31. The sixteenth session of the United Nations General Assembly has met at a time when as a result of the policies of the Western Powers, international relations have deteriorated sharply. The peoples are showing . concern at the danger of war and are insistently demanding that decisive measures be taken to remove it the more so as new and brilliant vistas are opening before humanity. The old social order, based on inequality and exploitation, is crumbling. The peoples are marching forward irresistibly to full freedom and independence. The historic successes of the USSR in the conquest of space, the epoch-making flights of the Soviet cosmonauts Gagarin and Titov, the mastery of nuclear energy, the automation of production and other brilliant results in the field of science and technology eloquently characterize the scientific and technological revolution of our times.
32. However, the efforts of peoples to use the fruits of human toil and human genius for the creation of a richer and happier life have hitherto been blocked by the resistance of exploiting, aggressive forces which are doing their utmost to halt the march of history. In order to preserve and increase their profits they are intensifying the arms race, shamelessly using armed force against national liberation movements, grossly interfering in the internal affairs. of nations, attempting to export counter-revolution, fomenting war hysteria and deliberately heightening international tension, principally in connexion with the USSR's proposal to eliminate the last traces of the Second World War in Europe.
33. As a result, there is a serious danger that a nuclear world war will break out. Hence the imperative requirement that efforts now be made to negotiate such solutions to vexed international problems as will remove this threat and ensure a lasting peace.
34. One of the major causes of the ever more dangerous international tension and threat to peace is the fact that a peace treaty has not yet been signed with Germany.
35. The German situation is characterized by the existence of two sovereign States which have developed in entirely different ways—the German Democratic Republic and the Federal Republic of Germany. A proper understanding of the new situation in Germany and Europe is impossible if this fact is not taken into account.
36.0 The German Democratic Republic, as the first peaceable and democratic State in the history of Germany, has finished with imperialism and militarism and taken the road of peaceful co-operation and friendship among peoples, the road of the construction of socialism. It is pursuing a policy which serves the interests of all Germans, is fully consonant with those interests, and is an important force for peace in Europe.
37. The Czechoslovak people, which in the past has suffered immeasurably from the aggressive policies of German imperialism and militarism, greatly values the existence of the German Democratic Republic and its policy of peace, and is building up relations of cordial friendship with it.
38. Unfortunately, the situation in the other German State—the Federal Republic of Germany—has since its inception developed in quite a different direction. The Federal Republic of Germany, with the direct support of the Western Powers, is turning more and more into a dangerous hot-bed of war, taking the road of revenge-seeking and militarism. Forces are once again in power there which in the recent past committed grave crimes against humanity.
39. in the Federal Republic of Germany, not only have militarism and nazism not been rooted out, as required under the Potsdam Agreement of 1945, but
the contrary the foundations of German imperialism
have been preserved in the name of anti-communism and a State has risen, those foundations, which is once again pursuing a policy of aggression.
40. To describe this dangerous development in the Federal Republic of Germany and the entirely abnormal situation in West Berlin as grotesque, as the United Kingdom representative did in his statement, is as much of a disservice to peace as that done by the representatives of the Western Powers before the Second World War. The facts are unanswerable and speak for themselves.
41. Twelve years ago the leading statesmen of the Federal Republic of Germany, Adenauer and Strauss, swore that they were against the possession by West Germany of any arms at all. Today they are arming the Bundeswehr to the teeth and are demanding ever more insistently that it be equipped with weapons of mass destruction. The Federal Republic of Germany is already openly seeking the removal of the last remaining restrictions on armaments, which in any case are purely formal, laid down by the so-called Paris Agreements.!/
42. In the Federal Republic of Germany there is a regular army several hundred thousand strong which is organized to fight an aggressive atomic war. The greater part of this army consists of officers and NCO's who at very short notice could assume command of an army of many millions. High-ranking officers of Hitler's Wehrmacht are being deliberately picked for the general staff—men who committed atrocities in Czechoslovakia, Poland, the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, France, Belgium, Denmark and many other countries.
