Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

Anybody who ascends this rostrum and looks around this hall must, I think, appreciate what an eminent and responsible gathering he is addressing. 95. This should be the most responsible meeting of State representatives in the world. It is not for nothing that it is known as the General Assembly of the United Nations, I need not go into the meaning of that title at this juncture; I would merely like to stress these two words — United Nations. Many nations are represented in this hall, and these nations should be united not only by the walls of this building but by the highest common interests of mankind. 96. The representatives of almost 100 States have met here today to consider major international problems. The representatives of new Members of the United Nations will soon be with us; then the walls of this hall will, so to speak, recede to accommodate a still greater number of lands and countries. We should all wholeheartedly welcome this development, because we are anxious that all States in the world should be represented in the United Nations. 97. Naturally, our thoughts are now focused on the matters which most trouble and disturb mankind. Perhaps it is precisely here in this Assembly that the world is seen in all its diversity and, of course, in all its contradictions. It has fallen to our lot to live in the stormiest and yet the most splendid period in the history of mankind; future generations will envy us. 98. Many of the things some people considered, not so long ago, to be immovable and eternal have outlived their time and have ceased to exist. Anew, more progressive and more equitable order has become established. Our epoch has brought swift changes in the way of life of human societies, an unprecedented growth in our power over the forces of nature and an unparalleled advance towards a more progressive social order. Yet although we live in the twentieth century, traces of past centuries and, indeed, remnants of barbarism, are still in evidence. However, one of the important features, indeed the salient feature, of this epoch is the awakening of formerly backward, downtrodden and oppressed peoples. 99. Our. century is the century of the struggle for freedom, the century in which nations are liberating themselves from foreign domination. The peoples desire a worthwhile life and are fighting to secure it. 100. Victory has already been won in many countries and lands. But we cannot rest on our laurels, for we know that tens of millions of human beings are still languishing in colonial slavery and are suffering grave hardships. 101. They are doing so in a period which we call one of great and promising scientific discoveries. With his brain and hands, man has created spaceships which circle the earth. He is already able to send men far beyond the limits of our planet. We have split the atom and are penetrating the mysteries of protein structure. We travel on and above the earth at astounding speed; the extent of our knowledge is a source of amazement even to ourselves. 102. It might seem that all was well with the world. Yet can it lie said that the world is well ordered in every respect, or that it is free from poverty and deprivation? We should again reflect on the fact that, according to United Nations statistics, hundreds of millions of men and women on different continents drag out an existence at starvation or near-starvation level. Our world is not free from fear for the future; it realizes the dangers of the division into military alliances and of the continuously accelerating nuclear arms race. The great achievements of man’s genius may be used either for man’s benefit or to his detriment. This is the difficult choice confronting us. 103. Every intelligent individual gives some thought to what scientific progress, what this great twentieth century, is bringing mankind. Some rightly say that the world has been given new horizons, unlimited opportunities for the creation of abundant material wealth and for the ample satisfaction of human needs. With no less justification, others point to the great danger of scientific and technical achievements being used, not for these beneficial purposes, but primarily for the production of appalling means of destruction. These means of destruction are not being used at the present time. But, in the last analysis, they are produced to be used. 104. This argument between optimists and pessimists reflects the facts of our times. The most important of these facts is the conflict between two trends or lines of policy in international relations. I am not, of course, referring here to differences in social systems, since this is a domestic issue, which can and must be settled only by nations and States themselves. 105. This development in international relations, which is fraught with conflict and complications, las not arisen overnight. Even in the early post-war years there were two clearly antagonistic schools of thought on world affairs. One stood for the reduction of international tension, the halting of the arms race, the development of international co-operation and the elimination of war from the life of society — a fine and laudable approach. It is, indeed, for the triumph of justice that man lives on earth. 106. There is, however, a second school of thought, about which we have no right to remain silent. This school stands for fanning the flames of the cold war, for the unrestricted accumulation of armaments and for the destruction of every basis for international cooperation, with all the dangerous consequences which this, entails. 107. These two lines of policy in international relations have long been in opposition. Although parallel lines never meet in elementary geometry they may come into collision in international affairs. That would be a fearful moment indeed. Only ten or fifteen years ago, few could predict the outcome of the struggle between these two lines of international policy. In the year 1960, however, only the blind can fail to see how the majority of peoples are becoming more and more positively and plainly convinced of the need to maintain peace. 108. The peoples of all countries — workers, peasants, intellectuals and the bourgeoisie, excluding a small handful of militarists and monopolists — want not war but peace, and peace alone. And if, therefore, the peoples actively fight to tie the hands of the militarist and monopolist Circles, peace can be ensured. 109. Indeed it cannot be otherwise, since life cannot be reduced to simple geometrical rules, for life itself depends on the effective power of the peace-loving States and on the ardent sympathy and support of the overwhelming majority of-the human race. 110. The United Nations was established in the name of the victory of peace and tranquillity, in the service of peace and the security of nations. We trust that the decisions reached by the present session of the General Assembly will bring us closer to the realization of peace and justice — the goal of all mankind. 