Since this is my first intervention in the general debate, let me take this opportunity of extending through the Vice-President, the very warm felicitations of my delegation to Mr. Boland on his election as President of the General Assembly at its fifteenth regular session. His election is a dear manifestation of the very high esteem in which the Members of the United Nations hold him personally and the courageous and virile country of Ireland which he represents.
102. The proceedings in the Assembly at this session are the focus of extraordinary attention all over the world, both for the extreme urgency of most of the problems listed on the agenda and for the participation in its work by a number of distinguished Heads of State or of Government.
103. This session is also highlighted by a feature of very great historical significance: the admission among us of seventeen new States — sixteen African States and Cyprus — all of which recently won their independence. On behalf of the people and the Government of the Union of Burma, I wholeheartedly welcome their admission and offer to them our very sincere congratulations on their newly won status. The emergence of these new States in Asia and Africa and their membership of the United Nations will certainly enhance the authority and effectiveness of this world Organization.
104. At the outset, let me reiterate Burma's firm conviction that the main obstacle to the settlement of international problems and the achievement of a genuine world peace is the unmitigated persistence of the so-called cold war, the chief feature of which is the sharp division of the world into two hostile ideological camps, each one suspicious and fearful of the other, and both scrambling to entice new recruits into their respective ranks. Under such conditions an alignment with either of these two power blocs would do a grievous disservice to the cause of peace. On the other hand, Burma believes that peace cannot be achieved through passive neutralism, which would mean a withdrawal from the battle for peace. Hence, Burma has consistently pursued, and continues to pursue, a policy of strict but active neutrality. However, Burma does not aim at setting up a new grouping of neutral or unaligned States, for, by the very nature of things, this would mean bloc policy, which in turn would result in a further splitting of an already divided world.
105. Once again, the session of the General Assembly opens in an atmosphere of increased tension. We are now witnessing a general deterioration in international relations, especially among the great Powers, and the protracted disarmament negotiations have yielded very little result. The Paris Summit Conference, on which the entire world had placed such great hope, collapsed before it could get started. As all of us are aware, different reasons have been assigned for the collapse of the Summit Conference. The Soviet Union and its allies put the blame entirely on the flight of the United States U-2 aircraft over Soviet territory and to the United States Government's assumption of responsibility for it. The United States and its allies maintain that the U-2 flight was used only as an excuse, and that the Soviet Union had never any intention of letting the Summit Conference succeed. The Prime Minister of the Union of Burma. U Nu, in the course of his statement before our Chamber of Deputies on 22 September 1960, observed: "As we understand it, the U-2 flight constitutes a violation of international law. The American justification for the flight is new, and to us unconvincing. Having said this, however, we are bound to add that the U-2 flight, in our view, did not justify calling off the Summit Conference. As a peace-loving country, we deeply regret these unhappy developments. All the patient and painstaking endeavours of years by eminent statesmen throughout the world — and among them I deliberately include Premier Khrushchev and President Eisenhower — to reduce to practical day to day terms the truism that there is no alternative to peaceful coexistence, were swept away when the Summit Conference collapsed. With it, the possibility of armed conflict has correspondingly increased."
106. The collapse of the Summit Conference, of course, disrupted negotiations on disarmament, which is the most pressing problem of our time. My delegation associates itself wholeheartedly with the resolution adopted by the Disarmament Commission calling on all those concerned to resume negotiations on general and complete disarmament. We believe it to be of paramount importance that effective contact should never be broken among those most directly concerned with this pressing problem.
107. Against the background of this gloomy situation, a silver lining is discernible. It is a fact that a fair measure of agreement has been reached on matters of principle as well as of substance. Agreement has been reached on several aspects of nuclear test control, and every endeavour should be made to maintain this progress, both in and outside the United Nations. A willingness to accept the other side's good faith is as great a stride forward to peace as a signed treaty itself. A ban on testing, which will halt the arms race, is an essential preliminary to a disarmament agreement. Such a ban was at one time in sight, and we were heartened that the big Powers had begun to speak the same language. There was hope in the air, but the collapse of the Summit Conference once again poisoned the atmosphere.
108. The disarmament problem changes its character with every day that it passes. Once it could be framed in terms of the existing nuclear Powers getting rid of their nuclear weapons. Now it is becoming a question of preventing potential nuclear Powers from manufacturing nuclear weapons at all. The Peopled Republic of China is now the most important of these Powers. Even without outside assistance, that country is almost certain, in the absence of political agreements, to have its own bomb within a couple of years. In the light of these facts, the rejection by this General Assembly on 8 October of the proposal [A/4474] even to include in the agenda the item "Representation of China in the United Nations" is a demonstration of our inability to read the signs of the times and our refusal to face realities.
