Hungary

It is beyond doubt that the present fifteenth session of the General Assembly of the United Nations is one of the greatest importance since its inception and may well become one of historical significance. This follows from the international situation itself and from the fact that two questions of paramount importance in the present-day life of mankind, general and complete disarmament and the complete liquidation of the colonial system, are on the agenda. 15. It is an important fact that the leaders of many countries of the globe, intent on discussions and negotiations, have assembled for the first time in such a large number in one place. It is of no less importance that together with the newly admitted countries the United Nations has now representatives from ninety-eight countries participating in its discussions. As equal Members of the United Nations, the representatives of countries which through long generations had been excluded even from shaping their own fate may, by their admission, make their opinions heard on the great issues of international life. The Government and the people of the Hungarian People's Republic warmly welcome the peoples of the countries newly admitted to the United Nations, and wish them many successes in their independent development. 16. The Hungarian delegation wishes the General Assembly and Its elected officers success in their work. 17. In our world, armed and fraught, as it is, with conflicts, the question of the maintenance of peace is the one that keeps public opinion in all countries active to the highest degree. In this situation the peoples first of all expect the United Nations to do all in its power to promote disarmament. The representatives of the big Powers are probably more familiar than I am with the extent of the present-day arms race, and with the fact that great quantities of the terrible weapons of mass destruction are already piled up. The great danger inherent in the present day situation is, however, known to us all. Public opinion is pressing for agreement on disarmament. We know that the realization of general and complete disarmament calls for further persistent efforts by the peoples and for sober attitude by all responsible Governments. 18. World public opinion demands from the leaders of nations even greater responsibility in the present situation. Consequently, a responsible leader, when addressing his own people or the United Nations, cannot evade the great issues of peace. Upon Initiative of the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union, the untiring defender of peace, a great number of heads of States, prime ministers and other statesmen vested with considerable powers are taking part in the present work of the General Assembly. People all over the world expect them to say frankly whether or not they are in favour of disarmament. I repeat: they must answer this one question and nothing else: Do they want disarmament or not? And if they say "yes", people everywhere expect the leaders also to act in that spirit. Unfortunately, this question sometimes fails to receive a clear and unequivocal answer, but even more often words and deeds do not coincide. 19. In words almost everyone stands for peace, but deeds speak more clearly than words. Everyone knows that while the Soviet Union and the other socialist countries have, in recent years considerably reduced their armed forces, the responsible leaders of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Powers come up with slogans of peace only with a view to covering up the arms race conducted by them. It Is instructive for the peoples that, while the Governments of the Soviet Union and of the other socialist countries prepared for 20 September 1960, the opening date of the General Assembly of the United Nations, with new proposals on disarmament and other constructive proposals, the leaders of NATO scheduled for the same day their military exercises called by themselves the biggest ever. True, in his statement Admiral Dennison called this a pure coincidence, but we wonder whether there is a single man in the world who believes this. This demonstration was obviously designed to be a show of strength, but in this respect It was a waste of expenditure and a futile effort, because the other party cannot be frightened. And those who can show the peoples nothing else than military exercise do not give evidence of their strength but reveal their complete lack of good will and their political weakness. 20. The most urgent task of the United Nations in the defence of peace, a task which cannot be further delayed, is to condemn most resolutely the sword-rattling, the cold-war manoeuvres and aggression against the sovereignty of States. One of the greatest dangers to the peace of the peoples is presented by aggressive German militarism, revived and increased in strength with the money, weapons, political and administrative support of the NATO powers. 21. Revanchist declarations are an every-day occurrence in West Germany. The memorandum of West German generals demanding atomic weapons stirred up even western public opinion. How is it possible that leaders of nations could so soon forget the sacrifices, the lessons of history, the solemn declarations by which they swore the destruction of German imperialism, and the international treaties concluded to that end? Not to mention now the immense sufferings and sacrifices of other peoples, is it so long ago indeed that French, British and American soldiers were killed in large numbers in the murderous war of German imperialism? No, this was not so long ago. The widows, orphans, the invalids are still alive, and peoples, including the Hungarian people, have not forgotten. On the contrary, they demand a decisive curb on revived German imperialism, the liquidation of the remnants of war, the conclusion of a peace treaty with the existing two German States. 