1. Mr. President, I am particularly pleased to find myself at the head of my delegation on this occasion and to have the privilege of conveying to you personally on my own behalf and on behalf of this delegation, our very warm congratulations on your unanimous election as President of this great Assembly. This almost worldwide expression of confidence, which is a tribute to your personal, human, moral and intellectual qualities, is at the same time an expression of confidence in the whole of Africa. We can therefore take legitimate pride in it. We are the more pleased because we are certain that your devotion to the Charter, your long and distinguished diplomatic experience, your tact and your calm will enable you to discharge worthily and without difficulty this onerous task at a moment when the United Nations must be steered through difficult and perhaps dangerous waters.
2. May I take this opportunity of welcoming our brother State of Sierra Leone into the great international family. On behalf of President Olympio, who is, I know, on terms of personal friendship with the Prime Minister of Sierra Leone, and on behalf of the Government and people of Togo, I ask the Prime | Minister of Sierra Leone to accept the sincere and I fraternal expression of our pleasure at seeing a new State emerge on the international scene. We are happy ! to renew to him here, as well as to his people and his Government, the good wishes we conveyed to them [ when their independence was proclaimed. The Chief of State of Togo, who personally led the Togolese I delegation at the fifteenth session, said at the con- I elusion of his brief statement to the General Assembly following our admission to membership [866thplenary meeting, paragraph 31]:
"We have not come here presuming to teach you how to solve the serious problems of the present day. I As I said before, a small nation can have its share of wisdom, and in our case that wisdom bids us now I learn, observe, exchange ideas and think. Then, after I gaining practical experience and a knowledge of the problems we shall be able to make the contribution J which the United Nations is entitled to expect of us."
3. After only a year, we cannot claim to be sufficiently familiar with the problems to teach others how they should be solved. We therefore propose, from this rostrum, simply to express our feelings and our views concerning some matters which are today the focus of concern for all mankind.
4. The words "peace" and ^disarmament" are in fashion in all countries, independent or dependent, large or small, rich or poor, Members or non-members of the United Nations. But we must know whether these words are used with their real meaning or whether they are mere slogans, instruments of propaganda for purely political purposes. For surely it is contradictory and even paradoxical that there should be talk of peace and general and complete disarmament while nations continue to arm themselves with the most formidable weapons, thus opening the door to the extermination of the human species. It $s true that some States have felt that the possession of these weapons of mass destruction or annihilation by all nations would discourage any aggression. My delegation does not accept that view. In our opinion, peace, true and lasting peace, will be found by other means, by peaceful action to achieve the goals of freedom, law and justice.
5. Freedom for the individual and freedom for the peoples to choose their own path , whether philosophical, ideological, political or social. Hence, freedom or self-determination for the peoples, whether white, yellow or black.
6. Justice among men, among peoples and nations. And to achieve justice, one must surely be on the side of law. Does not this ideal of justice lead us, perhaps unconsciously, towards that integrity which leads us not only to respect what does not belong to us, but willingly to restore what we have unjustly kept from others? In this connexion, we in this Assembly must give the world an example of justice, if we are really to preserve international peace and security, the fundamental purposes of our Organization.
7. But do the positions we take and the decisions we adopt always obey this golden rule? We have only to examine our" consciences, to see that that is not the case. In this context I should like to mention an example that concerns my country.
8. In 1955, because the Gold Coast, a colony, was about to become independent, the General Assembly decided by its resolution 944 (X) of 15 December 1955 that a plebiscite should be held in Togoland under British administration, with a view to the union of that Territory with an independent Gold Coast. Is not* such an act in principle questionable in itself? Indeed, how could it be honestly thought that the problem could be posed of the union of a Trust Territory with a colony whose people were recovering their national sovereignty? In any case, the plebiscite took place. What were the results and what are its consequences today?
Considered as a whole, the results showed 58 per cent in favour of union with the Gold Coast and
42 percent against, an overall majority of 16 per cent, a rather small majority to decide the future of a people.
10. But there is more to it than that. If we consider the results in each area, as the special report of the United Nations Visiting Mission of 1955 had advocated,!/ we see that in the Southern Section 69.5 per cent of the valid votes rejected union with the Gold Coast and only 30.5 per cent accepted it—a majority of 39 per cent, more than twice the majority of 16 per cent indicated by the total results.
11. Those are official figures from United Nations documents. In the light of these results, it may well be asked why the solution recently applied by the Organization in the case of the former Trust Territory of the Cameroon was not applied in the case of Togoland under British administration. IS it surprising that we feel frustrated and the victims of injustice?
12. Naturally, the consequences of such a decision were not long in appearing. We all remember the regrettable violence in that Territory which accompanied the proclamation of the independence of Ghana. And peace, for which we are meeting here, has still not been restored there. The measures which the Government of that country has seen fit to take in order to achieve peace are in fact leading to a mass exodus to the Republic of Togo.
13. Today the Chief of State of Ghana, strong in the easy victory assured to him by the General Assembly's decision, is still obsessed by the somewhat oversimplified idea that the integration of the Republic of Togo with Ghana by any means would be the solution of this political problem, which continues to be a real one for my people, and which is, alas, now complicated by another problem, that of the refugees, whose number increases day by day. On the latter point, my delegation is submitting a formal request to the General Committee for the inclusion in the agenda of our present session of an item entitled: "Problem of the refugees in the Republic of Togo".