109. Modern diplomacy is in most cases a series of conditioned reflexes. Whatever proposals come from Moscow or Peking are sure to be denounced by the West as propaganda. And whenever the West comes up with a really worth-while proposal, it often gets the same treatment from its antagonists. This is regrettably true of the very abrupt Western dismissal of Premier Chou En-lai's statement last July that China would be prepared to conclude a peace pact that would clear Asia and the Pacific of nuclear weapons. As the Latin Americans are very desirous of maintaining peace in their region, and as the Africans are very anxious to keep their region free from big power rivalries, most Asians also welcome any move from any quarter to keep Asia free from military entanglements. In this context, Premier Chou En-lai’s statement that there must be created in the Far East and in the whole Pacific area a zone of peace, free from atomic weapons, deserves very close attention. There is no need to go into the merits of the proposal as such. A non-nuclear Pacific would be a greater step towards a peaceful world than a nuclear Pacific, in view of the fact that the People's Republic of China has very great potentials for the manufacture of atomic weapons, and the United States of America is already a leading nuclear Power.
110. One may very well question if the People's Republic of China is sincere. It seems to my delegation that it is a pointless question, since the word "sincerity" has long been dropped from the vocabulary of diplomacy. The only criterion that should be applied to Peking's proposal is the more reliable one of whether it serves China's long-term interests. It is obvious that the People's Republic of China cannot afford, with her very ambitious industrial revolution and all the colossal cost it entails, to become a nuclear Power also. Development in the one field implies some retardation in the other, in view of the vast handicaps it has to go through. The best way for the West to find out if Premier Chou En-lai was indulging in mere propaganda or not would be to take his proposals at their face value and initiate discussions on them.
111. Let me now deal with the situation in Algeria, which continues to cause deep concern throughout the world. Many representatives who preceded me have dealt with the problem more or less comprehensively, and therefore I will not attempt to narrate the events which have taken place since the question came up before the fourteenth session of the General Assembly. The hostilities continue unabated with grievous suffering and loss of human life. Over a million Algerians remain displaced and regrouped in various parts of Algeria. Impartial observers have testified to the hardship and distress of the Algerians detained in internment camps and prisons. The situation indeed continues to embitter international relations and increase international tensions, thereby constituting a threat to the peace of the world. Therefore, on 20 July of this year, twenty-five Asian-African nations, including Burma, requested [A/4418 and Add.1] the inscription of the question of Algeria on the agenda of the Assembly at this session.
112. While dramatic changes have taken place in what was once called French Africa, the problem of Algeria, to our regret, still remains unsolved. It will be recalled that in September 1958, eighteen French territories, not including Algeria, were each given the offer of, first, full integration with France as a Department of the French Republic; second, retention of its present territorial status, with the right to representation in the French Parliament as hitherto; or, third, membership in the new Community as a fully autonomous unit. This offer was made on the condition that rejection of the French Constitution by any territory would mean its immediate secession and the cutting off of all French assistance. Of the eighteen territories offered this choice, Guinea rejected the Constitution, thereby severing its connexion with France completely. The remaining seventeen all approved the Constitution, and of them, twelve chose to become autonomous units within the French Community. The other five, consisting mainly of small territories, decided to maintain the status quo. Of these, only one is in Africa, this being French Somaliland. The French Community, it will be noticed, fell short of the British Commonwealth, in which it is possible for a completely independent State to remain a member. Earlier this year, the Constitution was amended and the Community of today is, in all essentials, similar to the Commonwealth, all its members being independent and equal in status.
113. I recount these facts just to highlight the contrast between the French treatment of Algeria and of its other colonies. The smooth transition from the French Union to the French Community and the revision of the Constitution of the Community to meet the requirements of the present era reflect President de Gaulle's realistic and statesmanlike handling of the problem of its colonies. However, the President's handling of the Algerian problem is far from gratifying. While the President has not abandoned the principle of self-determination, which this world Organization has advocated, he has emptied the word "self-determination" of all its meaning.