22. The Hungarian people witnessed how their total national income of five years, all the results of five years work of the entire nation, burnt to ashes in the Second World War. They lost nearly 8 per cent of the adult population, over half a million human lives, approximately as many as did the United States with a population seventeen times as great as that of Hungary. In their own country our people have already wiped out the imperialistic rule of monopoly capital, the source of war. In our country there Is no one profiting by armaments and speculating on war. Inciting hatred among peoples and warmongering is prohibited by law. Our people have every reason to hate war and imperialism. They want to live in peace with other peoples. They want to work and enjoy the more and more abundant harvest of their work in peace in the future as well. 23. It is also the view of the Hungarian people that mankind now has but two alternatives. The issue is whether the epoch-making achievements of science will cause the unprecedented destruction of human lives or whether a rich and happy future is in store for mankind. The choice is not difficult for the peoples, and the solution can also be found. First of all, it is necessary that the influential circles in the United States return to their senses from the bankrupt policy of strength, realize the failure of the cold war, apparent to all, and show, starting from this session of the General Assembly, readiness to start negotiations on general and complete disarmament. This would strengthen peace and would result in new economic prosperity, would give a stimulus to the peaceful competition, of the two social systems, and the working people would immensely gain by it both in the East and in the West. 24. On behalf of the Government of the Hungarian People's Republic our delegation fully supports the Soviet proposal on general and complete disarmament submitted to the fourteenth session of the General Assembly [799th meeting], which endorsed it unanimously in principle. We also support the latest proposals of the Soviet delegation [869th meeting] because they can enhance the realization of disarmament. 25. The whole of mankind follows closely and with sympathy the large-scale and dramatic struggle of the colonial peoples for their liberation. The time is ripe indeed for the complete and final liquidation of the colonial system, all the more so because the colonial system, this shameful product of imperialism, is an ever-present source of conflicts. Its liquidation will represent a great stride forward on the road to the final elimination of wars which threaten the lives of millions of people. 26. The colonialists have for long barred the oppressed colonial peoples from development and subjected them to economic exploitation. In a barbaric way they exterminated the population of colonial countries by the millions. We have heard here the representative of the Belgian imperialists, who had for so long kept the Congolese people in serfdom, praising his masters for giving the Congolese people independence and saying that they performed their latest military actions only in order to protect Belgian women and children. However, they forgot to mention that the security of the Belgian citizens living there was not threatened by the peaceful people of the Congo, but only and solely by the provocations of the imperialists. 27. They forgot to speak about the fact that for many years the Belgian colonizers had cut off the hands of thousands of Congolese men, women and children for refusing delivery of ivory and latex. No word was said either of such horrors as were disclosed by the contemporary author, Edmund D. Morel, in his book entitled The Black Man's Burden. It appears from data given in that book that at the beginning of the Belgian rule even the most modest estimates did not indicate the Congolese population as amounting to less than 20 million. According to the data of the 1911 census, however, which were not published in Belgium but were reported in a British consular dispatch, the inhabitants of the Congo numbered only 8.5 million. This means that nearly 12 million Congolese were killed in less than 25 years. And this is only the lowest estimate. 28. Some colonialists now put on the white toga in hypocrisy and claim that it is they who liberated the people of the former colony in question. This is a false presentation. The colonialists only robbed the colonial peoples of their freedom, and it is not they who "give" it to them, but the colonial peoples themselves in a strenuous struggle are regaining now their freedom of which they have been robbed. 