§ 48. Mr. R. Edwardsasked the Lord Privy Seal how Her Majesty's Government voted at the United Nations General Assembly on 14th December, 1960, on the resolution calling for United Nations supervision of the referendum in Algeria.
§ Mr. HeathThis resolution, the text of which is in United Nations document No. A/C.1/L.265 of 9th December, was put to the vote in the First Committee on the 15th of December. The United Kingdom delegation voted against it.
§ Mr. EdwardsWill not the Minister agree that, after seven years of bitter war in Algeria, a peaceful solution should be sought through the United 873 Nations? Will he not agree that the resolution against which we voted was in complete conformity with Article 17 of the Charter, to which this Government have subscribed? Has his attention been drawn to a statement by the Acting-Secretary of State in the new Administration in America, in reply to American trade unions, in which he states that the solution of the Algerian problem can be achieved only by self-determination? In the light of these facts, how do we justify voting against such a resolution?
§ Mr. HeathWe have devoted all our efforts to trying to find a reasonable and peaceful solution, and we shall continue to do so. It is the acknowledged effort of General de Gaulle to achieve a solution through self-determination, but we were quite certain that this resolution, which would impose a referendum on Algeria against the wishes of the French Government and which the United Nations had no power to impose, was certainly not the best way of getting it.