§ 27. Mr. J. Johnsonasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs if he is aware that the British Somali Protectorate Advisory Council decided unanimously on 22nd October to ask the United Kingdom Government to support British Somalis in presenting their claim to the United Nations organisation for the return of the Reserved Area and Haud; and whether he will take action in this matter.
§ Mr. Dodds-ParkerThe United Nations Charter does not give representatives of British Somaliland any right to petition the United Nations, since the Somaliland Protectorate is neither a member of the United Nations nor a Trusteeship Territory.
Neither Ethiopia nor Her Majesty's Government question the validity of the 1897 Treaty, which recognised what is now the Reserved Area and the Haud as Ethiopian territory. Her Majesty's Government are therefore unable to support any attempt to contest the validity of this treaty in the United Nations.