43. Some Western statesmen are soothing alarmed public opinion in their countries by maintaining that West German militarism is unable to pursue aggressive policies since it is under the control of NATO. They also affirm that, unlike Nazi Germany, the Federal Republic of Germany is a democratic State.
44. Such unfounded claims testify to political blindness or to bad faith, the purpose of which is to delude public opinion in the Western countries. Not only does NATO not control the Federal Republic of Germany, but it is helping it to arm itself with every kind of weapon and to become one of the major and determinant forces in the policy Of this aggressive group. The West German generals and officers are ever more insistently setting the pace in the North Atlantic alliance. Units of the Bundeswehr are stationed in the territories of its partners, in the guise of defenders of peace and freedom. The West German militarists are striving to gain complete control over the North Atlantic alliance. Incidentally, Mr. Strauss, the Federal German Minister of Defence, frankly revealed their intensions with regard to the federal Republic of Germany's NATO partners, when he recently declared:
"First we shall meet our military obligations under NATO. But when the Bundeswehr is ready for action we shall speak in pure German to those who have gone soft in the brain and travel to Moscow, and also to those which advocate the reduction of tension, and we shall show them who really controls NATO."
45. We know very well what is meant by "speak in pure German". The French, the English, the Dutch, the Danes and other peoples know very well too. In the Second World War, this "language" cost humanity tens of millions of lives and left colossal material losses in its wake, and those who spoke this "pure German language" met their end at Nurnberg just fifteen years ago?
46. The goals of the West German militarists and revenge-seekers make it abundantly clear that the Federal Republic of Germany does not recognize the legal force and binding character of the Allied agreements on Germany, especially the Potsdam Agreement. This is the only State in Europe which is openly making territorial claims on a number of European States and calling for an all-round review of the consequences arising from the defeat of Hitler's Germany in 1945.
47. For the realization of these aggressive aims, the West German population is being systematically incited and conditioned. The revenge-seekers are using for this purpose the entire State apparatus, which is in the hands of active Nazi bosses, and war criminals such as Schrider, Ftirtsche, Globke and like supporters of the Hitler regime now being harboured by the Federal Government.
48. In dozens of fascist and revenge-seeking organizations people are being taught to hate the peoples of the socialist countries. These organizations are headed by such war criminals as Franz Karmasin, who was sentenced to death for his crimes against the Czechoslovak people during the Second World War; Rudolf Staff en, a "specialist" in the extermination of the Czechoslovak people, now entrusted with the "education" of the Sudeten German "Landmannschaft"; the active Nazis Franz Boehm and Hans Neuwirth, and many others.
49. The Government of the Federal Republic of Germany takes every opportunity of making it plain that it identifies itself with the policy of the revenge- seeking organizations which it created and which it finances and controls.
50. The deluded anti-communist revenge-seekers would like to liquidate the socialist States and to enslave their peoples once more. Of the many proofs of this I shall mention only the statement of Minister Seebohm at the Congress of the Eger Germans in November 1960, when he said that they wanted to create for German-speaking citizens "a European country stretching to the Urals"
51. Race hatred is growing up again in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the well-known "theories" of superior and inferior races have reappeared.
52. I will give you an example. Professor F. Borman of Bad Nauheim, writing in the magazine Nation Europa, No. 2, 1959, page 17, called the existence of colonialism "inevitable by the laws of nature and the expansion of ' Lebensraum'" and, in the spirit of the Nazi race "theories", maintained +.hat:
"Negroes are less intelligent than Europeans ... their simplicity and lack of control over the instincts prevent them from participating in the progress of humanity, their incapacity prevents them from joining in the work of their white fellow-men, they are bound by the hereditary structure of their negroid brains."
53. Racial propaganda is not only not forbidden in the Federal Republic of Germany; on the contrary, it is actually encouraged there. The Federal Attorney- General, Max Gude, of the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe, expressly admits that "the dissemination of views on the advantages and disadvantages of superior and inferior races" U is permitted in Western Germany.
