As head of the delegation of Panama, I have thought it advisable to give a brief account of my country’s attitude towards the international situation which confronts the United Nations.
2. The special geographical situation of the Republic of Panama and the fact that the great inter-oceanic link which plays such an important role in peace and war has been built across its territory and is maintained in operation there have caused my country to assume special responsibilities and, in view of its obligation to contribute to the defence of the American continent, it feels bound in any emergency to co-operate in the protection of the Panama Canal.
3. Faithful to these ideas and to the obligations-assumed at San Francisco, the Government which I represent has offered the United Nations, at the appropriate time and within the limits of its possibilities, its entire moral and material support for the maintenance of international order, which has been disturbed in Korea, and to facilitate the adoption of such measures as may be deemed appropriate to safeguard the existence, the efficient operation and the necessary defence of the interoceanic route. Today, when the circumstances which led to our offer persist and grow, by the moment, more serious, my country and my Government formally repeat this offer to the United Nations through the General Assembly.
4. Since a plan for military training which might serve as the basis of a collective force in the service of our Organization for the purpose of supporting its principles and decisions has been proposed before this same Assembly [279th meeting], my Government believes that the territory of the Republic of Panama may, for geographical reasons and due to material circumstances, be used to carry out part of the proposed training.
5. In this connexion, my Government declares here and now that, should this plan be approved by the General Assembly — and my delegation will support the plan — and should it be deemed necessary to use part of my country’s territory for that purpose, the Republic of Panama will receive any relevant suggestion with great interest and will consider it most attentively in a generous spirit of international solidarity.
6. My country’s concept of international order, its possible and necessary transformations and the methods and procedures necessary to achieve it are derived entirely from the sentiment of universal solidarity which is in keeping with the Latin spirit, in the traditions of which, as is well known, the origin of the idea of a community of nations may be found.
7. Nevertheless, the delegation of Panama recognizes that side by side with a universal international system, slowly and laboriously established, there also exists an inter-American system, organically established at a much earlier date than the former, which is the necessary outcome of more intensive international relations and a result of the natural inclination of our continent to find regional standards for living together — a fundamental point of the system; these standards are based on mutual respect and on peaceful methods of solving disputes between states.
8. The inter-American system, which is now being fully developed, still has much to accomplish and may, in certain circumstances and in cases of particular interest to the continent, prove to be a more adequate and more secure method of achieving the same goals and results for which, in this hour of uncertainty, the peoples of the world are searching in their keen desire for security and peace.
9. The country which I represent will continue to make such efforts as lie within its power in order to achieve, within the frameworks of the two systems, the common aims which both are pursuing.
10. The delegation of Panama listened with profound satisfaction to that part of the speech of the Secretary of State of the United States, Mr. Acheson [279th meeting], which referred to the possibilities of international co-operation and the plan of technical assistance.
11. Although my country has adopted security measures against communism, it remains true to democratic traditions in the exercise of public power, the right to individual liberty and respect for human rights. In my opinion those are the characteristics of the American continent, though not of the American continent alone. My delegation acknowledges that the democratic system of government and the need for safeguarding individual liberty necessitate the recognition and establishment of a social system based on those principles which offer the greatest possibility of individual advancement; we realize, however, that it would be tantamount to hoping for more than can or should be expected from human nature in the present circumstances, to claim that the democratic system and individual liberty can be maintained without a simultaneous and profound change in the social and economic system in each country.
12. As Mr. Santa Cruz, the representative of Chile, quite rightly explained the other day [281st meeting], a national or international system based on a natural and spontaneous relationship between individuals and nations is impossible while two-thirds of the population of the world live in conditions of misery and ignorance.
13. The delegation of Panama feels that the importance of the proposal put forward by the United States representative in this Assembly on behalf of his Government, and to which I have just referred, lies not only in the fact that groups of human beings, now divided into separate nationalities, will shortly find themselves in a position to promote their own advancement and welfare more effectively, but also in the fact, which has been clearly stated, that there are two equally important aspects of the defence of the democratic system and individual liberty; one of them consists in preventing the violent expansion of other concepts which are antagonistic to life and to mankind, and the other consists in reaffirming the belief that within the concept which we are trying to defend, individual and collective forces are united in the desire to bring about the material, moral and spiritual advancement of those peoples who should form the focal point of all our care and vigilance.
14. In accepting the United States proposal, the United Nations will, through the co-operation of all its Members and the full utilization of the technical assistance which will be forthcoming, have at its disposal the most effective instrument to maintain international order and peace which, in the final analysis, is the result of harmony between men and nations.
15. The Republic of Panama reiterates before this General Assembly its firm intention to co-operate in a material sense by all the means at its disposal, to the maintenance of international order; at the same time, however, my Government wishes to express its profound hope that the technical assistance which the United Nations will offer in the future shall, in time, become the most effective defence of democracy, liberty and peace.