111. There are no higher tasks than those confronting the United Nations. It is in a position to take vital decisions with regard to averting the threat of a new war and protecting the lawful rights and security of all peoples; it can help to institute productive international co-operation. 112. The fact that a number of States are represented here by statesmen occupying key positions in their own countries demonstrates the gravity and urgency of the problems submitted for consideration at this session. 113. We have embarked on the consideration of the problems which are troubling all peoples today. The capacities of the United Nations have now been reinforced, thus increasing the responsibility it bears. I have already referred to the fact that a large group of young independent African States has joined the United Nations. I am happy to have this opportunity, on behalf of the Soviet people, to extend a warm, sincere and heartfelt welcome to the States recently admitted to membership in the United Nations and to wish them prosperity and success. 114. The road the representatives of these States have travelled to the United Nations has not been easy. The peoples of these countries have endured oppression, deprivations and suffering. They have reached here after a stubborn struggle for their independence and freedom and our welcome today is all the more cordial on that account. We should like to tell them that they have taken their rightful places as full and equal Members of the United Nations. 115. The countries which have cast off the burden of colonialism are an immense and active force for peace. From now on, the young States of Africa and the Mediterranean will make their distinguished contribution to the solution of the important and complex issues before the United Nations. 116. A year ago, I had the honour of making a statement from this high rostrum [799th meeting]. At that time, promising prospects of normalizing the international situation were opening up before mankind. Contacts between responsible statesmen in the various countries were increasing. The General Assembly adopted a resolution [1378 (XTV)] on general and complete disarmament. The Ten-Nation Committee on Disarmament began its work. Agreement was reached on holding a summit conference. Definite progress was being made in the negotiations on the discontinuance of nuclear and thermo-nuclear tests. All this raised high hopes in the hearts of the people of all countries. 117. No one can dispute the fact that the Soviet Union has been unsparing in its efforts to ensure the continuation of this welcome trend in the development of international relations. But the sinister forces which profit from the maintenance of international tension are clinging tenaciously to their positions. Though only a handful of individuals is involved, they are quite powerful and exert a strong influence on the policy of their respective States. A major effort is therefore required to break their resistance. As soon as the policy of easing international tension begins to yield tangible results, they immediately resort to extreme measures in order to ensure that the peoples should feel no relief; they strain every nerve to plunge the world back again and again into an atmosphere of gloom and to exacerbate international tension. 118. We saw a dangerous manifestation of the work of these forces last spring when the aircraft of one of the largest States Members of the United Nations, the United States of America, treacherously invaded, the air space of the Soviet Union and that of other States. What is more, the United States has elevated such violations of international law into a principle of deliberate State policy. 119. The aggressive intrusion into our country by a United States aircraft and the whole course of the United States Governments subsequent behaviour showed the peoples that they were dealing with a calculated policy on the part of the United States Government, which was trying to substitute brigandage for international law and treachery for honest negotiations between sovereign and equal States. 120. The entire world knows what a heavy blow this policy dealt to the cause of easing international tension. In particular, it was responsible for the breakdown of the Summit Conference in Paris, at which the most important current problems were to have been discussed. Under different circumstances, the Conference might have laid the foundations for healthier co-operation among States. 121. There are some confirmed fanciers of other people’s property who will never take a lesson to heart. If they get a good hiding, they attribute their misfortune entirely to their own carelessness or the use of the wrong tools. So they make a fresh attempt to break into the house, this time through another entrance and with a different set of tools. 122. The situation with regard to the organizers of spy flights by the United States Air Force is somewhat similar. I do not know what lesson they learnt from the U-2 incident, but exactly two months later, on 1 July 1960, they sent another military aircraft, an RB-47, to our country. It was equipped with guns and special reconnaissance instruments. It flew in to our territory from the direction of the Kola Peninsula. What was its purpose? What was it seeking to achieve? I think that every one with any common sense realizes that the aircraft was not bringing us anything for our good. 123. Incidentally, Mr. Eisenhower, the President of the United States, said in his statement yesterday [868th meeting] that the Soviet forces had shot down a United States RB-47. I do not propose to enter into an argument on this question because we have already given a detailed exposition of the facts of the case and of our attitude. 124. Surprisingly, however, though I listened to the Presidents statement carefully, I did not Hear a single word about the U-2, which was also shot down over Soviet territory. What is the explanation? Has the President perhaps forgotten about that aircraft? 125. What, in fact, is the objective of the United States in dispatching its aircraft into the air space of the USSR? Does it want to create an incident that would be followed by rockets going into action? One aircraft, then another and such an incident has virtually been staged. Or is the United States for the time being merely pursuing a policy of feeling out the strength of the other side? 126. Whatever the explanation, one thing remains perfectly obvious: the operations of those responsible for organizing the acts of provocation are designed to create an atmosphere in which the peoples would live in constant fear. Even if such an atmosphere suits the Government of the United States, it certainly does not suit the Soviet Union or the overwhelming majority of other States. We have striven and shall strive to banish all forms of lawlessness from international relations. 