Mr. VAN ROIJEN observed that the Netherlands delegation was particularly happy to attend the present session of the General Assembly in the proud and beautiful capital of France, the country which had rightly been called immortal and which was the birthplace of so many principles regarding the respect for the dignity and liberty of the individual.
The present session of the General Assembly was meeting under grave and disquieting circumstances. Hardly three years had elapsed since the din of battle had died down after one of the most devastating wars of modem history, and already the clatter of arms was being beard anew. It would be futile and unwise to close one’s ears to those ominous sounds.
The people of the Netherlands and of Indonesia, who in the last great conflict had equally suffered the ravages of war and the terrors of occupation by cruel implacable aggressors, viewed that development with the deepest concern. They were especially dismayed about the rapidly deepening rift between their major allies in the struggle. They still felt certain that no unsurmountable conflicts of interest existed between major groups within the United Nations. The peoples united under the Netherlands Crown were convinced that a further splitting of the world into two camps would be equally harmful to both and that a clash of arms could, and therefore must, be avoided.
His country was willing and determined to contribute everything in its power to restore a greater degree of harmony between the opposing groups, and a greater freedom from fear to the world, but it insisted at the same time that two fundamental principles be respected upon which its national existence was founded.
The first was that a nation should be allowed to govern itself freely; the second, that the Government existed for the people, not the people for the Government. The Netherlands for one, would stand and abide by those principles, in Europe, in Asia and in the Americas, and would never be found wanting in the furtherance of this cause.
In its deep desire to strengthen the peace and to avoid disaster, the Netherlands still looked to the United Nations as the most effective instrument through the use of which that aim could be achieved. Public opinion was understandably disappointed that that instrument had not been used to greater advantage and that few problems had been effectively solved; yet the fact that many international conflicts which might endanger international peace were being openly discussed in the Security Council constituted a considerable advantage, as long as the Council remained within the scope of the attributions which the Members of the United Nations had granted to it in the Charter.
He wished to refer briefly to the situation in Indonesia, which was one of the issues discussed by the Security Council. In the hope of facilitating and speeding a settlement of the difficulties which had arisen between the Netherlands and the Republic of Indonesia, the former had accepted the services of a Committee of Good Offices. For a little over a year, the Australian, Belgian and United States members of that Committee, ably assisted by experts and supported by a Secretariat provided by the United Nations, had been at work to help the parties to reach a settlement of the complicated and difficult questions which kept them apart. He wished to pay a tribute to the relentless and untiring efforts of that Committee and its members in the interests of peace. The Netherlands, on its side, would continue to co-operate to that same end.
Considerable results had been achieved when, in the beginning of the current year, an armistice had been signed and an agreement reached on the basis of political settlement (S/649). Since then, progress had been slower, and difficulties between the parties had at times seemed to be increasing rather than decreasing. But it should not be forgotten that, with the « Renville » Agreement, at least one important result had been achieved: all fighting had come to an end.
The representative of the Netherlands said that the services of the Committee of Good Offices had been accepted by his Government as a sign of good-will and in a spirit of conciliation, although it had never recognized and could not today recognize the competence of the Security Council to intervene in what, in the first place, was a matter within its domestic jurisdiction and one for which it alone remained responsible, and, in the second place, contrary to situations existing in many other parts of the world, one which did not endanger international peace and security.
It was necessary for the Netherlands Government to maintain that attitude all the more strongly because of evident attempts from certain quarters to use the United Nations as an axe to sever all ties between the Netherlands and the Republic and to favour the development of conditions in the Republic that might lead to the establishment of an extremist regime which, instead of bringing freedom and independence, which those people ardently desired, would soon lead them hack to a situation of abject slavery, terminating all possibilities of obtaining economic and social freedom.
The events which had taken place inside the Republic of Indonesia in the past few weeks had been extremely disturbing. A man highly placed among the leaders of the Republic had openly disowned the signature which he had affixed to the « Renville » Agreement under the auspices of the Committee of Good Offices which the United Nations had sent to Indonesia. He had acted under the guidance of people who had only recently returned to Indonesia after many years of absence in a certain foreign country and who had been inspired by motives other than a desire to bring peace and independence to their people. The Netherlands Government had made it abundantly clear that it would act promptly and effectively to prevent foreign infiltration leading to a recurrence of terrorism and slaughter. It understood and respected the genuine national aspirations of the peoples of Indonesia, aspirations which should in no way be identified with certain forms of ideological extremism.
