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South African Historical Journal Volume 31, 1994 - Issue 1
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ARTICLES/ARTIKELS

Britain and South Africa at the United Nations: ‘South West Africa’, ‘Treatment of Indians’ and ‘Race Conflict’, 1946–1961

PETER J. HENSHAW University of Cape Town,
Pages 80-102 | Published online: 14 Jan 2009

  • Hunke , H. 1980 . Namibia: The Strength of the Powerless 17 Rome According to Andrew Young, American ambassador to the United Nations during the Carter administration, '[t]here was always a desire on the part of Britain to avoid any confrontation with South Africa because of economic connections': quoted in For further expressions of theview that economic, or economic and strategic, considerations were decisive, see G.R. Benidge, Economic Power in Anglo-South Africa Diplomacy: Simonstown, Sharpville and After (London, 1981);J. Mayall, 'The South Africa Crisis: The Major External Actors', in S. Johnson, ed., South Africa: No Turning Back (London, 1988), 304;H. Bull, ‘Implications for the West’, in R. Rotberg and J. Barratt, eds, Conflict and Compromise in South Africa (Cape Town, 1980), 175–7
  • 1946–61 . Yearbook of the United Nations Official Records of the General Assembly (hereafter GAOR) 1946–61
  • Hyam , R. , ed. 1992 . British Documents on the End of Empire Project (hereafter BDEEP), The Labour Government and the End of Empire, 1945–1951 4 parts (London,;R. Hyam, ‘Africa and the Labour Government’, Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History 16, 3 (1988), 148–72;J. Barber and J. Barratt, South Africa's Foreigi Policy: The Search for Status and Security, 1945–88 (Cambridge, 1990), 13–62
  • Barber , J. 1973 . South Africa's Foreign Policy, 1945–1970 24 – 32 . Oxford W.K. Hancock, Smuts, vol. II, The Fields of Force, 1919–1950 (Cambridge, 1968), 467–71
  • Pienaar , S. 1987 . South Africa and International Relations between the Two World Wars: The League of Nations Dimension 111 – 56 . Johannesburg
  • Pretoria . SP, A1/163, G. Heaton Nicholls to J. Smuts, 15 Dec. 1945. Transvaal Archive, Smuts Papers (hereafter SP), A1/91, minutes of Commonwealth prime ministers meeting, BCM(45) 12
  • London, Public Record Office (hereafter PRO), Dominions Office (later Commonwealth Relations Office) Papers, DO 35/1934, note by F.E. Cumming-Bruce, 16 Apr. 1946
  • Cabinet minutes, CAB 128/5, CM 37(46)3, 24 Apr. 1946.PRO, Cabinet memoranda, CAB 129/9, CP(46)157, 15 Apr. 1946 and CP(46) 158, 16 Apr. 1946
  • Hyam, BDEEP: Labour Government, doc. 412.CAB 128/5, CM 45(46)8, 13 May 1946
  • R. Hyam, The Political Consequences of Seretse Khama: Britain, the Bangwato and South Africa, 1948–1952', Historical Journal 29, 4 (1986), 921–47;DO 35/1935, note dictated by D.D. Forsyth, 24 May 1946 and note by Lord Addison, 28 May 1946;M. Crowder, ‘Tshekedi Khama, Smuts, and South West Africa’, Journal of Modern African Studies 25, 1 (1987), 25–42
  • CAB 129A3, CP(46)371, 8 Oct. 1946;SP, A1/166, J. Smuts to G. Heaton Nicholls, 7 Oct. 1946;CAB 128/6, CM 85(46)5, 10 Oct. 1946;Hyam, BDEEP: Labour Government, doc 413
  • CAB 128/6, CM 88(46), 18 Oct. 1946.For the doubts of officials see DO 35/1214/WR213/9A6, A.G. Poynton to C.W. Dixon, 18 Sep. 1946