127. The Soviet Union is not making any exorbitant demands. We are merely striving to ensure adherence to the most elementary rules of intercourse among States. Our only objective is strict observance of the United Nations Charter which rules out methods of violence, brigandage and aggression and demands respect for the sovereign rights of all States as the basis for lasting peace on earth. Is that asking too much? Is that not the wish of all honest men and women on this earth, who care for the fate of the world and for the sovereignty and independence of their own countries? 128. The allies of the United States sometimes reproach us for criticizing the United I States Government too harshly. But if we were to assume an air of benevolence and to give those who organize acts of international provocation, an indulgent pat on the back, we should be doing d disservice to the cause of peace. Fighting for peace means boldly exposing all actions fraught with the danger of war, no matter with whom they originate. This is a good method of clearing the international atmosphere. Experience shows that, if we pander to and indulge those who organize provocation, the ultimate result is the outbreak of war. This has happened many times in the course of history, with dire consequences for the fate of peoples. 129. The flights by the United States spy aircraft are also instructive in another respect. They have shown up the danger to peace presented by the network of United States bases in which dozens of States in Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America are enmeshed. 130. Like a deep-seated form of acute infection in a living organism, these bases disrupt the normal political and economic life of the States upon which they have been foisted. They hinder the establishment of normal relations between those States and their neighbours. How, indeed, can there be any question of normal relations if the people of these neighbouring countries cannot sleep peacefully, if they have to live with the threat of being subjected to an annihilating blow whenever the United States militarists take it into their heads to embark on fresh acts of provocation? 131. The United Nations cannot fail to heed the increasingly insistent demands of the peoples who are alarmed by the machination of the enemies of peace. The popular movement for peace and international co-operation assumes different forms and achieves different results from one country to another, but its significance, causes and aims remain identical: it is a movement of protest against the policy of war and provocation, against the debilitating arms race and against the imposition upon peoples of an alien and hostile will. 132. Fewer and fewer people are prepared to accept the present state of affairs in which any manifestation of the free will of the peoples, any tendency to pursue an independent policy, be it on the part of Indonesia, Iraq or Guinea, of neutral Austria or of little Iceland, acting to defend its economic interests, encounters fierce opposition and brings down thunder and lightning from the Powers grouped together in NATO — this Holy Alliance of our day, which has assumed the ungrateful mission of exorcizing the spirit of freedom in whatever part of the globe it may appear. 133. The courageous Republic of Cuba has become a target for all kinds of attacks, intrigues, subversive activities, economic aggression and, finally, ill disguised threats of intervention. 134. United States relations with Cuba are illuminating. As you know, before the victory of the popular revolution, all branches of the Cuban economy were wholly dominated by United States monopolies which earned vast profits from exploiting the working people of Cuba and the wealth of their fertile soil. 135. Some people in the United States occasionally like to boast that the standard of living in their country is higher than that in other countries. There is no gainsaying the fact that the standard of living in the United States is now higher than in Cuba, but why is that so? Is it because the Cuban people are less industrious or because the Cuban Boil is less fertile? No, this of course is not the reason. The Cuban people are well known for their industry and for their attachment to their country and to their soil. The explanation is entirely different. For many years the fruits of the Cuban peopled toil were enjoyed not by the Cuban people but by United States monopolies. Is it therefore surprising that in 1958, for example, the per caput income in Cuba was 6.5 times lower than in the United States? This telling fact speaks for itself. 136. A new chapter has now begun in Cuba. After expelling the dictator Batista, the Cuban people freed itself from foreign exploitation, took its destiny into its own hands, firmly telling the United States monopolists that they had been robbing the country long enough and that the people themselves would enjoy the fruits of their labour and their soil. 137. Thus, Cuba's alleged offence consists merely in the fact that the freedom-loving and fearless Cuban people have decided to lead an independent life. The United Nations must do everything in its power to remove the threat of interference from abroad that is hanging over Cuba. To allow Cuba to become a second Guatemala would be to unleash developments whose consequences it is now hardly possible to foresee. 138. Stormy developments have been taking place on the continent of Africa. The young Republic of the Congo fell a victim to aggression the third day after the proclamation of its independence. Before the eyes of the entire world, the Belgian Government tried to deprive the country of its freedom and take away what the Congolese people had been selflessly struggling to obtain for decades. An international crisis arose which took us all back to anxious days of the autumn of 1956, the days of the Suez crisis. As at that time, an independent African State was subjected to unprovoked aggression, the generally recognized principles of international relations were disregarded and a Situation was created that was fraught with serious danger to peace and not to peace in Africa alone. 139. How ludicrous and absurd are the arguments with which the aggressors attempted to justify their actions! They asserted that there would have been chaos in the Congo if the Belgian troops had not entered the country and that the Congolese people were not yet sufficiently mature for an independent existence. Such assertions could fool no one. The Africans have a proverb which runs: "Misleading the people is like trying to wrap up fire in a piece of paper". The armed aggression against the Congo has been condemned by the whole of Africa and by public opinion throughout the world. 140. It was, of course, not concern for the lives of Belgian citizens in the Congo, but the much more tangible interests of the powerful monopolies which had established themselves on Congolese soil that impelled the Belgian Government to make the senseless attempt to bring the people of this young State to its knees and to detach by force its richest province, Katanga. Raw materials for nuclear weapons such as uranium, cobalt and titanium as well as cheap labour — that is what the monopolists are afraid of losing in the Congo. That is the true motive behind the plot against the Congo, the threads of which lead from Brussels to the capitals of the other major NATO Powers. 