§ 97. Mr. Emrys Hughesasked the Under-Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations why our representatives on the United Nations Trusteeship Committee at the United Nations voted against the resolution proposing that representatives of the natives of South-West Africa should be allowed to state their case to the United Nations.
§ Mr. Lennox-BoydI have been asked to reply.
The United Kingdom Representative's vote is explained by the speech which he made to the Committee at the time. I shall be glad to send a copy of the full speech to the hon. Member. Briefly the position is that the only petitions provided for in the United Nations Charter are those relating to Trust Territories, and South-West Africa is not a Trust Territory. Furthermore, to give an oral hearing to the Herero chiefs would appear to involve a departure from the opinion of the International Court of Justice.
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Period Local Authorities (all assisted) Private Enterprise Remarks Assisted Unassisted 1.1.1919–31.3.1920 … 576 139 30,000 (estimated) The local authority houses were built to let. The numbers of private enterprise houses built for sale and to let respectively are not known. The size of the local authority houses was in general less than 1,000 sq. ft. Information is not available as to the size of private enterprise houses. 1.4.1920–30.9.1920 … 2,926 2,486 1.10.1920–30.9.1921 … 47,651 20,294 1.10.1921–30.9.1922 … 85,976 20,189 1.10.1922–30.9.1923 … 25,241 748 52,749 1.10.1923–30.9.1924 … 14,544 21,915 73,032 1.4.1945–31.12.1945 … 366 — 901 All the local authority houses were built to let. About 10 per cent, of the private enterprise houses were built to let, the remainder being for sale. The private enterprise figures include about 2,000 agricultural houses erected with Exchequer subsidy; the remainder were unassisted. The areas of local authority houses range generally from 550 to 1,150 sq. ft. according to bedroom types. The areas of the private enterprise houses are not known but were subject to a general maximum of 1,500 sq. ft. Year 1946 … 18,729 — 26,780 Year 1947 … 84,475 — 30,202 Year 1948 … 170,788 — 18,882 Year 1949 … 142,415 — 19,275 Year 1950 … 140,678 — 24,108 1.1.1951–31.3.1951 … 32,955 — 3,906 which had advised that petitions relating to South-West Africa should be examined by a procedure as close as possible to that of the Permanent Mandates Commission of the League of Nations. Under this procedure petitions from the inhabitants of the territory were transmitted through the Mandatory Power and no provision was made for oral hearings. In the view of the United Kingdom Government the Committee's proposed action will not assist towards a satisfactory solution of the problem of the future of South-West Africa.