International records / Foreign Relations of the United States

Draft Memorandum Prepared in the Office of Dependent Area Affairs and in the Office of United Nations Political and Security Affairs

granting freedom of choice to their colonial peoples at a stage early enough to be psychologically advantageous. The British have very nearly learned this lesson and have practiced it successfully in India and more recently in the Gold Coast and in Nigeria. For documentation on British West Africa, see volume xi . It is the French and Belgians who do not wish at any moment to recognize a point where their colonial tributaries might choose to break away from the metropole. It is this mistaken position which is causing the difficulty. “Premature independence” obviously is as bad as over-due auto…