New Zealand's attitude to United Nations supervision of colonial territories

Abstract

In the twentieth century attitudes to colonialism have changed radically. Both international organizations of this century, the League of Nations and the United Nations, have concerned themselves with colonial matters but in markedly different ways. The League was mainly concerned with improving standards of colonial administration, while the United Nations is concerned with ending colonialism. While the League tended to support the position of the colonial powers, the United Nations has vigorously attacked it. It was under this attack that the most radical changes in attitude to colonialism have taken place. It is the aim of this study to trace how the New Zealand Government reacted and accommodated itself to this attack. Because the United Nations has been the main forum for international debate on colonial issues and because most countries have explained and defended their attitude to colonialism in this international organization, the most complete public record available of New Zealand's attitude to colonial questions is from the documents of the United Nations. The first chapter of this study traces the beginnings of New Zealand's attitude to colonial issues before the United Nations was established. It is from this beginning that later attitudes developed. Most of the first chapter is from secondary sources being only an introduction to the main body of the study.