54. For the benefit of world opinion, the ruling circles of the Federal Republic of Germany clothe their aggressive aims in peace-loving phrases. They babble ever more frequently of the so-called right to self-determination and talk about the renunciation of violence.
55. We are very familiar with these tactics. At the Nazi Congress of Nurnberg in 1938, Hitler too declared that "... what the Germans are demanding is the right to self-determination".
56. In the thirties, the German Nazis, concentrated in Czechoslovakia in the Sudeten German Party of Henlein, also sheltered under the cloak of "the right to self-determination" and the "renunciation of violence", until they received the Fuhrer's order for an open invasion of the Czechoslovak State.
57. Similarly, these tactics are being used today to prepare the ground for aggressive operations by the revenge-seekers. These are putting forward demands for the right to self-determination, which as they understand it means the forcible absorption of the German Democratic Republic and a violent change in the frontiers of Europe.
58. But these plans have not the smallest chance of success. As a proverb says, "the grape-vine is tall but the arms are short". Today the position in Europe and in the whole world is entirely different from what it was twenty-five years ago. However, the great danger lies in the fact that the German militarists—those specialists in the unleashing of wars and in the pushing of nations into conflict—have always been and still are incapable of making a sober estimate of the balance of forces. They are capable of making a lunatic attempt to realize their objectives and pushing the world into a devastating thermonuclear war.
59. The demands by the West German militarists and revenge-seekers have absolutely nothing to do with the right to self-determination. The Germans have already exercised this- right in creating two German States, diametrically different in their social and economic systems. We must therefore decisively reject manoeuvres cantering upon the right of the Germans to self-determination, which on the lips of the German revenge-seekers means revenge, war and imperialist annexation.
60. For the sake of peace and security, the plans of the German militarists must be disrupted by the conclusion of a peace treaty with both German States. A peace treaty, which the socialist States are proposing should be signed soon, is an effective means of stopping dangerous developments, of restraining German militarism and of providing lasting guarantees that Germany will not become the source of a new war. Further delay in signing this treaty would even more effectively stimulate the aggressive forces in West Germany to intensify their provocations and war preparations.
61. There are absolutely no grounds for postponing a peaceful settlement of the German problem. The conclusion of a peace treaty pan hurt no one save incorrigible aggressors. A treaty will legally confirm the present boundaries of Germany which came about as a result of the Second World War, orate favourable conditions for an improvement in international relations, and strengthen peace and security throughout the world. It will also create auspicious conditions for the peaceful development of both German States and for their gradual rapprochement.
62. A peace treaty will also make it possible to normalize the intolerable situation in West Berlin. The Czechoslovak Government has repeatedly drawn attention to the fact that West Berlin has become a centre for hate-filled, slanderous and subversive propaganda, a centre for provocation and spying against the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic and other socialist countries.
63. As you know, the socialist countries are proposing that West Berlin be made into a demilitarised Free City. On a number of occasions they have formally declared that they are in favour of effective guarantees which would enable the population of a Free City of West Berlin to live its own way of life without outside interference and would ensure freedom of communications with the outside world. It stands to reason that under this arrangement the sovereign rights of the German Democratic Republic must consistently be respected.
64. For its part, the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic is ready to develop economic and cultural ties with a Free City of West Berlin.
65. We note with satisfaction that a realistic appraisal of the situation in Germany is making ever more headway, as was confirmed by the recent Belgrade Conference. 3/
66. The Czechoslovak Government considers that the cause of peace and mutual understanding between nations will greatly benefit if both German States receive broad international de jure recognition and if diplomatic relations are established with them. Early admission of the German Democratic Republic and the Federal Republic of Germany to the United Nations would also serve this end. The taking of these steps would materially reduce international tension and create a serious obstacle to the aggressive policies of the West German militarists and revenge-seekers.