  • Pachai , B. 1971 . The International Aspects of the South African Indian Question, 1860–1971 Cape Town L. Lloyd, ‘“A Family Quarrer: The Development of the Dispute over Indians in South Africa’, Historical Journal 34, 3 (1991), 703–25
  • DO 35/1293, note by H.N. Tail, 10 Oct. 1948
  • Mansergh , N. , eds. 1979 . Transfer of Power in India 859 eds, vol. VIII (London
  • CAB 128/6, CM91(46), 25 Oct. 1946.CAB 129/13, CP(46)394, 21 Oct. 1946 and CP(46)397, 23 Oct. 1946
  • Lloyd , L. 1990 . ‘“A Most Auspicious Beginning”: The 1946 General Assembly and the Question of the Treatment of Indians in South Africa’ . Review of International Studies , 16 ( 2 ) : 131 – 53 . DO 35/1214 and DO 35/1295
  • PRO, Colonial Office Papers, CO 537/2073.SP, Al/165, G. Heaton Nicholls to D.D. Forsyth, Aug. 1946
  • Henshaw , P. 1989 . ‘South Africa's External Relations with Britain and the Commonwealth, 1945–1956’ 17 – 32 . Cambridge University . (PhD thesis
  • Mansergh . Transfer of Power in India XII, 253
  • 12 Nov. 1948 . 12 Nov. , PRO, Treasury Papers, T 236/2271, H. McNeil to E. Bevin, 24 Sep. 1948.CO 537/3478, note by P. Gordon Walker
  • CO 537/4596, note of meeting on 3 Mar. 1949
  • DO 35/3811, note by R.C. Ormercd, 3 May 1949
  • Hyam . ‘Africa and the Labour Government’ 165 – 7 . Intervention meant, in effect, that British legal experts would help South Africa present the case against compulsory UN Trusteeship for South-West Africa
  • Galsworthy , A. N. 19 Dec 1949 . 19 Dec , notes by J. Dugdale, 10 and 15 Mar. 1950;CO 537/5708, note by;FO 371/88560, note by H. McNeil, 3 Jan. 1950;Hyam, ‘Political Consequences of Seretse Khama’, 921–47
  • CAB 128/17, CM 28(50)3, 4 May 1950;CAB 129/39, CP(50)88;Hyam, BDEEP: Labour Government, doc. 427
  • CAB 128/18, CM 62(50)4, 28 Sep. 1950;CAB 129/42, CP(50)214;Hyam, BDEEP: Labour Government, doc. 431;R. Ovendale, “The South African Policy of the British Labour Government, 1947–51', International Affairs, 59 (1983), 41–58
  • 1950 . UN Yearbook 807–22;GAOR, 5th sess., 322nd plenaiy meeting, 629 and 631;CAB 129/45, CP(51)109, 16 Apr. 1951;Hyam, BDEEP: Labour Government, doc. 433
  • Henshaw . ‘South Africa's External Relations' 193 – 218 . 269–79
  • CAB 128/25, CC 75(52)7,26 Sep. 1952;At a separate meeting cabinet agreed that the British delegation should threaten to withdraw, and if necessary actually withdraw, from any UN proceedings that threatened to establish the principle that colonial powers were accountable to the General Assembly. CAB 129/55, C(52)323,24 Sep. 1952;D. Goldsworthy, ‘Britain and the International Critics of British Colonialism, 1951–56’, Journal of Commonwealth and Comparative Politics 29, 1 (1991), 1–24
  • CAB 128/25, CC 81(52)7, 26 Sep. 1952
  • 1952–59 . UN Yearbook GAOR, 1952–59
  • Canada . 1959 . Canada and the United Nations 32 – 32 . Ottawa DO 35/10724, T.W. Keeble to H.G.M. Bass, 19 Dec. 1958
  • 1952–59 . UN Yearbook A settlement at this time did not necessarily depend on South Africa's placing South West-Africa under UN Trusteeship. An agreement might have been struck whereby Britain, France and the United States would act as a surrogate for the Permanent Mandates Commission of the League of Nations. The chief problem was South Africa's refusal to concede that this surrogate must report to the UN.;GAOR, 1952–59
