British Foreign Policy in the Second World War by Llewellyn Woodward p. 440
2 On December 9, 1942, the War Cabinet had accepted (subject to the agreement of the Dominion Governments) a draft declaration on future colonial policy. They considered a declaration necessary in view of opinion generally in the United States, and of the President's large though somewhat vague ideas about trusteeship. They had in mind a unilateral declaration, but Lord Halifax reported that Mr. Hull favoured a joint AngloAmerican statement, possibly supported by other colonial Powers, e.g. the Netherlands. A draft text was sent to Lord Halifax on February [, 1943, and given by him to Mr. Hull three days later. Mr. Hull did not reply to it before Mr. Eden's visit to Washington. On March 29 just before he was leaving Washington for Ottawa Mr. Eden was given the text of an American redraft. The British Government were unable to accept this redraft, since it called, e.g. for the fixing of dates, as soon as was practicable, for the grant of full independence to all colonies, and made no distinction between dependent territories and territories which had lost their independence. Mr. Eden gave Mr. Winant an aide-memoire on the subject on May 26, 1943. Mr. Winant promised a redraft of his own, but did not produce it. He also seems to have omitted to send the aide-memoire to Washington. Since the United States Government appeared for the time to have lost interest in the matter, the British Government took no further steps about it, though Mr. Oliver Stanley made a statement on British policy in the House of Commons on July 13, 1943. (See Pari. Deb., 5th ser., H. of C, vol. 391, cols. 47-70.)
At the Quebec Conference in 1943 the President gave Mr. Churchill a draft declaration on National Independence which was, in fact, the American redraft of the previous March. Mr. Churchill made no comment on it. Mr. Hull also mentioned it to Mr. Eden. Mr. Hull had not seen the British aide-memoire given in May to Mr. Winant. Mr. Eden showed him a copy of it, but did not make any further comment on the American text. Mr. Hull circulated the American text (though it was not printed as one of the Conference memoranda) at the Moscow Conference. Mr. Eden said that he was not prepared to discuss the text. M. Molotov said that he would study it.
Dr. I. Bowman, when in London with Mr. Stettinius in April, 1944, told the Foreign Office that the State Department still wanted a declaration. Their idea was now to emphasise the promotion of material well-being and self-government rather than political independence, but they envisaged international machinery of a supervisory and not merely a consultative character. He said that American opinion would expect something to be said on the subject in connexion with the World Organisation. Mr. Stanley told him that the British Government would not go beyond the parliamentary statement of July 13, «943-
The Foreign Office though r that the Americans wished for a statement in order to justify their own plans to annex certain Japanese islands in the Pacific, and because the President wanted in his election campaign to avoid any risk of being called a champion of imperialism. See also below, pp. 530-2 and 534-5.
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FOREIGN RELATIONS OF THE UNITED STATES: DIPLOMATIC PAPERS, 1943, THE BRITISH COMMONWEALTH, EASTERN EUROPE, THE FAR EAST, VOLUME III
