International Support-United Nations Organisation support from persons and organisations
International Support
United Nations Organisation support from persons and organisations
Explanatory Note
In the 1940s, South Africa accepted the right of India to intervene on behalf of Indian South Africans. This was in pursuit of the broad agreements reached between the two countries at the 1928 Round Table Conference.
South Africa was comfortable with the British Indian government headed by the Viceroy. When, however. South Africa announced in early 1946 her intention to legislate the segregation of Indians, India called for a Round Table Conference and when this was refused, recalled the Indian High Commissioner, imposed economic sanctions and invoked the reciprocity Act in terms of which South African whites visiting India were discriminated against as were Indians in South Africa. In June 1946 India tabled the issue of discriminatory treatment of Indians in South Africa on the agenda of the first session of the General Assembly of the UN, thereby bringing the issue of race discrimination on the international forum.
By the time the deliberations began, India had Interim Government, with Jawaharlal Nehru as the Vice-President. The Indian delegation to the UNO was led by Mrs. Vijayalakshmi Pandit; the South African delegation by Field Marshal General Smuts, a highly respected leader of the Allied Forces, a co-founder of the League of Nations, and the author of the preamble to the Charter of the United Nations Organisation which had come into existence in 1945 at the instance of President Roosevelt of America, Winston Churchill of Britain and Marshal Stalin of the USSR.
The United Nations Organisation resolved that relations between India and South Africa had been impaired because of the treatment of Indians in South Africa, and called upon the two countries to adopt measures that would correct this problem, (Resolution 44(1) South Africa was required to conform to the agreements concluded between herself and India and to the relevant provisions of the United Nations Charter. Jawaharlal Nehru, representing the Interim Government of India, called on General Smuts to implement the UN Resolution and suggested a Round Table Conference. General Smuts declined the invitation because of his rejection of the UN resolution. He insisted on the return of the High Commissioner and on pursuing negotiations through that office.
The two countries thus reached a deadlock. In 1947, India and Pakistan achieved their independence and the two countries resolved to work cooperatively on the South African Indian issue. In November 1947, the two governments called for a Round Table Conference to implement Resolution 44(1). It failed to get a two-thirds majority at the UNO.
1948 saw a change of Government in South Africa as the National Party led by Dr Malan took over leadership. The Nationalists, as expected, took a harder line at the UNO on the Indian question, challenging its very legitimacy on the agenda, on the ground that it encroached on the domestic affairs of a member nation. They, at the same time, prevented both the members of the SAIC and the SAIO from going abroad as advisors to the Indo-Pakistan Governments by refusing them passports. They also rejected the Universal Declaration if Human Rights, deeming it as against their interests.
By 1949, the Indian resolution at the UN was extended to include the violation of human rights in general. The important development in that year was that South Africa agreed to a Round Table Conference and preparatory talks were held in 1950 between the delegations of three countries. However, the proposed conference was scuttled when South Africa passed the Group Areas Act despite pleas that it should be suspended and the talks is given a chance to work out problems. South Africa declined.
Pakistan, which had withdrawn her sanctions against South Africa to create a congenial climate for negotiations, reimposed them. South Africa eventually found the atmosphere at the UNO so hostile that she withdrew from it. In the words of Dr Eric Louw, a leader of the South African delegation, the £150 000 per annum membership fee was not worth the humiliation she suffered.
The first section of Part Five focuses on reports on the UNO debate; the second is a selective compilation of support from organisations and persons from other sectors of the international community.
