140. I bring you warm greetings and best wishes for the success of the nineteenth session of the General Assembly from the President of Ghana, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, and the Government and people of Ghana.
141. It is my great privilege to address this Assembly under the presidency of a Ghanaian. My first task is to congratulate you, Mr. President, on your election to this high office, and to wish you every success.
142. The great honour conferred on you by your election, Mr. President, although personal, is a reflection of the increasing attention which Africa is receiving in this world Organization. We wish you well in your arduous task, and we are confident that you will acquit yourself creditably in the face of this great challenge. To the outgoing President, Mr. Sosa Rodriguez of Venezuela, we must express our gratification for the excellent way in which he discharged his duties.
143. It is with great joy that we welcome into this Organization Malawi, Malta and Zambia. Our congratulations go to the leaders and peoples of these countries, whose struggles and perseverance have driven more nails into the coffin of colonialism. Colonialism is anachronistic and wasteful of human talents, and the sooner it is ended altogether, the better for all mankind.
144. We also look forward to welcoming into this Organization British Guiana, the British colonies and protectorates in the Arabian Peninsula, and other colonial possessions and protectorates. As for Portugal's intransigence in this matter, it is an open secret that it receives full support from the NATO allies, so we expect them to see to it that Portugal divests itself of its colonies and thus removes one of the threats to peace and security in Africa.
145. We have before us at this session a very heavy and important agenda. Without wishing to anticipate the Assembly's discussion of its agenda at the proper time, I would ask your indulgence, Mr. President, to touch on certain matters on the agenda whose urgency makes them an appropriate topic for at least brief mention in the general debate.
146. I am sure representatives will agree with me that the most urgent, though not by any means the most important, issue facing the Assembly is the present deadlock over the question of the arrears in the contribution of certain Members with respect to United Nations peace-keeping operations. The attitude of Ghana on this issue is quite clear. We feel that all Members owe a duty to the Organization to ensure that the United Nations is financially able to meet its commitments.
147. Ghana has paid its contributions to the United Nations peace-keeping operations, in spite of the fact that we have been very unhappy about the way in which some of these operations have been carried out. Indeed, we have felt very strongly about the conduct of the United Nations peace-keeping operations in the Congo. However, we are alive to the fact that the Organization needs financial sustenance if it is to survive. But my delegation is not prepared to support any action, no matter how well intended, which at the same time poses a threat to the continued existence of the Organization itself, and we believe that the invocation of Article 19 against France and the Soviet Union, and other countries, at this time, conjures up the grim possibility of the dissolution or, at least, the serious truncation of the United Nations.
148. That is why my Government, while convinced that every means should be explored to persuade Members in arrears to pay up their contributions, nevertheless sees wisdom in avoiding any precipitate action of enforcement which might lead to the collapse of the Organization or, at best, reduce it to a meaningless forum by the banishment of some of its Members on these grounds. It is the hope of my delegation that an acceptable formula can be found which will simultaneously enable the United Nations to get the funds it so direly needs, and enable those concerned to continue to participate in the deliberations of the Organization. I am of the opinion that our suggestion of a peace fund, given a chance, may get the Organization out of this particular deadlock over its pecuniary embarrassment.
149. My Government's preoccupation with this crisis stems from its profound conviction that, with all its imperfections, the United Nations is the only international organization devised by man for preventing head-on collisions between nations. Though sometimes blundering, at times in an extremely exasperating way, this Organization has nevertheless worked pretty well. Particularly for the smaller countries, it plays a role which no other organization in existence can perform quite as well. It is not the great Powers which need the United Nations for their protection and assistance. It is we, the smaller nations, who find in it the hope for a peaceful and prosperous international order within which all nations can pursue their objectives in mutual harmony, for the benefit of all.
150. The signing of the nuclear test ban treaty last year marked a watershed in post-war international relations. The year 1963 thus ended on a note of enthusiasm and hope for the relaxation of international tensions. The international political scene during the past year has remained relatively stable, but there are many areas of potential crisis and actual conflict which still demand the energies and attention of us all. It is the hope of my delegation that this Organization, in undramatic but significant ways, will continue to contribute to the further relaxation of international tensions, and thus enable the process of peaceful negotiation and agreement to come into their own as the only means of achieving just and lasting solutions to international problems.
