Cablegram 215 CANBERRA, 10 September 1946
Your Trusteeship 3. [1] Please convey following reply from Minister of External Affairs to Secretary-General of UNO.
Begins: ‘I refer to your letters of 29th June concerning Chapters XI, XII, and XIII of the Charter. There is little need to stress the importance attached by the Australian Government to an early and full implementation of the provisions of those chapters.
We would agree that the information supplied on non-self-governing territories should cover economic, social and educational developments over the past year and that in the early stages at least comparative figures drawn from the previous two or three years’ developments in social, economic and educational matters should be made available to permit appreciation of trends.
Australia accepts in regard to Papua the obligations of Chapter XI. So far as Papua is concerned it will not be possible to supply statistical information for the period 1942-45 during which time you will recall the Territory was a major war theatre in the Pacific. A published report for 1940-41 can be supplied and it is expected that it will be possible to furnish a general statement on the period of Military Control 1942-45 and in respect of the period from resumption of civil control on 30th October 1945 to 30th June 1946.
Finally, you raise in a separate letter the question of the submission of a trusteeship agreement. The Australian Government has prepared an agreement for the Mandated Territory of New Guinea the terms of which have been published and are now being discussed with the Government[s] of New Zealand, United Kingdom, United States and France with a view to submission to the General Assembly.
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1 Dispatched by Australia. Delegation, New York, on 22 August, it repeated the earlier request of the U.N. Secretary-General for information on how Australia proposed to meet its obligations regarding non-self-governing territories, and on the progress of trusteeship arrangements. See Document 17.
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[AA:A3196, 1946, 0.17593/4]