the delegates of India, the Philippines, and others that the fundamental rights of non-self-governing peoples, including their right to express their desires and aspirations on political matters, should be given full recognition. On the other hand, the administering States, all of which subscribed whole-heartedly to this principle, nevertheless saw in
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