151. The question of disarmament continues to occupy first place in the preoccupations of all nations. Regrettably, it is still the one issue on which progress is painfully slow and sometimes discouraging. But the fact that eighteen nations continue to negotiate laboriously is a sign that mankind is not rushing to its destruction in a nuclear war. In an atmosphere of hope, the absence of complete agreement does not spell disaster; it can be a spur to effort at mutual understanding and achievement.
152. It is most disheartening and painful to record that the people of Viet-Nam and Laos have never known what peace is since the end of the last war, while those who started the war and were vanquished are among the most prosperous nations of today. This is the result of cold-war pressures, and now we have added to the list of these afflicted countries Cuba, the Congo and Cyprus. The Greek and Turkish communities of Cyprus have lived in peace for centuries. Why cannot they do so now? The peoples of the countries concerned should be given a chance to settle their own affairs without outside interference. My delegation urges this Organization to take a more positive approach to the solution of these problems, and thereby bring peace and security to our unfortunate brethren in these afflicted countries.
153. The situation in Africa is naturally the immediate concern of Ghana and, indeed, of all Africa. While great strides have been made in recent years in the emancipation of the continent of Africa, there are still residual pockets of colonialism and racial discrimination which constitute an affront, not only to us Africans, but to all civilized humanity. The continued domination of the rest of Africa—including South Africa, Southern Rhodesia, South West Africa, Angola, Mozambique, Portuguese Guinea, French Somaliland, Spanish Sahara, Spanish Equatorial Africa and other Spanish enclaves—continues to pose a serious threat to peace and racial harmony on the continent of Africa. For us in Africa, the issue is quite clear. We would like the transition from colonial domination to freedom and independence to be achieved peacefully and without bitterness on either side. However, if the imperialists persist in frustrating the rights of Africans to independence, then we will accept the challenge and use every available means to ensure the total liberation of Africa.
154. Apartheid and racialism, the handmaidens of imperialism and colonialism, pose as serious and immediate a threat to world peace as does the arms race. Nowhere in the world is there such a fertile breeding ground for racial conflict that could escalate into international war as in South Africa. The Western Powers bear a great responsibility for South Africa's apparent ability openly to defy the United Nations and arrogantly to flout world opinion, for it is the trade and investments from the major Western Powers that sustain South Africa as a viable modern State with a prehistoric sense of morality and ethics. For their pronouncements against apartheid to carry conviction, the Western Powers must back pious words with concrete deeds. They cannot win the friendship of any of us in Africa while maintaining their association with the gruesome regime in South Africa.
155. The United Kingdom Government, however, deserves our commendation for its support of majority rule in Southern Rhodesia and for its firm stand against any unilateral declaration of independence by the racist minority government of that country. However, my Government feels that urgent steps should be taken to bring about a democratic and lasting solution of the Southern Rhodesian problem.
156. With regard to the Spanish territories in Africa, my delegation wishes to draw the attention of this Organization to the undemocratic constitutional evolution which is now taking place in those territories. By a series of constitutional decrees, the Spanish Government has sought to blindfold the people of those territories, and indeed the whole world, into believing that it has granted autonomy to its territories in Africa. To the Government of Ghana, the Spanish move is no different from that of the Portuguese Government. My delegation therefore invites the General Assembly to pay particular attention to those territories and to ensure that the provisions of resolution 1514 (XV) are fully applied to them.
157. Regarding the situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, I shall be very brief, since the Security Council is at the moment dealing with the matter. Recent events in the Congo are a cause of great concern to all Africans, and should be a matter of equal concern to the United Nations. It seems that the United States and Belgium, bent on a military solution to the Congo problem, are prepared to carry their interventionist policies to the bitter end. And yet, anyone who knows Africa and has an idea of the problems of the Congo will realize that a solution to the Congo problem cannot be sought in a military victory. The problem of the Congo is primarily a political one, and needs only a political solution, Furthermore, and here I quote my President, Dr. Nkrumah: "African problems can be resolved best by Africans themselves. The Organization of African Unity has shown by its efforts and record that it can, if left alone, solve African problems effectively."