67. We welcome the voices of reason which in the Western countries are ever more loudly raised in favour of discussion of the German question. We welcome the fact that an exchange of views is taking place between the representatives of the Soviet Union and the United States on this question. After all, the socialist countries have appealed for negotiations from the start. The settlement of international disputes by means of negotiations is one of the basic principles of their foreign policy.
68. We advocate that all States whose armed forces fought against Hitler's Germany take part in the conclusion of a peace treaty with Germany. In this connexion I shall quote Antonin Novotny, President of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, who said at the General Assembly's fifteenth session:
"We appeal to the responsibility of all countries,
in the first place to the responsibility of the great
Powers; we urge that a peace treaty with both German States be signed and that the question of West Berlin be jetted with the greatest possible speed. In this way the aggressive plans of the West German militarists could be thwarted and peace in Europe ensured." [871st meeting, paragraph 107.]
69. But if the Western Powers continue to ignore our appeals and efforts directed towards a general settlement of this question, and if they are unwilling to take part in a peace conference, which we believe should be convened without delay, then we shall have no choice but to sign, together with other countries, a peace treaty with the German Democratic Republic and to settle the question of West Berlin on this basis too.
70. As one of the first victims of Hitler's aggression, as a neighbour of both German States and as a member of the anti-Hitler coalition, the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic cannot reconcile itself to what is happening on the other side of its western frontiers, where events, particularly in recent years, have been taking an ever more dangerous course. In the interest of ensuring a peaceful life for our own and other peoples, we feel it is our duty and our full right to demand that the consequences of the Second World War be liquidated forthwith.
71. One of the most important tasks facing the General Assembly at its sixteenth session is a detailed examination of the question of general and complete disarmament and the adoption of such measures as will promote, to the utmost, a solution of this problem. The danger of nuclear war can be finally removed only by means of general and complete disarmament under reliable and effective international control.
72. The Czechoslovak delegation was gratified to learn that the talks of recent months between the . representatives of the USSR and the United States of America had led to the Joint Statement [A/4879] which can serve as a basis for further disarmament negotiations. We welcome the fact that agreement was reached on a number of basic principles which the USSR and other socialist countries wished to see adopted.
73. At the same time, however, we must not close our eyes to the fact that the Joint Soviet-United States Statement did not remove all contradictions of principle in the matter of disarmament, and to the danger the Western Powers may interpret it differently.
74. Even now the Government of the United States has not renounced its attempt to substitute, for general and complete disarmament, control over existing armaments. In his first State of the Union address on 30 January 1961, President Kennedy said that "arms control" must become "a central goal" of United States policy. It is also worthy of note that the new American agency, whose creation has just been approved by the relevant United States bodies, has the words "arms control" at the beginning of its title. The draft submitted by the United States [A/4891] for consideration by the General Assembly at its sixteenth session is likewise aimed essentially at securing arms control, and in no way at the realization of general and complete disarmament. Such an approach to the question cannot lead to positive results.
75. Arms control has nothing in common with general and complete disarmament. No control without effective measures leading to disarmament can either
prevent or reduce the danger of war. This consideration is indeed, recognized by a number of statesmen in the NATO countries. It has been very clearly formulated, for instance, by G. A. Kissinger, President Kennedy's disarmament adviser. In an article published in the July 1960 issue of the magazine Foreign Affairs he says, among other things, that "... continuous surveillance of the retaliatory forces may help a potential aggressor more than the defender ..."
76. Attempts to substitute negotiations on arms control for negotiations on general and complete disarmament under strict international control are entirely unacceptable. However, this point of view is in no way to be understood as a rejection of strict control, which must be an integral part of any disarmament programme. The Czechoslovak delegation entirely associates itself with the principle, set forth in the Joint Soviet-United States Statement of 20 September, that "all disarmament measures should be implemented from beginning to end under such strict and effective international control as would provide firm assurance that all parties are honouring their obligations".
77. A further problem which has led to serious contradictions in the past is the relationship between general and complete disarmament and particular practical measures which may be taken independently of it.
