§ 29. Mr. Peter Freemanasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he is aware that the Somali Youth League, which represents Somalis in the British Somaliland Protectorate, Somaliland under Italian trusteeship, and Somalis living in Britain and other countries abroad, has appealed to the United Nations asking that Italian trusteeship in Somaliland be terminated forthwith, and Ethiopian trusteeship substituted and that, if this should prove impossible, they would prefer joint Ethiopian and British trusteeship; and whether it is his intention to support such application.
§ Mr. BevinAn appeal of this nature was contained in a letter of 3rd October, 1950, from the President of the Somali Youth League in Great Britain to the Secretary-General of the United Nations. However, the representative in New York of the Somali Youth League whose credentials were accepted by the United Nations Secretariat, and who has been allowed to participate in discussion of the Somaliland question in the Trusteeship Committee of the United Nations, did not request the replacement of Italian by Ethiopian or any other trusteeship nor even refer to this possibility. On the contrary, he and a representative of a similar Somali organisation formally dissociated themselves from the letter of the President of the Somali Youth League in Great Britain. His Majesty's Government have no intention of supporting any such application.