141. When the colonialists realized that the Government of the Republic of the Congo, which had been legally elected and had received a vote of confidence from Parliament, had firmly embarked on an independent policy and was resolved to be guided solely by the interests of the Congolese people, they immediately resorted to every possible means of overthrowing that Government. They set out to secure the establishment of a puppet government, a government which, though ostensibly "independent", would in fact carry out the wishes of the Colonialists. 142. The colonialists tiled to bring this about by crude methods and direct? interference, as they always do. It is deplorable that; they have been doing their dirty work in the Congo through the Secretary-General of the United Nations, and his staff. 143. That is a disgraceful state of affairs. The United Nations troops which were sent to assist the lawful Government at its request, occupied the airfields, took over the radio station, disorganized the life of the State and paralyzed the work of the lawful Government. These troops paved the way for the treacherous acts of the puppets in Katanga, where forces were assembled and mobilized against the Government of Patrice Lumumba, which had been elected in accordance with all the rules of democratic procedure. 144. The colonialists and their servile supporters say that Mr. Lumumba is a communist. Mr. Lumumba is, of course, no communist he is a patriot and is honestly serving his people in its struggle for freedom from the colonial yoke. But, by putting out this story that he is a communist, the colonialists are actually helping the colonial peoples to tear off the veil which is being used to obscure their vision. Those peoples will soon see that the communist party is the only party which genuinely reflects the will of the peoples struggling for the triumph of justice, the aspirations of all peoples striving for freedom. 145. Some organs of the United States and United Kingdom Press, encouraged by certain forces, are making much of an alleged set-back which the Soviet Union has suffered in the Congo. What can one say of such absurd assertions? In the first place, we have suffered no set-back in the Congo, nor was any set-back possible, since there neither were nor could have been any of our troops in the Congo or any interference by us in that country’s domestic affairs. 146. We have stood, we stand, and always will stand, for the right of the peoples of Africa, just as those of other continents, to establish whatever regime they please in their countries, on attaining their freedom from colonial oppression. 147. Second, we have always been and always will be against any interference by imperialists lathe domestic affairs of countries which are emancipating themselves from colonial dependence, against discreditable methods such as those used in the Congo. 148. The colonialists’ aim is to drive out the lawful Government and Parliament with the help of the countries which style themselves the "free world”, and they are anxious to celebrate their victory. But their rejoicing is premature, because theirs is a Pyrrhic victory. This spurious victory of the colonialists is helping to lift the veil from the eyes of the colonial peoples, to whom it is becoming increasingly evident that, while granting formal independence, the colonialists are doing everything in their power to maintain the colonial yoke. 149. The people will not stop halfway. They are mobilizing their forces and they will act with still greater foresight and in the knowledge that the struggle for independence is a hard one, that there are many obstacles to be overcome on the way to genuine freedom and that it is necessary to learn to distinguish between true friends and enemies. 150. The struggle which has been taken up by the Congolese people cannot be halted; it can only be slowed down or checked. But it will break out again with even greater force, and the people, having overcome all difficulties, will then achieve complete emancipation. 151. The Soviet State and its Government welcomed and welcomes the struggle of the colonial peoples for independence and is doing all it can to give them moral and material assistance in their just fight. 152. The United Nations should call for the restoration of order in the Congo so that the Parliament lawfully elected by the Congolese people may discharge its duties and that conditions may be created for the normal functioning of the lawful Government of the Congo, led by Mr. Lumumba, which has enjoyed and still enjoys the confidence of the Congolese people. 153. The Soviet Government has requested [see A/4495] the inclusion of an item entitled "Threat to the political independence and territorial integrity of the Republic of the Congo" on the agenda of the General Assembly at its fifteenth session. The Assembly should administer a rebuff to the colonialists and their followers; it should call Mr. Hammarskjold to order and ensure that he does not misuse the position of Secretary-General but carries out his functions m strict accordance with the provisions of the United Nations Charter and the decisions of the Security Council. 154. In the opinion of the Soviet Government, we should adopt a resolution providing that only troops from African and Asian countries should be left in the Congo, that such troops should be stationed in Congolese territory only with the consent of the lawfully elected Congolese Government of Mr. Lumumba and should only be used at the discretion of that Government for the purpose of ensuring the normal functioning of the lawful Government and Parliament of the Republic of the Congo. 155. All States which wish to see the Congo free and independent in practice and not merely in theory should refrain from any act which might impair the territorial integrity and independence of the Republic of the Congo. We are certain that the Congolese people themselves will be able to deal with the difficulties which have arisen and will succeed in restoring order in their country. 156. We are all witnesses to the fact that many peoples are being continually subjected to hostile acts and crude pressure by a certain group of States which seek to set at naught the legitimate interests and rights of other countries. This is why the international situation is fraught with acute conflicts, the danger of which is intensified by the mounting arms race. 157. It is quite evident that international relations cannot continue on such a basis, as that would mean a headlong descent to the abyss. It is the sacred duty of the United Nations to uphold the sovereign rights of States, and to press for the re-establishment of international relations on a sound legal basis and for the ending of the arms race. 158. Unfortunately, the policy of violating the inalienable rights of peoples is still in evidence in the United Nations itself. 