1. Over nearly two decades the United Nations has increasingly become the centre and the stage of international diplomatic activity, and it has been customary in this general debate for representatives of Governments to look from this rostrum outwards at the world. All of us who have served at the United Nations in the past will remember the occasions when we have listened to speeches by some of the great statesmen of our generation speaking of the world-wide scene. I myself shall never forget hearing in this General Assembly the speeches of world figures such as Prime Minister Nehru and President Kennedy. It has been an unforgettable experience to hear in this Assembly reviews of the whole range of international events by the greatest figures of our time. Indeed there is probably no better place anywhere to survey the problems, the dangers and the hopes of the world than this.
2. But today our thoughts and our anxieties are directed not outwards, but inwards to ourselves. Those who have looked to the United Nations to deal with the dangers and diseases of the world can rightly turn to us today and say, "Physician, heal thyself".
3. The Organization created to settle disputes has become a centre of dispute within itself. I make no excuse, therefore, for speaking in this general debate not about the world but about ourselves, and about the Organization which is now in such grave danger.
4. Three months ago, a new Government was formed in my country. It was beset with many difficulties, both economic troubles within, and great issues for decision in its relations with other Governments of the world, and in problems of defence. But nevertheless, at once, amongst its first actions, the new Government took three decisions to show to our own people and to the wider world new directions and new purposes of policy in three spheres which are of paramount importance to all of us here at the United Nations.
5. First, a Minister of Disarmament was appointed for the first time, to give his whole attention and effort to the measures necessary to pursue what is surely the greatest need of our generation — the need to free the world from the burden of armaments and to escape from the competition in the manufacture of mounting terror.
6. Secondly, a new Ministry of Overseas Development was created for the first time in my country under a Cabinet Minister, to co-ordinate and develop the contribution of my country in the effort to bridge and close the gap between the rich and the poor of the world.
7. Thirdly, for the first time, a Minister of my Government was appointed to represent my country here in the United Nations. My appointment in this new capacity was intended to emphasize the special importance which the new Government attaches to the work of the United Nations. By these three decisions, the new Government showed the course which it washes to follow in three fields of international affairs. It wishes to intensify efforts to achieve progressive disarmament. It wishes to make a greater contribution to a world-wide effort for economic development. It wishes to support and. Sustain the United Nations.
8. I have said that no representative of my country ever came to the United Nations with clearer or more positive instructions than those given to me. They are: first, to seek new initiatives to further the purposes of the Charter; second, to seize every opportunity to support, strengthen and, where necessary, to reform the United Nations Organization; and third, to take a constructive and leading part both in peace-keeping and in the economic development of the new nations. Our hopes were high that at this nineteenth session constructive progress could be made in many directions, much of it on the basis of preparatory work already completed.
9. Always we put disarmament first. Following the limited agreements which have been reached on disarmament in recent years, we hope that during this session a new impetus can be given towards breaking the continuing deadlock. We recognize, too, that small agreements at the beginning will help towards international confidence. We hope to see progress in special areas, which will assist the relaxation of tension, and to see progress, too, towards positive agreements in the major field of general disarmament. We are most eager to reach new agreement to stop the further spread of nuclear weapons. Our hope is that all States will, in the future, be able to use their developing economies to increase their resources for peaceful and not for military purposes.
10. We may pause for a moment to think what that would mean. Expenditure on defence in the world is now running, I am told, at something like one hundred and fifty thousand million dollars a year. This represents almost one-tenth of the world's total output of goods and services. That makes the amount required to rid the United Nations of all its debts — a mere one hundred and fifty million dollars— look like a trifling sum, as indeed it is.
11. A second aim which we set ourselves, one closely linked to the first objective of disarmament, is to increase the international capacity to keep the peace. We do not underrate the efforts which have been made, particularly — to their lasting credit — by countries other than the great Powers, to keep the peace in many different parts of the world. But, in the past, we have often had to rely on hasty measures of improvisation. We must surely do better in future. The time has come for the temporary and tentative efforts of the past to give way to more effective, more efficient and more permanent machinery for the keeping of the peace. It is accordingly our hope that it will be possible to create a new and improved method and new and improved machinery of international peace-keeping in which the larger Powers too can make a contribution.
12. No less important are our aims in the field of economic development. With the establishment of our new Ministry of Overseas Development we wish to plan and administer the British programme of overseas aid, both bilateral and multilateral, as a whole. And, with the proposals for the creation of a single United Nations Development Programme, under which the Technical Assistance Board and the Special Fund would be merged together to work in close co-operation with the specialized agencies, we look forward to a new, intensified and better co-ordinated international effort to raise the standards of living in all developing countries.
13. In trade we are anxious to carry forward the initiatives taken by the British delegation during the Trade Conference in Geneva. We warmly welcomed the establishment of the Conference and the Trade and Development Board as permanent parts of the United Nations machinery [resolution 1995 (XIX)], and we are anxious to give them every support and every encouragement.