29. The colonialists claim that they have "civilized" and "educated" the colonial peoples. Moreover, they are even contemplating whether the peoples of their colonies are mature enough for an independent national life. But everybody knows that long before the appearance of the colonizers there already existed the ancient Chinese, Indian, Indonesian cultures and civilizations, the high-standard Arabian astronomy and mathematics, there existed mighty and well-organized African states. They are speaking about education. All of us listened here, in turn, to speeches by Mr. Nkrumah, President of the Republic of Ghana, by Mr. Fidel Castro, Prime Minister of Cuba, by Mr. Sukarno, President of the Republic of Indonesia, and other prominent representatives of former colonial and semi-colonial peoples. Many of the unsolicited "teachers” and "educators" may well learn from them humaneness, sense of responsibility, and ability of judgement worthy of statesmen. Last but not least, they deserve high respect for their great moral courage in the face of imperialism. 30. Those who thus far profited by the colonial system should understand that false excuses or the distortion of truth have no longer any effect in this question. They should take cognizance of the fact that the time for the complete liquidation of colonial rule has come. The course of history has quickened. The foundations of the colonial system have been shaken so much that any attempt at obstructing the progress of liberation will not stop but accelerate it. 31. Some representatives in the general debate attempted to divert the attention from the colonies and from the real colonialists by casting rude slanders at the Soviet Union and the people's democracies. This is a futile attempt. Even children know the world over that the colonies and semi-colonies are in Asia, Africa and South America, and that the main footholds of the colonizers and the colonial system are not in Eastern Europe but in Western Europe and North America. It cannot be laid at the door of the colonial peoples that the countries which were for a long time objects of the colonizers' exploitation have, so to say, no industry, their agriculture is backward and primitive, more than 90 per cent of their population, as is often the case, is illiterate and starving, and the average span of life is 30 to 35 years of age. 32. In my country nearly two-thirds of the national income is produced by industry and agriculture is in progress. The annual rate of industrial development on the average of the years 1920 to 1945 was one per cent, while during the period since the liberation of Hungary, the yearly increase in industrial production has been 11 per cent on the average. During the fifteen years since the liberation, the number of secondary-school students has risen from 52,000 to 204,000, that of university students from 11,500to 34,500; illiteracy has completely vanished. The average span of life has increased from forty-eight in 1930 to sixty-five years of age in 1960, that is, by seventeen years. Not even in their own countries can the gentlemen of colonialism claim such a rate of development, not to speak of the nations they held in subjugation. 33. How dares anybody slander the relationship between my country and the Soviet Union when my people owe their vigorous development of the past fifteen years to a great degree to the manifold unselfish economic and cultural assistance given by the Soviet Union in accordance with the principles of socialism? There is no foreign capital in our country, and we pay dividends to no one. Within the framework of Soviet and Hungarian trade relations, the Soviet Union gives Hungary more than 80 per cent of raw materials, energy and semi-finished products in exchange for over 80 percent of industrial products. The leaders of the capitalist countries are proficient in trade, and they know what this means. They cannot name a single capitalist country which would maintain such favourable trade relations with a smaller and less developed country. None exists, for this would contradict the plundering nature of imperialism. 34. The Government and the people of the Hungarian People's Republic uphold the idea of freedom. They warmly welcome the victorious Cuban revolution and are in solidarity with the peoples of Algeria and the Congo. They wish all peoples who are still in colonial or semi-colonial subjugation to win their complete national independence soon. 35. From the point of view of the liquidation of the colonial system, our delegation would consider it practical if any country whose imperialists were formerly oppressors of a given country were to be excluded from all activities concerned with the liberation of that colonial country. In such away the United Nations could prevent various possible provocations and the maintenance in some other disguised form of former oppression. The principle of rendering assistance to former colonial countries is just, in so far as it can be ensured that such assistance is rendered without conditions violating the political or economic independence of the recipient countries. It can be imagined and it would be a real proof of good will if the party which earlier extracted large profits from that country would pay a fair and reasonable compensation to the people of the liberated country. 36. The Hungarian delegation supports the Soviet proposal [869th meeting] for the complete liquidation of the colonial system, its discussion at the General Assembly and the adoption of the draft declaration. By adopting the proposal the General Assembly of the United Nations could increase the prestige of this world Organization in the eyes of the peoples. 