  • 1955 . UN Yearbook 70–1;1956, 143;1957, 99–104 and 307–14;Canada, Department of External Affairs, file 5600–40–8;DO35/5058, Sir G. Laithwaite to Lord Fairfax, 19 Oct. 1955;P. Henshaw, ‘The Transfer of Simonstown;Afrikaner Nationalism, South African Strategic Dependence, and British Global Power’, Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History 20, 3 (1992), 419–44;P. Henshaw, ‘Britain, South Africa and the Sterling Area: Gold Production, Capital Investment, and Agricultural Markets, 1931–61’, Historical Journal 3, 2 (1995, forthcoming)
  • Britain . House of Commons Debates vol 582, 382;vol. 594, 610–11;vol. 594, 70;vol. 595, 839–42, 1130 and 30, 39;vol. 596, 334–7;vol. 613, 389 and 1131–2;vol. 614, 90;vol. 615, 6. For the debate on 24 Nov. 1958, see vol. 595, 181–90. For the debate on 7 Dec. 1959 see vol. 615, 107–78. See also D. Geldenhuys, “The Effects of South Africa's Racial Policies on Anglo-South African Relations, 1945–61' (PhD thesis, Cambridge University, 1977), 350, 433 and 470
  • DO 35/10621, L.E.T. Storar to W.A.W. Clark, 2 Apr. 1959;DO 35/10725, H.G.M. Bass to L.E.T. Storar, 4 Nov. 1958;LonJ Home to Sir G. Laithwaite, 13 Aug. 1959;W.A.W. Clark to Sir A. Clutterbuck, 11 Dec 1959;note by Lord Home on draft cabinet paper, undated [11 Dec 1959]
  • Macmillan , H. 1972 . Pointing the Way, 1959–61 116 – 77 . London
  • S. Lloyd to Macmillan, 2 Jan. 1960;DO 35/10621, Lord Home to H. Macmillan, 17 Dec. 1959;I. Macleod to Macmillan, 5 Jan. 1960
  • DO 35/10728, R.W.D. Fowler to R.H. Belcher, 2 Mar. 1960. PRO, Treasury Papers, T 236/4873, H. Macmillan's marginal comment dated 21 Feb. on D. Heathcoat Amory's note of 17 Feb. 1960
  • M.H. Parsons to Sir D. Rickett, 7 Jan. 1960;T 236/4873, note by A.W. Taylor, 5 Jan. 1960;A.W. Taylor to F. Lee, 8 Jan. 1960;D. Heathcoat Amory to H. Macmillan, 17 Feb. 1960
  • DO 35/10730, WAW. Clark to G.E.B. Shannon, 24 Mar. 1960
  • Lord Home to S. Lloyd, 25 Mar. 1960.DO 35/10730, Sir J. Maud to CRO, 27 Mar. 1960
  • PRO, Prime Minister's Papers, PREM 11/3109, S. Lloyd to H. Macmillan, 25 Mar. 1960
  • note of H. Macmillan's telephone conversation with T. Bligh, 26 Mar. 1960.PREM 11/3109, H. Macmillan to S. Lloyd, 25 Mar. 1960
  • PREM 11/3109, RA Butler to H. Macmillan, 28 Mar. 1960
  • CAB 128/34, CC21(60)3, 29 Mar. 1960 and CC22(60)3, 1 Apr. 1960
  • Tahounlin , J. G. 1960 . “ 6 Apr. 1961. ” . In UN Yearbook 147 – 53 . CO 936/602, note by
  • CAB 134/2493–2496, ‘Committee on Future Relations with South Africa’, 1961–62. PREM 11/3994, D. Sandys to H. Macmillan, 19 May 1961
  • 1961 . UN Yearbook 108 – 17 . pp. and 455–69. The British decision in July 1961 to block the visit to Bechuanaland of the UN Committee on South-West Africa was based above all on the fear that a clash between the Committee and South African authorities on the South-West Africa/Bechuanaland border might provoke a crisis over British authority in the Territories: CAB 128/35, CC 39(60)8, 6 July 1960
  • UN Yearbook 1961 – 90 . CAB 128/34, CC 34(60)3, 2 June 1960

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