14. On human rights, the British Government has undertaken to legislate in Great Britain against the evil of racial discrimination, and we are anxious to take a full part in the negotiation of effective practical and workable covenants to give international effect to the Universal Declaration on Human Rights. We are, moreover, anxious to give special consideration to methods for protection and enforcement of human rights, and we hope that Governments will seriously consider the new proposal for the establishment of a United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights. We look forward, too, to participating to the full in the preparations for the United Nations Human Rights Year in 1968. We approach this problem of racial discrimination and racial relations in the spirit of what our Prime Minister said in a speech he made two months ago: " Our approach to this challenge, whether in world affairs or in our domestic life, cannot be conditioned by cowardice or compromise; this is, for every nation, the great moral imperative, a straight issue between right and wrong.”
15. These are the objectives we set ourselves. These were the purposes of positive action which we wish to debate here and to turn into practical programmes. These are the initiatives in the fields of disarmament and peace-keeping, economic development and trade and human rights which we hope to discuss and develop together in and through the United Nations. These aims, so we believe, have the overwhelming support of the membership of the United Nations. As we looked forward to this session, two things stood out. First, how much there was to do, and second, how wide was the field of agreement on what should be done. But these are the policies and these are the programmes which have been delayed, and which are now threatened with further delay, by the continuing stultification of our United Nations activities.
16. Perhaps I might be permitted, with great respect and speaking as a representative with comparatively short experience here at the United Nations, to add a personal word. I speak as a convinced believer in the United Nations. I speak as a supporter of the Secretary-General. I speak with respectful admiration of the part which the general membership of the United Nations has played in expanding and developing the powers and the prestige of the United Nations. Others who have rendered to the United Nations far longer service than I have must feel with me the frustration of the present situation. Many of us have preached amongst our own people the need to support the United Nations and all that it endeavours to achieve. We have advocated that in the modern world we should pursue international initiatives and international co-operation. We have consistently argued that, by strengthening the United Nations, we can help to prevent conflicts, and help, too, to bring the benefits of economic advance to the millions who now live in the mass misery of poverty. I am more than ever convinced of the necessity and the urgency of these purposes.
17. But, by our delays and disputes, the forces of subversion and the forces of narrow nationalism, and the forces of aggression and the forces of racial domination are now encouraged. The enemies of the United Nations rejoice. In failing to settle our own differences, we have failed to live up to the hopes and the aspirations of all those who trusted us.
18. The harm which has been done in the past few months cannot be calculated. We embark on the International Co-operation Year in deadlock. We face the twentieth anniversary of the creation of the United Nations with the reputation of the Organization at stake. In order to save face, there are those who have been prepared to disfigure the image of the United Nations in the world. Our work in this Assembly may soon be brought to a dead stop. And the prospect is that we may continue in impotence to earn the rightful contempt of those who placed their faith in us. While we argue and delay, the needs of the world accumulate. The patients suffer while the doctors dispute. Wherever we look we see discord and danger. The need for United Nations leadership and United Nations help and United Nations conciliation was never greater. The forces of division, domination and aggression appear confident, well organized and well led. The forces of consultation, conciliation and co-operation, for which we stand in the United Nations, seem often to be weak and divided. While the need so urgently increases, the grim prospect is that the United Nations may become weak and poor, so weak and so poor that the Organization will be incapable of moving quickly and effectively when the dangers become so menacing that international action is the only alternative to complete disaster.
19. I ask your permission to go back to consider the causes of the dispute which has led us to our present pass, I make no excuse for doing so, since I believe that there is public perplexity and widespread misunderstanding of the causes of the deadlock.
20. This is no mere sordid squabble about money. The amounts involved are, as I have said, trifling compared with the amounts spent daily on armaments. The great Powers spend on defence in a single day much more than the amount now required to rid the United Nations of its total financial liabilities. The amount which threatens to sink the United Nations is less than the cost of a single submarine.
21. The questions at issue are not mainly questions of finance but of principle. Article 24 of the Charter confers on the Security Council the primary responsibility for the maintenance of peace and security. Articles 10, 11 and 14 give the right to the General Assembly to make recommendations on any matters within the scope of the Charter, including questions relating to the maintenance of international peace and security. Article 17 authorizes the General Assembly to make assessments to be borne by the Member States. Finally, Article 19 provides that a Member State whose arrears exceed two years' assessments "shall have no vote in the General Assembly".
22. These principles, so clearly set out in the Charter, are equally important. We seek to defend them. I have repeated that it is the policy of my Government to support and strengthen the United Nations. It would indeed be a betrayal of that high purpose if we were to make our first act an abandonment of the principles of the Charter which we are all pledged to support. Most important of all, we should be betraying our obligations if we destroyed the sole sanction for the financial contributions which are essential for the continuation of all the activities of the United Nations.
23. I repeat that the dispute which we now face is no mere financial squabble. Nor is it, as has frequently been suggested, a cold-war confrontation between great Powers. The principles involved are just as important and the outcome of our discussions on them are just as far-reaching for the smallest State here represented as they are for the largest State amongst us. The great Powers may feel that they can rely on their own strength to maintain their position in the world; it is the smaller Powers who look most anxiously for international co-operation and stand to gain most from it. Indeed, I believe that the dispute and its result are much more important for small States than they are for the States which are rich and powerful. We are all deeply concerned, all deeply involved, all deeply responsible.