37. When, by way of the liquidation of the colonial system, all peoples capable of independent national life will have been freed and their countries will have become Members of the United Nations, the universality of this Organization will also be realized in the true sense of the word. It is absurd, however, to talk either about the universality of the United Nations or about the representation of the whole of mankind unless the representatives of the People's Republic of China, comprising 650 million people, have taken their rightful seat in the United Nations. We have only to think of it, and it becomes evident immediately that he who is opposed to the People's Republic of China taking its seat in the United Nations is opposed also to the attainment of a comprehensive agreement on disarmament. The spokesmen of the People's Republic of China are completely right in saying that they consider themselves bound only by those international agreements in the preparation of which they have participated. 38. It is the duty of the United Nations to put an end to that narrow-minded, selfish great-Power policy, injurious to all, by which the delegation of the United States has for years prevented the People's Republic of China from taking its rightful place in the United Nations. Great responsibility devolves upon every delegation in dealing with this question. The delegation of the United Kingdom, for instance, whose Government maintains diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China, knows well enough that the so-called "question of Tibet" is an artificially conceived product of the cold war, the slandering of the People's Republic of China. It is at the same time a question fiercely debated among United Nations Member States. In spite of this, the delegation of the United Kingdom in the General Committee pronounced in favour of inclusion of the question in the agenda. On the other hand, it went so far as to oppose inclusion of the question of Chinese representation on the grounds that it was a question much disputed among Member States and that the debate on this question would "spoil" the atmosphere of the General Assembly. What is that? Is there nothing wrong in creating antagonisms by a debate on the "question of Tibet"? Is it only the question of the legitimate rights of the People's Republic of China that we should not discuss in order not to "spoil" the atmosphere of the General Assembly? It is high time to cease to deal with important questions in such a manner. The question of Chinese representation in the United Nations is already over-ripe: it should be solved, and it would increase the prestige of the United Nations, the efficiency of its deliberations and the strength of its decisions. My delegation stands for the enforcement of the legitimate rights of the People's Republic of China and is in support of the admission to the United Nations of the People's Republic of Mongolia. 39. I should like to raise another question as well. In accordance with the rules of procedure the so-called provisional agenda was already distributed to the Member States in July of this year. In that agenda the respective agencies of the United Nations and different Member States proposed seventy-three items to be included in the agenda of the fifteenth session of the General Assembly. Whoever Is interested in the pressing issues concerning mankind, in disarmament, Algeria, the Congo, and in other great Issues, took this document in hand with expectation. We were surprised that the Government of the United States, which in words is a follower of peace and has a high opinion of the United Nations, had not submitted any questions in this provisional agenda. 40. It is not without interest, however, that when thereafter, on 20 August 1960 the Soviet Union proposed a new item, on that very day the United States submitted another proposal, so to speak, in reply to the former. The proposal of the Soviet Union was numbered 8, and that of the United States bears number 9. The Soviet Union proposed to the General Assembly to discuss the aggressive actions of the United States against the Soviet Union. The United States proposed a debate on the so-called "question of Hungary". This In itself makes it clear to anybody concerned with questions of international life when and for what purposes the United States needs the so-called "question of Hungary" in the United Nations. 41. Everybody is well aware that the much-disputed 1956 events in Hungary are outworn questions, settled by history and belonging to the past. It is also commonly known that the so-called "question of Hungary" in the General Assembly or in its Committees is nothing else but a pure Intrigue in the service of the cold war and a campaign of slanders against two Member States of the United Nations, the Hungarian People's Republic and the Soviet Union. The main target is, of course, not the Hungarian People's Republic. We Hungarians are sometimes inclined to believe that the earth revolves around us, but even we do not believe that the influential circles of the United States would see Hungary as the main obstacle in the realization of their plans for world domination. 