Book Review: International Politics and Economics, Problems of the Trusteeship System
| Published date | 01 June 1965 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070206502000211 |
| Date | 01 June 1965 |
| Author | F. H. Soward |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
BOOK REVIEWS
249
The
author
indicates
that
West
Germany,
France,
and
China
have
inhibited
Soviet-American
moves
toward
agreement,
and
advises
a
policy
of
private
representations
to
the
United
States
for
those
Western
allies
that
might
like
to
see
more
rapid progress
in
the
negotiations.
In
this
connection
reference
is
made
to
the
Diefenbaker government
which
openly
urged
an
unacceptable
course
on
its
allies
in
the
nuclear
field,
and
achieved
"little
beyond
causing
embarrassment
to
Canadian
dele-
gates,
disarray
within
the North
Atlantic
Treaty
Organization
. . .
and
irritation
in
Washington."
Massachusetts
Institute
of
Technology
FRANKLYN
GRIFFITHS
PROBLEMS
OF
THE
TRUSTEESHIP
SYSTEM:
A
Study
of
Political
Behavior
in
the
United
Nations.
By
George
Thullen.
1964.
(Gen~ve:
Librairie
Droz.
217pp)
The
Trusteeship
Council
is
unique
among
U.N.
agencies
in
having
almost
worked
itself
out
of
a
job.
Of
the
original
eleven
trust
ter-
ritories
all
but
three,
New
Guinea
and
Nauru administered
by
Australia,
and
the
Pacific
islands
under
U.S.
administration
and designated
as
a
strategic area,
have
attained
the
prescribed
goals
of
self-government
or
independence.
In
this
compact
study
which
was
prepared under
the
auspices of
the
Graduate
Institute
of
International
Studies,
Mr.
Thullen
set
out
". . .
to
clarify
both
the
reasons
why
the
trusteeship
system
developed
as
it
did,
and
the
sources
of
its
successes
and failures."
The
author
has ranged
widely
for
his
sources,
as his
admirable
bibliography
indicates,
and
has
been
able to
consult
many
of
those
concerned.
Notable
among
these
were
the
late
Hans
Wieschoff of
the
U.N.
Secre-
tariat
and
Mr.
Max
Dorsinville
of
Haiti
who
had
served
as
a
U.N.
Commissioner
to
supervise
the
election
in
French
Togoland
in
1958,
and
had
a
long experience
in
both
the
Trusteeship
Council
and the
Fourth
Committee
of
the
General
Assembly.
It
is
unfortunate
that
the
author
could
not have carried
his
account
beyond
1960,
but
the
student interested
in
this
area
of
international
relations
can
well
be
grateful
for
the
clarity
and
fairness
of
this
monograph.
The
author
made
a
three-part analysis
of
the
question.
In
the
first
section
he
gave
a
historical analysis
of
how
the
Trusteeship
system
came
into
being.
The
second
is
a
study
of
some of
the
major
issues over
which
the
General
Assembly
and
the
Trusteeship
Council
argued.
At
times considerable
heat
was engendered
which
was
partly
due
to
the
quite
unforseen
emergence
of
so
many
new
states
since
1945
that
were
strongly
anti-colonial
in
their
outlook.
Their
feelings
were
exploited
by
the
Soviet
delegation
which,
as
Mr.
Thullen
says
in
describing
one episode,
"played
a
major
role in poisoning
the
atmos-
phere
with
tendencious
and
highly emotional
phraseology."
Part
Three
presents
a
case
study
of
U.N.
supervision
of
the
British
and
French
Trust
Territories
of
Togoland,
where
some
tricky
problems
were
presented
and
successfully
overcome.
Mr.
Thullen
is
to
be
congratulated
upon his
performance.
University
of
British
Columbia
F. H.
SOWARD
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