78. The socialist countries have always emphasized that negotiations on general and complete disarmament do not exclude agreements for the taking of such practical measures as may contribute to a reduction of international tension and thus create propitious conditions for the realization of general and complete disarmament.
79. Attainment of this goal would doubtless be facilitated by such measures as the conclusion of a non- aggression pact between the States members of NATO and those of the Warsaw Treaty, the liquidation of foreign military bases and the withdrawal of armed forces from the territory of foreign States, the creation of atom-free zones in various parts of the world, and other possible practical steps. Plans for the taking of such steps are put forward in the memorandum [A/4892] submitted, a few days ago, by the USSR delegation to the General Assembly for its consideration. The Government of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic fully supports these plans.
80. The Czechoslovak delegation anticipates that it may be possible, at the present session of the General Assembly,, to reach a generally acceptable agreement on the composition of a new disarmament negotiating body. We regard as fully justified the proposal that the new body should include representatives of countries belonging to no military groupings, on an equal footing with the socialist States and States belonging to Western blocs. All previous negotiations on general and complete disarmament, both inside and outside the United Nations, have strikingly demonstrated the active efforts of States pursuing a policy of neutrality to reach a rapid and positive settlement of this question. This was also shown by the attention which the highest representatives of these countries devoted to general and complete disarmament at the recent Belgrade Conference, as well as by the resolution adopted at that Conference.
81. The achieving of general and complete disarmament would also finally settle the question of the cessation of nuclear weapons tests. The conducting
of such tests in circumstances of general and complete
disarmament would become not only pointless but impossible, because, after the destruction of all types of weapons and the cessation of their manufacture there would be nothing to test. '
82. Three years of fruitless three-Power negotiations on the cessation of tests have fully confirmed that the cessation of tests alone does not do away with nuclear weapons or reduce the danger of thermonuclear war. We know that, throughout these negotiations, the intensified manufacture and stockpiling of this, the most destructive form of weapon, continued without hindrance. At the same time the Western Powers tried to use the negotiations to obtain unilateral advantages and to put the USSR and other socialist countries in a position of inequality. Throughout the period of the so-called "moratorium", when the USSR made no nuclear tests, France—one of the leading NATO States—constantly engaged in the testing of nuclear weapons. Nobody can deny the fact that these tests helped to strengthen the military potential of the entire NATO bloc.
83. Today the Western Powers are trying to present themselves as zealous advocates of the cessation of nuclear weapon testing. But at the Geneva Conference they blocked the reaching of an agreement on the final cessation of all nuclear weapons tests as proposed by the USSR. They tried to have underground test explosions excluded from the agreement, as they were interested in such tests with a view to the further perfection of nuclear weapons; and they insisted on measures that would de facto legalize these tests. At the same time we know that over a period of many months the United States Government had been preparing to conduct a series of underground tests, which it recently began to carry out.
84. These actions, together with the growing aggressiveness of the Western Powers' foreign policy in connexion with the plan to conclude a peace treaty with Germany, finally led the Government of the USSR to take the important decision to resume nuclear weapons tests.
85. The Government of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, in its statement of 2 September 1961, has already expressed its opinion that this step by the Soviet Government was necessary from the standpoint of ensuring .the security not only of the Soviet Union but also of all States of the world socialist system, and in the final analysis from the standpoint of removing the threat of war and ensuring peace throughout the world—and has expressed its full agreement with it.
86. There is only one way out of the situation in which we find ourselves. In present conditions, the question^ of the cessation of nuclear weapons tests can be solved only within the framework of general and complete disarmament, with which it is indissolubly connected.
87. Another important task facing the present session of the General Assembly is the adoption of decisive measures to bring about the very rapid liquidation of the shameful colonialist system.
88. On the initiative of the. Soviet Government, the General Assembly at its fifteenth session adopted the historic resolution [1514 (XV)] containing the "Declaration on the granting of independence to colonial countries and peoples". The events of the^ past year, however, have shown that great and concentrated efforts must still be made to translate into reality the noble ideas contained in the Declaration and put them into immediate and consistent effect. The colonial Powers are using every possible means to sabotage the giving of effect to the Declaration's demands. They are having ever greater recourse to force of arms in order to crush the colonial peoples' heroic struggle for freedom and independence.