42. Everything that has happened in the United Nations so far in regard to the so-called "question of Hungary" is unworthy of this world Organization but is equally unworthy of the Government of the United States of America. The people in different countries, including the Hungarian people, today would expect this Government to take clear and positive steps with a view to lessening tension and to promoting disarmament and a lasting peace. The responsible leaders of the United States are gravely mistaken if they believe they can substitute the expected positive steps with U-2 flights in springtime and by repeatedly raising the trumped-up "questions of Hungary and Tibet" in autumn. Today people are familiar with politics to such an extent that no Government can with such things save its prestige and influence in their eyes. The so-called "question of Hungary" In the United Nations has to do with the cold war and many other things, but it has nothing to do with Hungarian reality, nor has it anything to do with the objectives laid down in the Charter of this world Organization. It has also something to do with United States-Hungarian interstate relations, which are commonly known not to be good as yet. There are, indeed, a number of unsettled Issues in our relations. These issues with one exception can be settled extremely easily. We are ready to settle them and we are firmly confident that sooner or later they will be solved in a manner satisfactory for both parties. We are confident because we are aware that even the most malevolent people are unable to point out any single question in which the interests of the United States and the Hungarian peoples are conflicting. On the contrary, we are of the opinion that the Hungarian and the United States peoples have common interests in safeguarding peace, shaping friendship between them and normalizing relations between the two countries. 43. I have something to say about the only serious issue in United States-Hungarian relations, an issue difficult to settle because it also has international aspects. In times of peace, United States-Hungarian relations have been correct ever since it had been possible to establish them. These relations have deteriorated, I have to stress, since 1947 — not, as many seem to believe, since 1956. United States-Hungarian relations were good, even cordial, at a time when aristocrats, landlords and big capitalists were in power in Hungary. These relations have been giving trouble only since the government and power in Hungary had passed into the hands of workers and peasants. From this we have drawn the conclusion that what lies behind our unsatisfactory relations, and even behind the pressing in the United Nations of the so-called "question of Hungary", is actually the fact that only one thing really annoys the Government quarters of the United States: they do not like the social system of the Hungarian People's Republic. 44. As is well known, the United Nations was created by various countries with socialist and capitalist systems exactly with a view to ensuring peaceful coexistence among countries with differing social systems, their friendship and co-operation in solving common problems concerning the vital interests of mankind. The founding Members knew full well, and it is time for everybody to acknowledge, that there exist in the world countries with differing social systems. Moreover, they have all to understand that these countries must coexist simultaneously, in peace, in normal interstate relationship side by side. This is inevitable. 45. The Hungarian working people have definitely put an end to the power and exploiting activity of big capitalists and landlords and have created for themselves a socialist State and society. In this they live now and will live in the future as well. This is a historically accomplished and unalterable fact, a result of the laws of society which are effective independently of the will of individuals. United States- Hungarian relations would at once return to normal, and even the United Nations would at once extricate itself from a conflicting cold war issue imposed on it, if the Government of the United States, listening to reason, were to acknowledge this fact, the alteration of which actually is beyond its competence and possibilities. 46. The social order of the Hungarian People's Republic is a domestic affair of Hungary, in which the Hungarian people and their constitutional organs alone are competent. I rendered account of the Government measures much discussed here to the Hungarian National Assembly on 9 May 1957. The National Assembly, whose session was attended by all representatives but two, unanimously approved of all measures taken by the Government. Under Hungarian law, the Hungarian Government is responsible only to the National Assembly, to no one else in the world. The latest general elections in Hungary were held in November 1958. In our country there is universal and equal suffrage by secret ballot, and all citizens over eighteen years of age have the right to vote. The candidates of the Patriotic People's Front received 97 per cent of the votes cast by those enfranchised. This is now the present National Assembly was constituted, which elected our present Government. Our lawful Government conducts the affairs of the country, enjoying the confidence of the people. This is known also to those who are intriguing against us. They also know full well that in vain do they cast aspersions at us; neither slanders nor resolutions enforced in the United Nations can alter this fact. 47. The Hungarian delegation has come to participate in the work of the General Assembly with the intention of contributing as beet it can to a constructive solution of the really great and important problems. To cold war intrigues and slanders the Hungarian delegation answers, fully aware of the justice, of the moral and material strength of the Hungarian people and of the whole socialist camp, in the spirit of its efforts at easing international tension. These efforts require us to take a clear position. I have to say frankly that we regard the resolutions adopted so far by the General Assembly on the so-called "question of Hungary" as inadmissible attempts to interfere in the domestic affairs of the Hungarian People's Republic. We are confident that the day will come — if not now, then at a later date — when the General Assembly itself will invalidate its own unlawful resolutions on the so-called "question of Hungary" as actions contrary to the Charter. 