Those latest developments had made it clearer than ever that the issue between the Netherlands and the Republic was not whether the people of Indonesia would become an independent nation. That issue had been decided long ago and the creation of the United States of Indonesia, embracing the whole archipelago, was only temporarily delayed because the other federal States and parts which were prepared to join were waiting for a change in the attitude of the Republic in accepting a political agreement associating it with them in the Federation of the United States of Indonesia. As time marched on, the economic and political progress in the federal areas of Indonesia became more and more conspicuous and the contrast with the Republic more evident. Notwithstanding the clouds of propaganda and misinterpretation, the real issue emerged more clearly than ever: whether the United States of Indonesia would start operating under conditions which guaranteed the freedoms of the partner States and the democratic rights and privileges of their citizens, or whether from its inception it would be dominated by a minority which would certainly destroy those freedoms. Notwithstanding the disturbing developments of recent weeks, the Netherlands Government was putting its faith in the moderate and constructive elements in the Republic and was making a final effort to unite all those, both within and outside the Republic, who were willing to co-operate to safeguard those freedoms in the framework of a truly democratic federation.
As regards the broader issue of the work of the United Nations, it could not be denied that the positive results achieved in the past year had in some respects been disappointing. Most ominous in this connexion were the failures, on the one hand, to get accepted a plan for international control of atomic energy, and on the other to make any progress in disarmament and to create an international armed force as laid down in Chapter VII of the Charter. The United Nations must and would continue to strive for better results. However, in the face of those shortcomings, reality compelled the conclusion that the United Nations as it now functioned was far from providing anything like complete security for all its Members. The absence of security had finally induced the Netherlands Government to abandon its traditional policy of avoiding political alliances, and to make use of the possibilities opened by Article 51 of the Charter to seek increased protection by entering into a system of collective self-defence with other Western European nations against an eventual armed attack. By the treaty signed in Brussels on 17 March 1948, Belgium, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom had established among themselves a closer security system in order to give a sound basis for the close economic, social, cultural and political co-operation which formed the main and ultimate object of the treaty. The signing of that treaty by the Netherlands was sufficient proof of its strong awareness of the importance of a closer political, economic and social integration of the democratic countries of Europe and of its eagerness to participate in the realization of that aim. The Netherlands Government had, in that connexion, noted with interest the proposal made by France to convoke a European parliament in the near future. It would have to be a subject of serious consideration whether the development had progressed sufficiently to make such a parliament viable. The interest of the Western European nations in the project was evidenced by the fact that the Permanent Consultative Council of the signatories of the Brussels Treaty, for its part, had taken up the study of that question.
In connexion with the closer co-ordination of Europe, the Netherlands Government also wanted to emphasize the importance it attached to the integration of Germany in Europe, in order that that country might be enabled to play a positive role in the reconstruction of that part of the world, subject of course to the limitation of the preeminent interests of the allied countries.
The Netherlands felt entitled to underline the necessity for closer inter-European co-operation, because, together with Belgium and Luxembourg, it had taken the first initiative in that field in the post-war period and had made a great and constructive contribution by launching what was popularly known as the «Benelux». The very extensive task of unification of the customs tariffs of the three countries had been completed and a unified tariff had been put into effect on 1 January 1948. Not content to stop there, «Benelux» aimed at establishing a complete economic union, including co-ordinated economic, financial, fiscal and social policies, by 1 January 1950. The range and amount of difficulties and complications encountered in that effort between partners who were eager to come to a result and whose economies had many common features, gave a measure of the far greater difficulties which would have to be surmounted in any similar efforts on a larger scale. Yet it had been found that the results were worth the tremendous efforts.
Those difficulties were equally apparent in the economic and social work of the United Nations. It would be unwise to expect that the Economic and Social Council and its commissions, which were dealing with the problems of economic cooperation on a world level, could obtain easy results. Nevertheless, there was reason to be disappointed with part of the work of the United Nations in that field. He drew the attention of the General Assembly especially to two points in that respect.
The work of the Economic and Social Council and some of its organs was in constant danger of being frustrated by political debate preventing the serious consideration of the technical aspects of the work. The members of the Council and its commissions should be aware of that danger and therefore abstain as far as possible from elaborate discussions of a political or ideological character. Secondly, the difficulties of international economic co-operation could be overcome only in an atmosphere of economic realism. That realism was lacking in some of the discussions.
Special attention should be paid to the work of the regional economic Commissions, which had taken very useful initiatives in the past year. Also deserving of mention in this connexion was the Havana Conference which had produced a highly interesting charter of international trade and employment. He also hoped that the important work done in the field of human rights and freedom of information would soon be incorporated in international law. If within the next year those charters and covenants were accepted by a great number of the Members of the United Nations, the economic and social work of the United Nations in its first few years would not have been in vain.