89. The peoples of many countries fighting to overthrow colonial slavery, principally in Africa, are already well aware of the shameful role which the North Atlantic Treaty plays in support of the colonial Powers. For example, could the Portuguese colonialists really conduct a war of extermination in Angola if they were not being supported by their NATO allies, especially the United States and the Federal Republic of Germany? Mutual aid and co-operation by the members of this aggressive group have also made it possible for France to wage bloody war against the heroic Algerian people for many years.
90. However, Angola and Algeria are far from being the only examples of the way in which the colonial Powers cynically flout the principles of the United Nations Charter and the Declaration on the granting of independence to colonial countries and peoples. The peoples of Oman, South and South West Africa, Kenya, Uganda, Rhodesia, Nyasaland and other territories, amounting in all to over 70 million individuals, are still having to fight for their freedom.
91. The Czechoslovak delegation considers that it is extremely urgent for the General Assembly to take effective steps for the immediate implementation of the Declaration, so that the colonial system can be completely and finally ended next year. It therefore fully supports a thorough discussion of the item concerning "the implementation of the Declaration on the granting of independence to colonial countries and peoples", placed on the agenda by the Government of the USSR. The Czechoslovak delegation also favours the establishment of a Commission for the close supervision of the Declaration's implementation.
92. We resolutely urge that the colonial wars against the peoples of Algeria and Angola be speedily brought to an end, and that the peoples of those countries be enabled to enjoy their inalienable right to self- government and the independence of their State.
93. The situation in the Republic of the Congo continues to require the General Assembly's attention. With effective assistance from the forces of peace throughout the world, the Congolese patriots have been able to set up a new Central Government in the Congo which is the direct successor of the Central Government of the Congolese national hero Patrice Lumumba. But the imperialist Powers are continuing to interfere with and intrigue against the freedom, independence and territorial integrity of the Congo. An obvious example of this can be seen in the attempts to wrest from the Congo its richest province, Katanga. The Czechoslovak delegation firmly supports the view of the Congolese people and of a number of delegations from Asian and African countries that it is now essential to disrupt the intrigues of the colonialists in Katanga and to return that province to the jurisdiction of the Central Government.
94. The Czechoslovak Socialist Republic also supports the just demand of the Indonesian people that
West Irian, its territory from time immemorial, should be united with the Indonesian Republic.
95. The march of history shows that colonialism is inevitably doomed to perish. More and more peoples are freeing themselves from colonial bondage. A few days ago, another new African State—Sierra Leone— was admitted to membership of the United Nations. I should like to take this opportunity to wish the people of Sierra Leone, on behalf of the whole Czechoslovak people, great success in building up their country.
96. The warm sympathy of our people and of all freedom-loving peoples goes out to the heroic people of Cuba, which has overthrown the hateful Batista dictatorship, is resolutely defending its freedom and independence against all imperialist intrigues and interference, and is building a new life in its beautiful country.
97. It is clear that United States imperialism has not accepted defeat and is preparing further aggressive actions against Cuba. The heroic Cuban people may be assured that it will always have the full support of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic in its peaceable striving.
98. We denounce the systematic interference of the imperialist Powers, particularly the United States of America, in the domestic affairs of Laos. We hope that the negotiations at the Geneva Conference will finally result in the granting of the Laotian people's just demand—for a guarantee of the true independence and neutrality of Laos.
99. It is high time to put an end to interference by the United States of America in the domestic affairs of South Korea. The Czechoslovak delegation considers that it is necessary to terminate immediately the continued occupation of South Korea by United States armed forces, which now constitutes the main obstacle to the Korean people's efforts directed towards the peaceful reunification of Korea.