48. There are some who ask for information on the situation in Hungary. Is there indeed anybody here who would not know that for several years in Hungary a legal, order and regular public life have been prevailing which might be envied by many a capitalist country? 49. Our people are working unremittingly and zealously, and as the result of their work industrial production has increased about 36 per cent, agricultural production 12 per cent during the last four years. Living standards on the average have gone up 24 per cent, and the real wages of industrial workers increased 32 per cent in the last three and a half years. Sanitary and cultural conditions are equally good. Seventy-five per cent of the population is covered by health and accident insurance free of charge. May I mention, for example, that the eminent United States scientist, Dr. Sabin, has been to Hungary recently. He could see that in our country there was not a single case of infantile paralysis in the critical months of this year. He suggested that Hungarian physicians should undertake to instruct specialists of other countries, since they had organized free vaccination covering all children, as well as other necessary measures, in an exemplary manner. 50. Let those who are interested in our conditions visit us and see the situation in our country with their own eyes. Since the well-known events, thousands of tourists and hundreds of newspapermen from the West, including many United States citizens, have visited Hungary. There have been among them high officials of the United Nations, United States State Department aides, Senators, public figures, and so forth. In Hungary there are diplomats of the United States and of all the other big Western capitalist countries. Represented in the General Assembly are a number of neutralist countries whose leaders, eminent statesmen, have been to our country in recent years. Please ask them about the situation in Hungary. 51. I admit that we did not furnish official information to some gentlemen who had been charged with so-called "commissions". Neither did we give information to Sir Leslie Munro, in respect of whom, the other day, at a meeting of the General Committee, the representative of the United States, replying to the question whom Sir Leslie Munro actually represented, said — obviously in a slip of the tongue — that he represented the United States. Nor did we supply information to Mr. Hammarskjold at the time when he had been commissioned to investigate. The General Assembly must know, however, that since Mr. Hammarskjold has got rid of his burdensome commission we have repeatedly invited him to visit Hungary. It seems he could not come owing to pressure of work. I can assure you, this time as well, that, whenever any officer of the United Nations wishes to visit Hungary without being specially commissioned to deal with a cold war issue, we shall receive him with the courtesy and hospitality due to a high-ranking guest. 52. I stress all this in order to make it clear that we do not raise objections to certain personalities, nor do we hide any secrets; it is simply our firm standpoint that we do not allow anybody to interfere in the domestic affairs of the Hungarian People's Republic. Many recent experiences have only strengthened the Hungarian Government's faith in the rightness of this attitude. 53. It was not long ago that Mr. Lumumba, Prime Minister of the lawful Government of the Congo, relying on the justice of the cause of his people, found it advisable to ask the United Nations for assistance in overcoming certain difficulties. The Secretary-General of the United Nations complied with the request and the fundamentally correct decision of the Security Council in such a way that all difficulties have remained, and even increased; he has completely undermined the foundations of that Government, and ignoring even the standpoint of the legislative body of the country, he has made its functioning impossible. Everybody knows that that is what happened. No one should be surprised, then, if peoples and countries, however just their cause may be, are compelled for the time being to express reservations about any co-operation with the United Nations apparatus. 54. There are some who are eager to know when the Soviet troops will be withdrawn from Hungary. Soviet troops are stationed in Hungary pursuant to the relevant agreement concluded by States members of the Warsaw Treaty. Their withdrawal is subject to the decision of the contracting parties, including the Government of the Hungarian People's Republic, not to the desire of Western strategists. This, in fact, is a problem for Western military leaders, not for the United Nations, let alone for the Hungarian people. The Hungarian people get on well with those Soviet troops that liberated them from the rule of terror of nazi-fascist armies and from the counter-revolutionary, fascist forces of the Horthy regime which had played the country into the hands of the Hitlerites. Our people are indebted to the Soviet Army for their reconquered national independence and their present peaceful and secure life. 55. As is well known, the States members of the Warsaw Treaty proposed to the States members of NATO to conclude a non-aggression pact, and even simultaneously to liquidate the organization of the Warsaw Treaty and of NATO. In concert with the Governments of all socialist countries, including the Hungarian People's Republic, the Soviet Union in its proposal on general and complete disarmament also proposed the withdrawal, behind their own frontiers, of all military units stationed abroad. Well, here are ways and means, here are proposals, which are still valid. All that is necessary is to accept and implement them, and then there will be no foreign military units in any of the countries of the world. 