The Netherlands delegation wished to express its appreciation of the excellent work done by different special commissions of the United Nations and by their secretariats, such as the Special Committee on the Balkans and the Temporary Commission for Korea, and the admiration and gratitude of its country for those in the service of the United Nations who, often at the risk and sometimes unfortunately at the sacrifice of their lives, worked for the cause of the international community.
There was need of a continued search for means of improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the United Nations as a force for peace. The only radical development which could ultimately and definitely lead to that result was a better understanding between the main Powers Subject to that proviso there were, however, possibilities for improving the machinery and procedure of the United Nations which might contribute to that purpose. The Netherlands Government would give its support to four suggestions which would be discussed during the present session.
The first concerned the continuation of the Interim Committee. The Netherlands Government had been one of those which had originally proposed the creation of a standing committee of the Assembly on international peace and security, an idea which finally took shape in the form of the Interim Committee of the General Assembly. The work which that Committee bad done in the first year of its existence had justified its creation. The Committee had given valuable advice to the United Nations Temporary Commission for Korea, for which it might otherwise have been necessary to convoke a special session of the Assembly. The Committee had furthermore laid the basis for a comprehensive study of methods for the peaceful settlement of disputes, which could usefully be continued in the future. Finally, the Committee had made the most exhaustive study to date of the problem of voting in the Security Council and had worked out some very concrete and valuable suggestions. In view of those achievements, the Netherlands Government was in favour of extending the life of the Interim Committee for at least another year.
Yet, a word of caution was perhaps not out of place. The intention of the Netherlands Government in suggesting the creation of a permanent committee had been to establish an organ, representative of all the Members of the United Nations, which could assist the General Assembly in the performance of its functions in the political and security fields during the intervals between regular sessions. In practice the Interim Committee had devoted most of its time to the study of problems of a general character. While that was certainly useful with regard to subjects which had to be studied and which could not be dealt with thoroughly in any other organ, care should be taken that the Interim Committee did not develop into a body for lengthy academic debates. The best method to avoid that would be to make use of it as much as possible in the field of practical politics. Procedural measures to prevent excessively long debates in the Interim Committee would also be welcomed by the Netherlands delegation.
An improvement which would take away one of the greatest causes of deadlock in the United Nations would be a more limited use of the so-called veto power. The Netherlands Government approved of the main features of the proposals worked out on that matter by the Interim Committee. It had consistently advocated that, although unanimity of the permanent members was a necessity in all matters of vital importance and notably in decisions under Chapter VII of the Charter, no such necessity existed with regard to the admission of new Members and to certain decisions dealing with peaceful settlement. Those aims would be achieved by general acceptance of the proposals of the Interim Committee.
A third possibility for strengthening the United Nations would consist in the creation of a small United Nations guard force along the lines advocated by the Secretary-General in his admirable report. The Netherlands Government would favour such a guard for police and similar duties.
Finally, the Netherlands delegation believed that the smooth functioning of the United Nations would be enhanced by clarifying and regularizing the status of the permanent delegations to the United Nations along the lines indicated in the very useful proposal of the Bolivian delegation. Both that proposal and the continuation of the Interim Committee would be a proof, and at the same time the logical consequence, of an interesting tendency towards permanency which could be traced in the organs of the society of States ever since the First International Peace Conference at The Hague in 1899, which had dealt with the problems of international peace and security. Eight years elapsed before the work was taken up again in 1907, but the First World War had broken out before a third international peace conference could be convened. At the end of that war, the League of Nations had been founded and, in order to accelerate its work, had been equipped with an annual Assembly, a Council meeting three or four times a year and, as a real innovation, a permanent international Secretariat.
The United Nations had gone one step further and had created a permanent Security Council.
And yet the experience of only a few years had already stressed the need of a still more continuous activity. In the previous year, the General Assembly had instituted an Interim Committee to help it discharge its responsibilities in the field of international peace and security during the intervals between regular sessions, and its continuation for at least another year seemed to be indicated.
The growing tendency toward continuity in inter-governmental co-operation, appearing so clearly from a survey of international life of the past fifty years, was surely an encouraging feature which should strengthen belief in the peaceful evolution of international relations. Yet, all improvements in machinery or procedure would be of no avail if a better understanding could not be achieved between those great Powers which had once fought side by side for such high ideals.
Mr. van Roijen hoped that the United Nations might be granted the wisdom, the tolerance and the perseverance to help the world to achieve a real and stable peace.