159. Take, for instance, the question of the representation in the United Nations of the Chinese people. To impede the reinstatement of the People's Republic of China in its legitimate rights in the United Nations, simply because the socialist regime of that State is not to the taste of the leading circles of certain Western countries, and in particular of the United States, is to disregard the facts; it betokens the absence of any desire for a relaxation of international tension; it means that the interests of strengthening world peace and of developing international cooperation are being sacrificed to the narrow political calculations of a small group of States. This situation is inimical to peace and is degrading to the United Nations. 160. This point is also illustrated by the history of the question of the admission of the Mongolian People's Republic to membership in the United Nations. As we know, this question has been discussed repeatedly over a number of years, but the Mongolian People's Republic has not yet been admitted to membership in the United Nations. We consider that it is high time to settle this question and to admit the Mongolian People's Republic to membership in the United Nations, so that it may participate on an equal footing with other sovereign States in the discussion and solution of vital international problems. 161. By reason of its nature and its purpose, the United Nations should have the status of a universal, world-wide organization. The existence of the United Nations would cease to serve any useful purpose. If it became a one-sided organization and its function was reduced to that of the servant of a particular military alignment. 162. Our time is characterized by the emancipation and national rebirth of peoples who for centuries were kept apart by the colonialists from the mainstream of human development, a process which is taking place before all our eyes. In a mere fifteen years, about 1,500 million people, or half the population of the earth, have cast off the shackles of colonialist oppression. Dozens of new national States have arisen from the ruins of the old colonial empires. 163. A new period has begun in the history of mankind, in which the peoples of Asia, Africa, and Latin America have begun to take an active part in determining the destiny of the whole world side by side with the peoples of Europe and North America. Unless this unalterable fact is recognized, there can be no realistic foreign policy in harmony with the needs of the times and corresponding to the peace-loving aspirations of the peoples. 164. Is the solution of major international problems really conceivable today without the participation of the Peopled Republic of China? Is it possible to solve these problems without the participation of India, Indonesia, Burma, Ceylon, the United Arab Republic, Iraq, Ghana, Guinea and the other States? If anyone has this idea, let him try to disregard the opinion and the votes of the representatives of the Asian, African and Latin American States here in the United Nations. It is true that the appearance of the new Asian and African States in the United Nations is giving rise to apprehension in certain Western countries. More than that, people are beginning to discuss ways of limiting the further influx of newly-emerging States into the United Nations. 165. As regards the Soviet Union, I can say frankly that we are glad to see a great number of new States making their appearance in the United Nations. We have always opposed and we shall continue to oppose any curtailment of the rights of peoples who have won their national independence. We share with these States the desire to preserve and strengthen peace, to create on our planet conditions for the peaceful coexistence and co-operation of countries regardless of their political and social structure, in accordance with the peaceful principles proclaimed at the Conference of African and Asia States at Bandung. The facts show that the liberation of nations and peoples under colonial domination leads to an improvement in international relations, an increase in international co-operation and the reinforcement of world peace. 166. The peoples of the new States have convincingly shown, not only that they are capable of dispensing with the control and tutelage of the colonial Powers, and can govern themselves, but also that they are actively forging a new life and that they administer and manage their resources, their countries’ wealth, incomparably more skillfully and prudently than the colonial authorities . 167. Early this year I had the opportunity of visiting India, Indonesia, Burma and Afghanistan. I must say that I was very deeply impressed by their great achievements in raising the level of their national economies and culture. We saw large new construction projects in these countries — dams, roads, and new universities and institutes. 168. Would the picture be the same in the colonies? There neither is nor could be anything of the kind there. In the colonies arbitrary rule by foreigners prevails. The peoples of the colonial countries are not only deprived of the right to independence and self-government; in addition, their national and human feelings and their self-respect are scorned and outraged at every turn. Through ruthless exploitation and robbery, the foreign monopolists wring everything of value from the colonies, plundering their wealth like barbarians. 169. As a result of colonialist control, the colonial economies have remained extremely backward and the working people lead a miserable existence. It is precisely in the colonies that you will find the longest working day, together with the lowest national income, the lowest wages, the highest illiteracy rate, the shortest life expectancy and the highest mortality rate among the population. 170. I need not elaborate here on the miserable plight of the more than 100 million people who still languish in colonial bondage and who are deprived of all their rights. The archives of the United Nations contain more than enough reports from various United Nations bodies, more than enough petitions and complaints, revealing the situation of the populations of those countries and territories where, under various guises, the colonial system of government is still preserved. These documents are an indictment of the shameful colonial system. What is going on in these countries and regions justly arouses the anger and indignation of all right-thinking individuals on earth. But the days of untroubled domination by the alien oppressors are drawing to a close, even in the colonies they still retain. Although the old order may persist in the colonies, the people there are changing. They are growing increasingly conscious of their position and are firmly refusing to bear the colonial yoke. And when the peoples rise to fight for their freedom, for a better life, then no force in the world can stop this mighty movement. 