24. What, then, are the tests we bring to the consideration of the dispute? We do not believe that in order to enhance the power of the Security Council it is necessary to whittle away the authority of the General Assembly; the Council and the Assembly both have a vital role to play.
25. We do not believe that we can pick and choose which principles of the Charter we support and which we can avoid; the principles must stand together. We do not believe that the findings of the International Court or the resolutions of the General Assembly on this matter should be set aside; we respect the opinion of the Court and decisions of the Assembly.
26. We do not believe that, while small nations have been required to pay their assessments, often at severe sacrifice, great Powers should be free to pay or not to pay as they wish; there should lie one law for rich and poor alike. We do not believe that, in order to settle a particular dispute, we should destroy the financial foundation of the United Nations; that would be much too high a price to pay.
27. We believe that these tests are sound and are widely supported. Speaking for my own Government, I now go on to say that if we put first the maintenance of the principles and provisions of the Charter, we count scarcely less important the purpose of reaching agreement without prejudicing those principles.
28. Nearly a year ago, we made proposals for dealing with the subjects in dispute. We greatly hoped that those proposals, designed to take account of the views of the Soviet Union and other States, would lead to a successful negotiation. We were gravely disappointed when our proposals were not pursued. Since then we have supported every proposal for a settlement consistent with the Charter. When you, Mr. President, put forward the basis for a solution, we promptly agreed. When the Secretary-General took the initiative we immediately accepted his suggestion. Throughout we have been at all times ready to go more than half way to meet the views of other delegations. All the time we have been searching, not for a cold-war victory, but for a United Nations success.
29. Even at this late stage, we remain eager to find and support any compromise, any settlement, which could achieve agreement without inflicting a lasting injury upon the United Nations Organization or the Charter.
30. We go further. We have paid all that we owe. We have supported every United Nations obligation. We are proud to be the second-largest contributor to all the activities, voluntary and otherwise, of the United Nations family. We have pledged ourselves to increase our contributions to the economic activities of the United Nations. We are ready to go further, and if a voluntary fund is established, we ourselves would be prepared, under suitable conditions, to make a contribution. We shall do so in the interests of an effort, in general agreement, to enable the United Nations to escape from its financial difficulties and go forward unencumbered to face the tasks of the future, tasks which we are so anxious to tackle without further delay.
31. We appeal to the Soviet Union to give the lead so that all can join in a common effort to make that possible. If it does so, we believe that others will rally in support. Then we can put aside all dispute and forget the delays and disappointments of the past, and turn the deadlock to advantage, as we go forward, in agreement, with a United Nations not divided and weakened, but strengthened and sustained. It is sometimes said that all that stands between us and agreement is a matter of prestige. I cannot imagine any action which would rightly win greater prestige than such a gesture from the Soviet Union now. Equally, I can imagine nothing which would more rightly earn continuous and mounting condemnation than the throwing away of this opportunity. And if we are to be sentenced to further frustration and ineffectiveness, no one will have any doubt where the responsibility lies.
32. I was taught when I was young that when in trouble you should count your blessings. And now that we face certainly the gravest crisis in the United Nations since it was created, it is well that we should think of the factors which lay contribute to a solution, a settlement and a success.
33. First of all we have in you, Sir, a President of great experience here at the United Nations who commands the widest respect and brings to our problems new energy and new determination. You have already shown us, and you showed us again yesterday, that you will devote that energy and that determination to the cause of making the nineteenth session not a failure but a major advance.
34. I am sure that every member of every delegation would also wish to pay deep and sincere respects to the Secretary-General, whose statement yesterday emphasized so clearly the seriousness of our situation. He commands the confidence of us all. We were distressed that, carrying such a load of responsibility, he should have fallen sick at a time when our deliberations and negotiations reached a critical stage. In wishing him a full recovery to face the greater strain of the future, we believe that the trust we place in him may well be decisive in achieving an escape from our difficulties.
35. I would also wish to express my admiration for the will of the general membership of the United Nations to rally to the support of the United Nations at a time of crisis. The strength of the United Nations lies not in a few great Powers, but in the contribution which can be made by all the Member States, large and small, rich and poor, weak and strong. The membership of the United Nations has rallied before to save the United Nations and to enhance its authority. I hope that it is not too late for the overwhelming will of the general membership to achieve another success now.
36. I have said that the delay of the past few months has caused harm beyond calculation. But nevertheless I would agree that delay was better than breakdown. It is a remarkable fact that every one of the hundred and fifteen nations has been prepared to exercise such patience and such restraint and that we should all have been prepared to take a number of essential decisions by unanimous agreement. All this is evidence of an overwhelming desire to succeed in our efforts. Speaking for my own Government and my own delegation, I pledge our continued endeavour, in association with all those who wish to see the United Nations strong, to co-operate in a last and final effort to be worthy of our obligations.
37. I cannot believe that there are any of us who wish to perpetuate the deadlock. I cannot believe that there are any who wish the practical tasks of the United Nations to come to a stop. All we ask, and all we should ask, is that the principles of the Charter be maintained and that the potentialities of the United Nations for conciliation and co-operation should now be demonstrated to the world.