56. Some say that with the help of Soviet troops we defeated an uprising which they claim was "national”. What we defeated, however, was not a "national" uprising but a counter-revolutionary "putsch", and we did so in a couple of days. This counter-revolutionary "putsch" was organized abroad; it had been prepared for many years in international reactionary forces. International reaction mobilized for this attempted "putsch" the small groups of reactionaries existing in the country and misled a few people, but it could not get close to the main masses of the Hungarian people which are loyal to socialism. 57. Perhaps the French delegation could tell the General Assembly what a really national uprising looks like. Let anybody cast a glance at Algeria. What is happening there? Not a couple of days, but even six years have not been enough for the French colonizers half-million-strong army, equipped with all kinds of modern weapons, to defeat that uprising, even after having killed hundreds of thousands of Algerian patriots. They cannot and never will defeat it, for it is a really national uprising that is going on there with the support of the main popular masses, not a counter-revolutionary "putsch", as was the case in Budapest in 1956. 58. Certain well-known quarters, by which Chiang Kai-shek, Adenauer, Speidel, the Nazi general, and their ilk, are qualified as "democrats", maintain that we are not democrats. To be quite frank, we do not even wish to be the kind of democrats they like. Our system, however, is more democratic than the system of those who are blaming us. The Hungarian people's power brushed aside the dictatorship of monopolies — fascism. It put an end to religious discrimination and racial persecution, to privileges derived from birth and financial standing, and it has ensured free development for the whole nation, for every citizen of the country. 59. True, the courts of the Hungarian People's Republic passed and will continue to pass sentence upon those who plot against the lawful order of the country, upon murderers of progressive people. There has been much ado about this in certain quarters. Our slanderers, however, keep quiet about the fact — although they are well aware of it — that more than three fourths of those who were taken to task for the counterrevolutionary acts they had committed in 1956 have been set at liberty owing, for the most part, to an amnesty and have gone back to the normal life of citizens. They keep quiet also about the fact that the number of those in prison in Hungary now is less than it has ever been since Hungary was established as an organized State. 60. What lies behind all this is, of course, not the humanitarianism of our accusers. The present-day critics of the Hungarian People's Republic were very much reconciled to Horthy, the sanguinary hangman of the Hungarian people, and his fascist system. He butchered the best sons of the Hungarian people indeed, and made them languish in prison. This, however, did not annoy our accusers, because those people were not enemies of the people's power, but communist and non-communist patriots fighting against fascism. 61. These are the kind of accusers who raise such charges against us. We also could put a question of pure principle to the General Assembly, without naming anybody. Is it all right for a Government, if it does not like the lawful Government, say, of Guatemala, or Laos, or any other country, to finance a "putsch" by supplying arms and hiring traitors in order to overthrow that government? Is it all right for a Government, if it does not like the social system of the socialist countries, to allocate a fund of $100 million a year to maintain radio stations for the express purpose of instigating revolt, and to hire fascist, counter-revolutionary renegades to undermine that system? 62. If it were not known whom all this concerns, and if some were not dependent on them or were not afraid of them, everybody would say, "No, that is not quite right". Everybody would say that this Is contrary to all accepted rules of International law and to the Charter. We would suggest to the United Nations General Assembly that, instead of tolerating aspersions to be cast at the Government of the Hungarian People's Republic, which does not threaten a single country, it should denounce the Government which, even at present, is instigating from outside discord, unrest, civil war and bloodshed in the life of the peoples of so many countries. 