100. The General Assembly session must also concentrate its attention on the danger presented by "new" and insidious forms of colonialism, in whose operation West German imperialism plays a large role. Where the colonialists can no longer maintain their position by using the "classical" colonial methods, they resort to "new", indirect forms of colonial domination. By these means, they endeavour to regain or preserve military and strategic positions in their former colonial territories, with the prospect of exploiting the peoples of those territories, and their natural wealth, to an unlimited degree. This is achieved, in the main, through the conclusion of inequitable agreements and treaties.
101. The treaties of so-called "military assistance and co-operation" concluded, in connexion with the attainment of independence, by certain new States— particularly in Africa—are especially dangerous to the sovereignty of the new countries. Those treaties, and, above all, the military bases enable the colonialists to maintain control over the new countries and draw them into the network of aggressive military pacts—and hence into their military adventures—for the purpose of restricting the independence of those countries and stifling the freedom not only of their peoples but also of the peoples of neighbouring lands. Striking evidence of the purposes for which military bases on foreign territories are employed was the International Conference on Laos, opened at Geneva on 16 May 1961, colonialists' use of Belgian bases in the Congo and the French base at Bizerta against the Congolese and Tunisian peoples.
102. The Czechoslovak delegation considers that any kind of inequitable treaty containing neo-colonialist commitments of a political, economic, military or other nature is contrary to the principles of international law and of the United Nations Charter. The General Assembly should declare that inequitable treaty obligations are illegal and that the countries on which they have been imposed have the right to cancel them.
103. We regard it as absolutely essential to take effective measures to guarantee full independence to the new States and to help them, remove all restrictions upon it. The newly emerging States must be afforded all kinds of assistance, without any conditions, so that they can strengthen their position as soon as possible and achieve true independence by building up their own economy. Relations with these States must be based on the principles of non- aggression, recognition of their territorial integrity and sovereignty, and non-interference in their domestic affairs.
104. It is on those principles that the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic and the other socialist countries base their co-operation with the nations of Africa, Asia and Latin America. The results of our cooperation with these countries are mutually beneficial. I should therefore like once more to assure the representatives of the African, Asian and Latin American countries, from this rostrum, that the Czechoslovak people and Government will continue to strengthen their friendship and co-operation with these countries and give them, so far as possible, the greatest measure of disinterested support and assistance.
105. It must be frankly said that the part played by the United Nations in the solving of urgent international problems cannot be regarded as satisfactory.
106. The main reason for this is that a certain group of States, headed by the United States of America, still regard the United Nations and its agencies as their own domain and shamelessly try to use it for the purposes of their own foreign policy. For a number of years the United States of America and its allies have been misusing the United Nations, with a view to intensify the "cold war" and to dragging onto the agenda such provocative and, in fact, nonexistent questions as those of "Hungary", "Tibet", etc.
107. For many years the United States of America has been preventing the lawful representatives of the 650 million people of China from entering the United Nations, and has been keeping in the Organization the bankrupt Chiang Kai-shek clique. We are convinced that at this session the majority of the Member States will decisively reject any machinations which undermine the authority and prestige of the United Nations. The absence of representatives of the Government of the People's Republic of China is, at the same time, seriously hampering the solution of the problems which are the most important in the work of the United Nations. I refer primarily to general and complete disarmament, the final elimination of colonialism, and aid for the economic development of under-developed countries. It is therefore a most pressing requirement of the present time that the
lawful rights of the People's Republic of China in the United Nations should be restored.
108. Similarly, the admission to the United Nations of the Mongolian People's Republic, which fulfils all the requirements for membership, can no longer be delayed.
109. The facts of life 'demand that the Western Powers should cease to misuse the United Nations and its agencies, including the Secretariat, And the United Nations should at long last reflect the fact that there are, in the world, three groups of States; the Socialist countries, the neutral countries and the States which are members of the Western blocs.
110. Until that happens, the United Nations will not be able to play its proper part in the settling of important international problems; these can be settled only on the basis of an agreement which takes into account the legitimate interests of all three groups of States.