158. The people of the Congo, assisted by the Organization of African Unity, should be given a chance to seek a lasting solution to the Congo problem. But this will depend on the realization that only a political solution can be meaningful or lasting. Furthermore, it must be accepted that no solution is possible as long as there is foreign military intervention. Therefore, we fervently appeal to all foreign Powers to leave Africa alone to find its own solution to its problems.
159. The struggle for the total liberation of Africa and racial justice cannot be won by individual African States working in isolation. Africa can be free; Africa can unite; Africa can achieve a high level of economic, cultural and social well-being only on the basis of a union government. Africa must unite to exist as a stable and prosperous continent. As President Nkrumah said at the Cairo conference of non-aligned States, African unification is not only an imperative of African progress; it is also a vital factor in the peace and security of the world.
160. Already, the Organization of African Unity has achieved some marked successes, such as the elimination of armed conflict arising out of the frontier disputes between Algeria and Morocco and between Somalia and Ethiopia. But the objective of African unity is not merely the solution of ad hoc problems of this kind. It is something more fundamental, whose achievement can be realized only in a union government. of Africa. It is our belief that African unity is the vital precondition for African advancement and the protection of territorial sovereignty and integrity. As uncoordinated, non-viable entities, the African countries will not be able to develop a sufficient concentration of power, either economically, diplomatically, or militarily, to ensure economic and social progress or to secure the sovereignty and integrity of the individual territories.
161. Clearly, Africa's voice can be truly heard not as a dissonance of conflicting pronouncements, but as the unified and consistent voice of a great continent. For the defence of the continent there must be a military arrangement, embracing all the African States, which can most effectively ensure collective defence against external aggression and prevent interstate conflicts. Recent events in Africa firmly underline this proposition. As Dr. Kwame Nkrumah has advocated time and again, if an African force had been deployed in the Congo to assist the Congolese authorities when it became inevitable for the United Nations Force to withdraw, many of the recent tragic events in that unhappy country could have been avoided.
162. It is of even greater importance to realize that African economic development and, in particular, African industrialization, can succeed only on the basis of a harmonized African economy, offering a greater diversity of resources and a wider market, capable of sustaining large-scale modern industry. If Africa can achieve peace and prosperity, that will be its greatest contribution to the world.
163. But in. all the vital areas just mentioned, no real achievement is possible without the establishment of an effective executive machinery with appropriate powers for co-ordinating policies. This, simply, is the argument for the establishment of a union government of Africa, under which the individual States may continue to exercise their sovereignty. This is the logical development of the decisions taken by the African Heads of State or Government at Addis Ababa in May 1963, and at Cairo in July 1964.
164. I think that one is safe in saying that, apart from the arms race and the risk of nuclear war, the greatest potential threat to international peace and harmony is the ever-growing disparity between the increasing wealth of the older countries and the staggering problems of want, disease and illiteracy which confront the new nations; between the material comforts of the "haves" and the anxieties of the "have- nots ".
165. The growing gap between the affluence of the advanced countries and the privations of the developing countries is a problem that can no longer be ignored by the affluent societies of today. While the economies of the developed countries are growing very fast, those of the developing countries are failing in many instances even to keep pace with the growth of population. The awareness of this tragic phenomenon has now made the problem of economic development an international concern. To their credit, the Member States of the United Nations have become aware of this problem and have been developing programmes of assistance to enable developing countries to help themselves.
166. So far, however, the flow of aid has been neither consistent nor commensurate with the problem at hand. Even more important, it appears that the core of the problem has been overlooked. Foreign aid has now become the sine qua non of development, while in fact the classic method of economic development has always been through foreign trade. What is needed by the developing nations is not so much foreign aid, uncertain in its application as it is. What is needed is a new approach to international trade, which will enable developing countries to earn the foreign exchange necessary for economic development through the sale of their products. We want trade, not aid.