63. Despite the cold war campaign, the Hungarian People's Republic is strengthening and developing further. But there are also victims in the cold war. We regard the overwhelming majority of Hungarian absconders as unfortunate victims of cold war propaganda. From among the people who under the influence of mendacious imperialist propaganda had left their country, more than 40,000 have already returned home, and a still greater number of them would gladly return if they were not prevented from doing so for the time being by various obstacles and financial difficulties. Every Hungarian living far from his country, unless he has definitely lost his human character, is waiting for the day when he will be able to go home. The absconders lead mostly a storm-tossed life. But even those who get along financially know full well that their place is wherever their people live, and there is no such wealth as could substitute for the homeland, the home's bread, the relish of the waters of the rivers Danube and Tisza. The affairs of my country are in order. It offers every honest working man rights, human dignity, good living and a home not be found outside the country, and waits for the return of its sons who went astray. 64. I am going to speak of two more questions concerning Hungary. Our delegation has come here to attend the United Nations General Assembly session. The United States and the Hungarian People's Republic maintain diplomatic relations. The United States authorities should have, therefore, even a double reason for ensuring us, here in New York, the rights and conditions required by international practice. Despite all this, the United States authorities informed me of a measure restricting my movement, a measure offending my people and my Government. Although it is not to us and to our colleagues who have been treated similarly — and even not to our peoples — that this measure is a disgrace, but only to those who had devised it, I protest against it on principle. 65. I personally have often been a target of attacks in this hall. Allow me, therefore, to make a personal remark. I am a Hungarian worker. For my ideological conviction I had to suffer a great deal of persecution by the Horthyite fascist system and by German fascists who occupied my country at the time. But I have always acted in accordance with my conviction and conscience. Man can make mistakes and be in error, but I feel I am serving a just cause, and I am proud that, at a grave moment in history, taking a stand for my working class and my Hungarian people that had suffered so much, I was together with my faithful colleagues where I had to be, and I did what I had to do. 66. I am going to conclude my speech. Our delegation is of the opinion that the General Assembly, putting aside the issues which serve only cold war purposes, must concentrate its attention on questions of really high significance. We must strive for success in the questions of disarmament and the colonial system. 67. Certain quarters are trumpeting in the Western press that the United Nations has come to a crisis because the socialist countries have proposed to create, instead of the post of Secretary-General, three posts of Secretary. As a matter of fact, the present situation absolutely requires that, in order to avoid partiality, the NATO bloc, the socialist countries, and the countries that do not belong to either group, be represented by one Secretary each. Such an executive body could very well function, possibly with the three Secretaries alternating with one another in presiding at the monthly meetings of the Secretariat. Why should there be only one Secretary-General who, in interpreting and implementing the resolutions, is partial to the interests of one of the existing groups of States, and prejudiced against the interests of the two other groups? 68. The United Nations has not come to a crisis; it can rather now become what it ought to have always been according to the intentions of its founders. True, a crisis is confronting the conception that has thus far been prevailing here, namely, that the United Nations cannot be anything else than a dependency of the Department of State of the United States. This may have been good for the Government of the United States, but it has not been good for the Member States, nor for mankind. The United Nations will only be in crisis if it allows its activity to be paralysed and allows itself to be reduced to the rank of an arena of mere talk. 69. A dangerous attempt to achieve this aim is, in fact, the plot concocted in the General Committee by the United States delegation in order to paralyse the work of the General Assembly. The General Assembly must not tolerate that. By submerging the problems of vital interest to mankind in the maze of committee deliberations, it will have to discuss in plenary session, besides the question of the Congo proposed by the Soviet Union, only two cold war issues fabricated by the United States, the so-called questions of Tibet and of Hungary. This would be a fatal mistake. A considerable part of the delegations here are unable to accept such a proposal, and this could place the United Nations itself in a grave and, at the same time, a ridiculous situation before the whole world. Maybe this is the very intention of the United States delegation. 70. It is obvious that the imperialist forces and tendencies are still present and are active in international politics; so in the United Nations as well. Those who cling to the past do not easily give up their aims. But, luckily for the peoples, one of the present main features of the international situation is that the forces of peace and progress are immense and do not cease growing. They are able to curb the sinister forces of war. Mankind has every reason to nurture the hope for a peaceful and happier future.