171. Look at what is happening now in the colonies. Africa is seething and bubbling like a volcano. For some six years now the Algerian people have been waging a heroic and selfless struggle for their national liberation. The peoples of Kenya, Tanganyika, Uganda, Ruanda-Urundi, Angola, Mozambique, Northern Rhodesia, Sierra Leone, South West Africa, Zanzibar and also West Irian, Puerto Rico and many other colonies are fighting an increasingly stubborn battle for their rights. 172. It should be clear to everyone that there is no means and no force which can halt this struggle of the peoples for their liberation, for it is a great historic process, one of ever-growing and invincible power. It may be possible to prolong the dominion of one State over another for a year or two, but just as in the past the bourgeois order of things came to replace feudalism and as, now, socialism is replacing capitalism, so colonial slavery is giving place to freedom. Such are the rules of human development, and only adventurers can believe that mountains of corpses and millions of victims will delay the advent of a radiant future. 173. We must have done with colonialism, for it brings misfortunes and suffering not only to the peoples of the enslaved countries — misfortunes and suffering, tears and deprivation are the lot of the peoples of the metropolitan countries too. Who can say that the mothers of France, whose children are dying on the fields of Algeria, are less unfortunate than the Algerian mothers who are burying their sons in their own land? 174. Today, when the blood of the colonial peoples is flowing, we cannot turn away, we cannot close our eyes to this bloodshed and pretend that peace reigns. What kind of a peace is it when cruel wars are raging — unequal wars, too, in terms of the conditions under which the opposing sides are fighting. The troops of the colonial Powers are armed to the teeth with all the most modern means of mass destruction. In the hands of the peoples battling heroically for their freedom are nothing but obsolete and primitive weapons. But however destructive the wars waged by the colonialists, victory will be on the side of the peoples fighting for their freedom. 175. There are some countries which, despite great sympathy and fellow-felling for the oppressed peoples in their struggle, nevertheless have misgivings about spoiling their relations with the colonial Powers; they do not, therefore, raise their voices against these destructive wars but keep peace with the colonialists. Others are colonialists themselves and from them nothing can be expected. The allies of the colonial Powers in aggressive military blocs support the colonialist policy, with all its evil concomitants. But the overwhelming majority of mankind has long since passed final judgement on the colonial system. 176. The Soviet Union, faithful to the policy of peace and support for the struggle of oppressed peoples for their national independence, the policy proclaimed by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, founder of the Soviet State, calls upon the United Nations to raise its voice in defence of the just liberation of the colonies and to take immediate steps towards the complete abolition of the colonial system of government. 177„ The need for the complete and final abolition of the colonial system in all its forms and manifestations is demonstrated by the entire course of the history of the world in recent decades. This system is doomed and its end is simply a matter of time. To all intents and purposes the only question now is whether the colonial system can be buried quietly or whether its burial will be accompanied by risky ventures on the part of the adherents of colonialism, resorting to extreme measures. Events in the Congo are a fresh reminder of the dangers that exist. 178. It is the duty of the United Nations, which is called upon to promote the strengthening of the peace and security of-the peoples, to do all in its power to prevent fresh outbreaks of military conflict in Asia, Africa, and Latin America as a result of friction between the colonial Powers and the peoples fighting for their freedom and independence. It is hardly necessary to point out that the great Powers may be drawn into the orbit of any such conflict and then, inevitably, a war which has begun by being local would develop into a general war, a world war. It is not enough, however, merely to defend ourselves against the intrigues of the colonialists, to survive one international crisis after another. It is necessary permanently to protect mankind against these intrigues, to safeguard the world from colonialists' military adventures. It is necessary to put an end to colonialism once and for all, to throw it on to the dust-heap of history. 179. Who if not the United Nations should speak out in favour of the abolition of the colonial system of government seeing that, according to the Charter, it is the Organization’s duty to reaffirm faith in human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of nations large and small. How is it possible to develop friendly relations among nations based on respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples, which is the purpose of the United Nations, and at the same time to tolerate a situation in which, as a result of the predatory policy of the Powers that are strong militarily and economically, many Asian and African peoples can win their right to determine their own fate only at the price of incredible suffering and sacrifices, only through an armed struggle against the oppressors? How is it possible to "achieve international cooperation in solving international problems of an economic, social, cultural or humanitarian character, and in promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion" — you have probably noticed that I am quoting from paragraph 3 of Article 1, of the United Nations Charter, entitled "Purposes and Principles" — and at the same time to close our eyes to so shameful a feature of present-day society as the colonial system? 180. It is time for us to undertake the final assault on colonialism just as, a century or a century and a half ago, civilized mankind took the offensive against the slave trade and slave ownership, and put an end to them, thus throwing the door wide open for both the political and the economic development of society. 181. The Soviet Government believes that the time has come to pose the question of the full and final abolition of the colonial system of government in all its forms and varieties in order to make an end of this infamy, this barbarism, this savagery. 182. Not everyone here — and I realized this when I was preparing my statement — not everyone here will welcome these proposals because representatives of colonial Powers are sitting here side by side with people who are free. These representatives are hardly likely to welcome our freedom-inspired proposals! 