111. It is obvious that that principle must also apply to the higher administration of the United Nations Secretariat. The delegation of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic holds to the view that this question must be settled by the Security Council, in conformity with the existing world situation and on the basis of an agreement between the Member States. 1
112. The Czechoslovak delegation considers that it is impossible to overlook the well-founded complaints of many Member States to the effect that in the United States of America various difficulties are hampering the activities of their delegations and permanent missions to the United Nations. It is therefore time to consider the question of transferring the United Nations to a place where normal conditions for the work of the Organization and all its Members will be ensured.
113. The Czechoslovak Socialist Republic consistently defends, and is pursuing, a policy of peaceful coexistence and competition between States with different social systems. Such a policy is favoured by peoples throughout the world, and is accepted by the overwhelming majority of States. There is no other way- either there will be peaceful coexistence, or we shall have a devastating thermo-nuclear war. Hence we resolutely denounce all attempts to minimize the importance of peaceful coexistence and to distort its meaning.
114. The principle of the peaceful coexistence of States with different social and economic systems really means the comprehensive development of relations between them and of, co-operation in all fields For that, however, the basic prerequisite is the acknowledgment of the right of all peoples to settle their own affairs and to decide the question of the political and economic system under which they wish to live, and the inadmissibility of any interference in the domestic affairs of individual States.
115. The Czechoslovak people does not impose on anyone the system which, of its own free will, it has chosen for itself. But at the same time it will not allow anyone to interfere in its own domestic affairs or to try to threaten the construction of socialism in its country.
116. To those who do not like our system and who from this rostrum, have expressed their hatred of socialism, I would reply by using the words of the President of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic,
Antonin Novotny, who at the fifteenth session of the United Nations General Assembly said:
"... stop speculating on a change of the social system in our country, speculating on the defeat and destruction of socialism [871st meeting, paragraph 39].
"... you must understand at last that the notion of freedom as you understand it and which you so. ostentatiously advocate is today incomprehensible and absolutely unacceptable to our people.
"We see our freedom from another point of view, the point of view of the interests of the development of the whole socialist society and, therefore, also the J lull development of man, devoid of the rapacious features of your capitalist society*" [Ibid., paragraphs 42 and 43.]
"The fact that our people have definitively broken off with the representatives of the capitalist world is to an extent their fault too. In 1938 they threw their faithful ally into Hitler's throat as to the beast, thinking that it would be appeased and that by doing so they would open to Hitler the road to the East." [Ibid., paragraph 128.]
117. Because the Soviet Union, by its victory over fascism, frustrated Hitler's barbaric plans for the physical destruction of our peoples, our nation regained its freedom and independence and embarked on the road of socialist construction. Therefore we have finally and forever linked our existence with the Soviet Union and with the great community of socialist States.
118. In close co-operation with the peoples of the Soviet Union and of the other fraternal socialist countries, we are striving untiringly for the further development of the national economy, the flourishing of culture in our country, and the securing of a happy life not only for the present generation but for future generations.
119. The high degree of development already achieved by our national economy makes it possible for us to prepare far-reaching plans for the building-up of our
. country over the next twenty years, by which time the material and technical basis for communism will, in Czechoslovakia, have been constructed.
120. We have set ourselves a noble task: to compete with the most highly developed capitalist countries, not in the production of destructive weapons, but in the economic field. We wish to catch up with them and surpass them in per caput production. In order to carry out our bold plans, we need a lasting and stable peace. We are therefore honestly striving to avert war and to settle all urgent problems peacefully. We appeal for a decisive struggle on behalf of peace, freedom, equality and well-being for all peoples. Let us make a united front against the aggressive circles which, throughout the world, are intent upon increasing international tension and inflaming war hysteria. Let us implement the principle of effective negotiations as the only reasonable way of settling existing disputes.
121. All honest people expect the sixteenth session of the United Nations General Assembly to assist in the relaxation of international tension and in the creating of a firm basis for lasting peace and international cooperation.
122. The Czechoslovak delegation, for its part, will do everything possible in order that these objectives way be achieved.