167. The present situation in international trade is one in which, while the markets for primary products of the developing countries are becoming static, the prices for the capital goods needed for economic development have been rising at an alarming rate. Added to this, tariff and fiscal policies in the developed countries create further impediments to the ability of developing countries to earn foreign exchange. That is why Ghana and other developing countries placed such great hopes in the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. It is regrettable that during the deliberations in Geneva some of the developed countries did not appear to appreciate the immensity of the problem facing developing countries. We hope that, in the appropriate committees of this Assembly, effect will be given to the establishment of the Trade and Development Board recommended by the Geneva Conference, and that the entire international community will co-operate to ensure that international trade becomes a means of ensuring prosperity for all.
168. It is tragic that in a world in which two thirds of mankind go to bed hungry, fantastic wealth is wasted on the production of arms, the sole purpose of which, whether calculated or not, is the destruction of man himself. Indeed, the time has come for the advanced countries to consider seriously the question of total and complete disarmament, and earmarking part of the vast sums spent on armaments for the benefit of mankind. We, therefore, gladly welcome the proposal of the Soviet Union that not only 1 per cent, but up to 15 per cent, of funds expended on the arms race should be used to help the developing countries.
169. Now let me refer briefly to the question of the right of the People's Republic of China to its seat in the United Nations Assembly. Ghana has always maintained that the absence of the People's Republic of China in the United Nations is a travesty of justice. It makes even less sense now that China, whether we like it or not, has joined the nuclear club. Now, more than ever before, no meaningful negotiations on disarmament can exclude China. But, quite apart from this consideration, China has to be represented in the United Nations if that body is to maintain any claim to being a world organization.
170. We cannot wish away 700 million human beings; we cannot ignore the influence of Chinese policies in world affairs. The actions of many Members of this Assembly are partly a reaction to Chinese policy or even to the mere existence of China as an important force in international affairs. Any attempt, therefore, to isolate such a Power from the one world forum where some of the most pressing problems of peace and war may be decided, is just incredible. We have always advocated the reinstatement of the People's Republic of China to its lawful place in the United Nations. We still hold that view, and we will continue to support any move to end the present isolation of one of the original Members of the United Nations.
171. It is now generally accepted that the nations of the world, with their varied and so me times conflicting ideologies and economic and political systems, must coexist peacefully, if they are to exist at all. Unless we are prepared to live together in as much harmony as possible in present circumstances, we shall be forced to lie together as inert particles of atomic dust. This is the only choice, and I think that the majority of mankind have chosen peaceful coexistence as the only sensible alternative. Indeed, last August, an ad hoc committee of the United Nations grappled with the intricacies of codifying the principles of peaceful coexistence. Not unexpectedly, progress was rather limited. We, however, look forward to eventual success.
172. Finally, may I say a few words about the composition of the agencies of the United Nations. Up to 1959, representation on those bodies may have reflected the structure of the membership of the United Nations. Today, that representation does not bear any relationship to the realities of the present-day world or even to the membership of the Organization itself. Two thirds of the world is under-represented in the various bodies of the United Nations. Asia and Africa, in particular, do not have a representation on those bodies commensurate with their membership of the United Nations or their problems — problems that are increasingly becoming the major preoccupation of this body. Clearly, this state of affairs cannot be allowed to persist.
173. Last year, the Assembly made a tentative approach at correcting the imbalance in representation on United Nations bodies. That effort did not even scratch the surface of the problem. It is rather distressing to note that only thirty-eight Member States have so far ratified the relevant resolutions [1991 A and B (XVIII)]. My delegation takes this opportunity to urge all Member States concerned to ratify those resolutions as early as possible.
174. This year, we must find a real solution which will ensure the proper representation of all parts of the world. This is imperative if the Organization is to have a real meaning for all its Members.
175. It is the sincere hope of the Government and people of Ghana that the Charter of this Organization, the spirit of which calls for the harmonious endeavours of all races, will guide mankind to strengthen world peace and security. We are confident that the road will be cleared for greater economic and cultural co-operation as enshrined in the Charter, and that, guided by the imponderable incentives of moral and spiritual values that have been preached throughout the ages, we may re-echo and work for the realization of that perennial message; "Peace on earth and goodwill towards men".