114. It is certainly regrettable that the Government of France is now engaged in two wars, both equally far from glorious. In Algeria, it fights the Algerian nationalists. In France, it is fighting French editors, writers and intellectuals. And so far, it has wort more victories on the second front. Since April of this year, several French newspapers and journals have been seized; several books and publications banned or confiscated and authors arrested. Its successes in defending its honour against unarmed writers, however, is poor compensation for its continued failure to defeat the Algerian nationalists in Algeria. After six years of pacification, the Algerian nationalist forces are stronger, better organized and better equipped than ever. The great danger, of course, is that countries, not only those adjacent to Algeria, but others, may be sucked into the Algerian war if it continues. Algeria, in fact, is no longer a French problem, nor even an Algerian problem; prolonged war has turned the country into an international powder keg. Either President de Gaulle offers proper negotiations on the necessary guarantees for self-determination to the Algerian nationalists, or the war will be intensified, and more and more of Africa will be drawn into the blood bath. No African Government, however desirous of good relations with France, will be able to maintain even official neutrality much longer
115. The indications are that the war will be resumed even more fiercely and bloodshed will increase. There is now a vast chasm between the President and the Algerian nationalists struggling for their birthright of independence. The President wants negotiations only on the issue of a cease-fire and envisages self-determination in the form of elections under the supervision of French armed forces. The Algerian nationalists understandably cannot accept these conditions. It is difficult to imagine that the Algerian nationalists, after six years of revolution against the French, would ever agree to exercise their vote under the sole control of the French army. The only way out of this impasse seems to be to seek to implement the principle of self-determination through the agency of some form of international action. However, my delegation still entertains the hope that the two parties concerned will enter into "pourparlers", as to whose desirability there has been general consensus of opinion in this world Organization, before any internationally supervised referendum is envisaged. President de Gaulle, who is responsible for France's great achievements in other parts of Africa, can surely evolve a formula for Algeria, a formula based on the same principle of self-determination that has been applied to the other territories.
116. The developments in the Republic of the Congo (Leopoldville) have graver implications for the United Nations than anything that has gone before. It will be recalled that the original purpose of its intervention was to replace the Belgian troops and to hold the fort while order was being restored. The United Nations forces had neither the mandate nor the responsibility to cope with the next phase — the growing internecine strife among the Congolese, which from time to time assumed the character of civil war. This strife, at one time, threatened to become an international conflict. It is a matter for gratification that many leaders of independent African States, with full consciousness of the gathering war clouds over the heart of the African continent, which they rightly feel to be their own, rallied to the help of the United Nations and averted a major catastrophe.
117. Events in the Republic of the Congo will no doubt have their impact on the evolution of other African States, and the United Nations operations there are a test of how far this world Organization can contribute towards the restoration of law and order in the new Republic. The United Nations involvement in the Republic of the Congo must be viewed as a test case for this Organization. Its future is certainly at stake. My delegation wishes to see the United Nations making a perceptible advance towards the conception of a world order. If it fails to make any headway in its primary task of restoring law and order in the young Republic, then the Organization is likely to relapse into the immobility and impotency experienced at one time by its predecessor, the League of Nations, before its total collapse. My delegation, therefore, considers it essential that the present enterprise should not be allowed to break down. We feel that the United Nations must, in some sense, assert its legitimate authority in the Republic of the Congo, or lapse into humiliating passivity.
118. In assessing the success or otherwise of the United Nations operations in the Congo, we must look at the results in the context of the tangled events of the past few weeks. It will be recalled that the breaking point in the situation was reached about the middle of August. By that time the United Nations Force had virtually secured the primary objective for which it had been sent there: the Belgian troops had left — although there are still indications that many of them have come back as technicians — and a United Nations contingent had established itself in Katanga. The terms of reference given to the Secretary-General by the Security Council had been fulfilled,
119. My delegation has every confidence that the Secretary-General is sincerely and efficiently discharging his functions assigned by the United Nations. We have noted that each time a controversy has arisen about his Congo mandate, the Secretary-General has referred the dispute back to the Security Council. We are satisfied that all his authority is based solely on the decisions of the Security Council. In these circumstances, my delegation does not see any need at present to modify his office or his functions or to reorganize the Secretariat. Any such course is not only bound to retard the efficiency of the United Nations operations, but is sure to weaken the Organization itself.
120. The world has never so desperately needed an organization whose existence expresses not a Utopian fantasy but the biggest international reality of all. It symbolizes humanity's collective need for peace for the sake of survival, a need which overrides the national or ideological interests of any Member State.
121. The Congo affair has marked the start of a new phase in the evolution of the United Nations. It is our fervent hope that it will emerge as the world's indispensable agency for pouring oil on troubled waters. We must admit that the world is entering a period of acute crisis, with the cold war at its peak, but the most interesting and perhaps hopeful sign is that all significant campaigns involved in the cold war are being fought out in the United Nations. The gathering at this momentous session of the General Assembly of an unprecedented number of Heads of State or of Government itself is a tribute to the new importance of the United Nations forum in world affairs.