1. The delegation of Uruguay shares the satisfaction expressed at the election of the President for this session of the General Assembly. His personal qualities, which have been justly praised, confirm our confidence in his wise guidance.
2. The many problems to be discussed in this forum place a grave responsibility on us, for the hopes of a world thirsting for solutions to the many and increasingly urgent problems besetting it are centred on us. It is, we believe, essential that these hopes should be put into proper perspective and balanced against the possibility of fulfilment; otherwise we risk causing frustration, for the world is understandably impatient to see concrete results.
3. It does the cause of humanity no good when disenchantment comes through loss of faith in our rulers. As we see it, the road to progress lies in joint action combining the untiring efforts of the developing countries and the generous co-operation of the developed nations.
4. This space-age generation is witnessing the birth of a new North Atlantic civilization consisting of highly industrialized nations on the shores of the Atlantic and their outposts in Asia and Australasia, just as previous generations witnessed the development of the Mediterranean civilization.
5. We sincerely hope that this civilization will not suffer the fate of so many others which ignored the fact that the existence of a peripheral proletariat of nations is inevitably a destructive factor. We hope too that as a result of the concerted co-operation of developed and developing nations the latter will not become the proletariat on the periphery of this new civilization, an element of unrest and backwardness. I use the term "proletariat of nations" not in the sense it has for philosophers of history, namely, elements cast aside or excluded from a civilization.
6. We know of many examples of blindness to these facts; but we also know, and this strengthens our faith in human redemption, of examples of historic vision and generosity, like the Alliance for Progress. We reaffirm our faith in the salvation of mankind through the generous efforts of those who can help combined with the energies and will-power of those who must seek their salvation first and foremost through their own resources.
7. In its mere two centuries of independent life Uruguay has done its utmost not to miss any opportunity to contribute to the furtherance of justice among nations and the development of international law. We have never annexed territories, we have never deprived peoples of their rights, we have never sought to impose ideas by force; and all because we are convinced that peaceful coexistence will be achieved only when no one feels that he has been exalted to a superhuman level, that he has a monopoly of the truth and tries to impose it. Ideas are transmitted, not imposed.
8. We are frankly afraid of the debasing dogmatism of those who, in their blind pride have failed to understand that man's ideas are circumscribed by the limits to what he can achieve. We believe that peaceful coexistence, so vital to the survival of the human race, will never be achieved so long as such dogmatism persists and so long as régimes endeavour to export ideas or forms of government. Our contribution therefore has always been and will continue to be the strengthening of the cause of international law and justice among nations.
9. We have never been a burden on anyone, nor shall we ever be. We have faced difficulties, and we shall continue to do so. These difficulties are partly our own fault and partly due to a system of international trade whose progress, so far as the developing countries are concerned, has so far been more theoretical than practical.
10. The nations are generally aware that in international organizations Uruguay's vote has never been traded for material advantages or conditioned by anything but our idea of justice as the embodiment of international law. I am proud, therefore, to be the spokesman of Uruguay, a country which does not and will not waver, and this will he our contribution to the tasks we have all undertaken together in this great Assembly.