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THE FRAMEWORK OF THE UNITED NATIONS 153
Assembly in respect of their administration of such territories. This
controversy was precipitated by the fact that the number of territories
in respect of which information was transmitted in 1948 dropped from
seventy-four (the figure for 1946) to sixty-three.1 The ultimate result
of the General Assembly’s debate in 1949 was the adoption of a
number of resolutions which vested the General Assembly with some
obligations in respect of transmission of information under Article
73(e) and allowed for the establishment of a ‘Special Committee’ for
this purpose. One of the most important resolutions adopted in 1949
was Resolution 334 (IV) of 2 December 1949. This resolution can be
regarded as a victory for those Members who wanted the United
Nations to take an active role in examining information transmitted
under Article 73(e). It stated, inter alia, that the General Assembly
2. Invites any special committee which the General Assembly may appoint
on information transmitted under Article 73(e) of the Charter to examine
the factors which should be taken into account in deciding whether any
territory is or is not a territory whose people have not yet attained a full
measure of self-government.2

The determination of territories to which Chapter XI of the Charter
applies
During the General Assembly’s 1951 to 1953 sessions the controversy
over the right of the General Assembly to determine whether a terri­
tory is or is not a territory whose people have not yet attained a full
measure of self-government continued in full force. In these sessions
also differences arose between Members of the administering Powers
and some other Members on the interpretation of the term ‘self-
government’.3 However, in 1953 the stalemate ended when the
General Assembly, on the recommendation of the Fourth Committee,
adopted Resolution 742 (VIII) of 4 August 1953 on the list of factors
which should be taken into consideration in deciding whether a terri­
tory has or has not attained a full measure of self-government, in
1 U.N.G.A., 3rd scss., 1st part, 155th plcn. mtg, 3 Nov. (1948), pp. 380-94. For
details, sec ibid., 4th sess., 4th Committee, 115th—118th and 120th—127th mtgs,
3-18 Nov. (1949), pp. 128-98.
2 U.N.G.A., 4th sess., 263rd plen. mtg, 2 December (1949), pp. 457-61.
3 For the discussions of the 4th Committee and the Ad Hoc Committees regard­
ing these questions, see U.N.G.A., 7th sess., 4th Committee, 27lst-279th mtgs,
12-19 Nov. (1952), pp. 151-208. See also ibid., 6th sess., Suppl. No. 14 (Report
of the Special Committee of Information), 1951. For writers’ definitions of the
phrase ‘self-government’, see Kclsen, H., The Law of the United Nations (1950),
pp. 555-6; Goodrich and Hambro, The Charter of the United Nations (1949),
pp. 406-7; Baron von Asbcck, ‘International Law and Colonial Administration’,
Transactions of the Grotius Society, 39 (1953), pp. 23-4, 28. von Asbcck maintains
that ‘. . . once the obligations of colonial administration are essentially described
in the Charter, an international treaty, they are lifted from the domestic into the
international sphere. . . .’