Cochin-China: Khmer Territories

The purpose of this statement is to provide all Member States of the United Nation with an objective description of the various aspects of the problem arising from the Khmer territories of Cochin-China (South Vietnam).
In the past those territories were part of the Kingdom of Cambodia, and they are still inhabited by over half a million Khmers who remain deeply attached to their culture, religion, customs, traditions and ancestral land.

When the odds became unequal in 1854, the reigning Khmer ruler, King Ang Duong, found it necessary to appeal to a Power of the Western world, namely France, for assistance in the defending his threatened territories. As it turned out however, his hopes were frustrated as subsequent events assumed an even more disastrous turn. Owing to Cambodia's political decline which was brought about by the establishment of the French Protectorate, not only those threatened territories for the protection of which had sought France's intervention, but also other provinces under Cambodian administration were severed from the Kingdom to constitute a French colony under the name of Cochin-China.

Since that time, the Cambodia Government has approached France on many occasions with a view to obtaining recognition of its rightful claims in respect of Cochin-China as it is unable to accept any solution that constitutes a violation of its legitimate rights.

When the delegations of Cambodia, France, the Democratic Republic of Viet-Nam, Laos, the People's Republic of China, the State of Viet-Nam, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the United Kingdom, and the United States met in July 1954 in Geneva in an attempt to end the fighting in Indo-China, the Royal Government of Cambodia raised the problem of Khmer territories of Cochin-China, asking the Conference to take it up at the same time. The Conference noted the specific reservations formally made by the Cambodian Delegation as to Cambodia's legitimate claims on the said territories.
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