14. After these general comments on the principles which are the very foundation of the United Nations and this concrete and, I believe, significant example, it remains for my delegation to state its views regarding the specific matters which are the main object of our concern at this session.
15. Everyone agrees that disarmament is today a sine qua non if the human race is to be saved from appalling and total destruction. That is why, after having listened with the greatest attention to the two giants of the family, who have reached agreement on the terminology of general and complete disarmament, my delegation is certain that they will use all their good will in seeking a basis of agreement on the only point still in dispute, control. In our view, control at all stages in the only means of achieving effective disarmament. In this, the help of those who do not possess the weapon& it issue would no doubt be useful in dispelling mistrust and suspicion among those who have them. At the same time we must consider and seriously study the ideas expressed from this rostrum by the President of the United States [1013th meeting], concerning the establishment of an international police force for international security.
For us, the, new under-developed States, this should present great advantages. First of all, a system of collective protection and defence would obviate the need for the establishment and upkeep of an expensive army, by each individual State, thus freeing our scarce resources, which we could then devote entirely to the economic and social advancement of our countries. Secondly, the large sums which would no longer be spent on armaments by some countries could be used to bring about a substantial increase in assistance to under-developed countries.
17. Our concern, the concern of the young emerging States, is not to conquer outer space, but to overcome hunger, disease and ignorance, as was so aptly pointed out in this Assembly by our friend the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Senegal (1012th meeting). If we are sincere when we speak of saving mankind, nuclear tests must be ended without delay, not merely because of the ultimate end to which the tests are directed, but because of the radioactive fall-out, the harmful effects of which are not denied by anyone of good faith.
18. To make the cessation of nuclear tests dependent on the broader question of disarmament is to wish deliberately to continue these explosions with no regard for human life.
19. The question of Berlin, although not included in the agenda of our Assembly, is rightly a subject of major concern to all State Members of this Organization for peace, because of the grave risk of war which it now involves. Our Organization must contribute to the solution of this problem, which ought not to exist. But my delegation is convinced that, in any case, any solution which did not take into account the interests and opinion of the German people of both East and West would be at best precarious and would not guarantee real peace. The conclusion of a treaty with Germany as soon as possible is highly desirable, but the signatories of that peace treaty on the German side, whether East or West, must be truly representative and genuine spokesman of their people and this can only be ensured by truly free elections. Here the United Nations could contribute valuable assistance.
20. Decolonisation is today a factor for peace which cannot be isolated from the other aspects of the problem of world security. For this reason the Member States who are still colonial Powers must do their utmost to liberate rapidly the territories still under their rule. For this reason our Organization must unanimously exert on those colonial Powers all the moral pressure which it can muster, in particular to ensure that all its Members without exception observe and implement its decisions, so that there shall be an end everywhere to wars of foreign domination which are out of place in this day and age. If this is done, we will see the end of the bitter Algerian tragedy, which has lasted all too long, the end of the so-called civil war in Laos, the end of the appalling carnage in Angola, the return of peace to the Congo and elsewhere and the growth of a fraternal and fruitful co-operation among all the nations and peoples of the earth for the betterment of mankind.
21. As I said a moment ago, the concern of the young under-developed States is not the armaments race or the race for the conquest of outer space. Our main concern is the organization of our economies for the greater well-being and happiness of our peoples.
22. In this connexion my delegation believes that the Economic Commission for Africa, with a suitable structure at the regional and even national levels, and furnished with sufficient and effective means of action, could play a decisive role in the guidance and development of our national economies. This would also be the best way of limiting the evil of which many have complained from this rostrum—the tendency to subject foreign assistance, economic, cultural or other, to political considerations.
23. With regard to the various organs and specialized agencies of the United Nations, it no longer needs to be demonstrated that they are ill-adapted to the new conditions. It is important and urgent, in the interest of the Organization, that measures be taken to adapt them to the changed conditions if the conclusions and decisions of the various bodies and agencies are to reflect the views of all the Members of the Assembly. We therefore propose that, before we end the work of this sixteenth session, action should be taken which Would permit the revision, if not of the Charter as a whole, at least of the relevant Articles, so that the essential reforms of, for example, the Security Council and the Economic and Social Council may be carried out.
24. The untimely death of Dag Hammarskjold faces us with the problem of electing a new Secretary-General of the United Nations and also raises a question of principle in view of the divergent views which emerged in this Assembly during the fifteenth session. My delegation believes that a single Secretary-General should be elected. All the criticisms and attacks directed against the Secretary-General should have been directed against the Organization itself. The Secretary-General, after all, is simply an executive agent. If at any time he went beyond his rights, it was because we wished it. The Security Council was there to call him to order if necessary.
25. My delegation feels that action should be taken to fill the gap caused by the absence of a real Deputy Secretary-General capable of discharging all the functions of Secretary-General for an interim period in case of need. That post might well be filled by two deputies.
26. That is my brief statement. May I conclude by repeating the words with which President Olympio concluded his statement from this rostrum last year [866th meeting, paragraph 30]:
"Africa, more than any other continent, needs peace, because peace is essential for its own internal growth, for the consolidation of the freedoms that had been won and the improvement of the living conditions of its inhabitants. That is why the African States, and especially Togo, will do their utmost to support the United Nations which alone, by maintaining peace, can enable them to attain full development."