183. Firmly adhering to the principle that the United Nations should be a centre for harmonizing the actions of nations in the attainment of the common ends proclaimed in the Charter, the Soviet Government submits for the consideration of the General Assembly at this session a draft declaration on the grant of independence to colonial countries and peoples, solemnly proclaiming the following demands: "1. All colonial countries and Trust and Non-Self- Governing Territories must be granted forthwith complete independence and freedom to build their own national States in accordance with the freely expressed will and desire of their peoples. The colonial system and colonial administration in all these forms must be completely abolished in order to afford the peoples of the territories concerned an opportunity to determine their own destiny and form of government. "2. Similarly, and strongholds of colonialism in the form of possessions and leased areas in the territory of other States must be eliminated. "3. The Governments of all countries are urged to observe strictly and steadfastly the provisions of the United Nations Charter and of this Declaration concerning the equality and respect for the sovereign rights and territorial integrity of all States without exception, allowing no manifestations of colonialism or any special rights or advantages for some States to the detriment of other States." 184. Convinced that the complete abolition of the colonial system of government will be a fine and genuinely humanitarian act, and a major advance along the path of civilization and progress, we fervently appeal to all States represented in the United Nations to support-the provisions of this Declaration. 185. The draft declaration prepared by the Soviet Government and submitted for your consideration sets out in detail the considerations which prompted us to bring this matter before the General Assembly. We would ask that this draft declaration should be distributed as an official document of the United Nations General Assembly. 186. I should like to make the following further points in my statement in the general debate. 187. The adoption by the United Nations of measures for the final abolition of the colonial system would not only create favourable conditions for localizing and eliminating the threat of war which now exists in areas where a military conflict is in progress between the colonialists and the peoples fighting for their independence; it would also, in many instances, reduce the possibilities of the outbreak of further military conflicts between the States in these parts of the world. The peoples of the countries now suffering from the humiliations bred by foreign domination would gain a clear and immediate prospect of peaceful liberation from the foreign yoke and States clinging to their colonial possessions would be responsible before the United Nations and before the world for the fulfilment of the provisions of the proposed Declaration. This prospect will, of course, only become a reality if the colonial Powers do not evade compliance with United Nations decisions. 188. We must also remember the great changes the abolition of the colonial system of government would bring about in the lives of the peoples of the enslaved countries. It would be not merely a victory for elementary human justice and international law, which the United Nations is in duty bound to strive for, not in theory but in fact; it would also bring to the peoples who are backward after so many centuries of oppression the benefits of modern science, technology, culture and social progress. 189. It would be difficult to exaggerate the vast significance which the abolition of the colonial system would have for the entire world. Everyone knows that the economies of the colonies and the Trust Territories are at present subordinated to the mercenary interests of foreign monopolies, and the industrialization of these countries is being deliberately impeded. Imagine that the situation has changed and that these countries and territories, having become independent, are in a position to make ample use of their rich natural resources and to proceed with their industrialization, and that a better life has begun for their peoples. This would lead to a tremendous growth in the capacity of the world market, which would no doubt have a beneficial effect, not only on the economic development of the countries of the East but also on the economies of the industrially-developed countries of the West. 190. A positive role in overcoming the age-old backwardness of the countries that are being liberated would be played by economic and technical assistance through the United Nations and on a bilateral basis. Of course, this will require considerable funds. Where can they be obtained without overburdening the population of the industrially developed countries? Once again from this rostrum I. draw your attention to the source which could be provided by disarmament. The allocation of only one-tenth of the funds which the great Powers are now spending for military purposes would increase the amount of assistance to under-developed countries by $10,000 million a year. Yet the cost of constructing all the units of one of the world’s largest power systems, in the Inga region of the Congo, by which a tremendous area in Africa could be made to blossom, is estimated at $5,000 million. 191. It is also pertinent to recall that it is the moral duty of the States which possessed colonies in the past to return to the liberated peoples of those countries at least a part of the riches taken from them through cruel exploitation of the people and the plundering of their natural resources. 192. It may be said that it is easy for the Soviet Union to advocate the liquidation of the colonial system, since the Soviet Union has no colonies. Yes, that is so. We have no colonies and no capital in other countries. But there was a time when many of the nationalities inhabiting our country suffered the bitter oppression of Tsarism, of the landlord-bourgeois system. Conditions in remote areas of the Tsarist empire hardly differed from those of colonies because their populations were cruelly exploited by the autocracy, by capitalism. Whereas the autocracy looked upon the peoples of Central Asia and Transcaucasia, and other nationalities inhabiting the Russian Empire, as a source of profit, after the October revolution, when these peoples obtained complete freedom, they quickly improved their economic, cultural and social condition. 193. Let us take, for example, the Soviet Republics of Central Asia. Today Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kirghizia, Turkmenistan, Tadzhikistan — all the sister republics of Central Asia — have been transformed from backward colonies of Tsarist Russia into advanced, industrially developed socialist republics. During the period from 1913 to 1960, large-scale industrial production in the republics just referred to increased by more than sixty times. The industrial production per caput of Kazakhstan, a once backward country, is equal to that of Italy, and its per caput electric power output, for example, is higher than that of Italy and equal to that of Japan. 194. Before the revolution, only 7 million kilowatt-hours of electricity was produced in the territory of Central Asia and Kazakhstan — 300 times less than in the whole of the Russian Empire. Today the annual output of electric power is 19,000 million kilowatt-hours, which is nine times more than that of all prerevolutionary Russia. 195. The peoples of the Soviet Union are engaged in peaceful constructive labour to achieve the targets of the seven-year plan for the development of the national economy. As a result of the fulfilment of this plan, the total industrial production of the USSR will approximately double during the seven-year period. The output of electric power will be more than doubled, and in Central Asia almost tripled. 196. The per caput output of electric power in the Central Asian republics is already about 800 kilowatt-hours a year, i.e. considerably more than in any of the Latin American republics, for example. The Soviet Central Asian republics and Kazakhstan produce many times more power than such neighbouring countries as Turkey, which produces ninety-five kilowatt-hours per caput, Iran, which produces thirty-six, and Pakistan, which produces eleven. 197. Enormous economic and cultural progress has also been made by other relatively small nationalities of the Soviet Union, united in autonomous republics. Thus, for example, during the period from 1913 to 1959, large-scale industrial production in the Yakut ASSR increased by 53 times, in the Komy ASSR by 109 times, in the Tatar ASSR by 147 times and in the Bashkir ASSR by 163 times. 198. In the family of equal socialist republics, the former borderlands of pre-revolutionary Russia, which were threatened with depopulation as a result of malnutrition and disease, have been transformed into flourishing territories where living standards have risen as they have throughout the whole Soviet Union. The wages and salaries of workers and employees there do not differ from those in other republics of the Soviet Union. Like all the citizens of the USSR, they receive pensions, health insurance benefits and other social benefits. 199. The progress in cultural development achieved by the Soviet Union’s national republics is still more Striking. It is known, for example, that before the revolution the peoples of Kazakhstan and the Central Asian republics were almost entirely illiterate. There were almost no people with secondary or higher education. The Soviet Power has made education and culture widely accessible to all peoples. Illiteracy has been eliminated in Kazakhstan and the Central Asian republics, as it has in the other republics of the Soviet Union, and they, like the whole of the USSR, have achieved universal literacy. 200. Before the revolution there were no institutions of higher education in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kirghizia, Tadzhikistan and Turkmenistan, and not even any technical schools in Kirghizia, Tadzhikistan and Turkmenistan, whereas in the last academic year there were 211,000 students attending institutions of higher education in those republics, and 176,000 students attending the technical schools and other specialized secondary institutions. For every 10,000 citizens of those republics there are, on the average, 88 students at institutions of higher education and 73 students at technical schools, without counting the large number of young people who have gone to study beyond the borders of their republics, in Moscow, Leningrad, Kiev, Kharkov, Saratov, Novosibirsk, Tomsk and other cultural centres. I might note that in France there are only 40 students at institutions of higher education for every 10,000 inhabitants, in Italy, 34, and in West Germany 31 — which is almost three times less than in Soviet Central Asia. 201. A decisive factor guaranteeing the successful economic and cultural development of the national republics is the growth in the number of skilled cadres of workers and intellectuals. 202. I should like to cite a few figures taken from the results of the latest census and to compare them: with those of the census of 1926, the year in which our economy completed its recovery to the pre-revolutionary level. During that period the total number of manual and clerical workers in the national economy increased six-fold in the Soviet Union as a whole and ten-fold in Central Asia and Kazakhstan. 203. The increase in the number of skilled workers and specialists was even greater. I shall not cite all the figures because a table containing them has been distributed, but I should like to call attention to some of them. 204. From 1926 to 1959, the number of metal-workers, one of the most highly skilled of working-class occupational groups, increased nine-fold in the Soviet Union as a whole and eighteen-fold in Central Asia. There were nine times, as many chemical workers in the whole country and seventy-two times as many in Central Asia. The number of mechanics grew by fifteen and forty-two times respectively. The number of drivers and tractor and combine operators grew by 260 times in the country as a whole and 943 times in Central Asia. The number of engineers, technicians and agronomists in the USSR as a whole increased by eighteen times and in Central Asia by thirty-eight times. The number of teachers and other cultural and educational workers increased by seven times in the country as a whole and by nineteen times in Central Asia. Medical personnel increased by 8.5 times and twenty-four times respectively. The number of scientific workers increased from 14,000 to 316,000, or twenty-three times, in the Soviet Union as a whole. In 1926 there were only 360 scientific workers in the Central Asian republics and Kazakhstan, while in 1959 there were 26,500, or seventy-four times as many. 205. Tremendous advances in economic, cultural and scientific development were, of course, achieved not only in the Central Asian republics, which were particularly backward in the pre-revolutionary period, but in all the other Soviet republics. Thus, for example, academies of science have been established in all the Union Republics, and there are a large number of scientific research institutes and institutions of higher education. In all the republics, during the years of Soviet rule, skilled working-class personnel have been trained and the number of intellectuals has vastly increased. 206. After the great October socialist revolution, the bourgeoisie of the whole world harped incessantly on the inevitability of the collapse of Soviet power because Russia was an ill-educated country and the working class had no experts capable of running the State machinery and the economy of the country. Life has proved the truth of Lenin's statement that the revolution would awaken the initiative of the people, that the Soviet power would produce leaders and organizers from among the masses and that, having taken power, common workers and peasants would learn to govern the State and would master all the achievements of modern science and technology. 207. The Tsarist Government pursued in the borderlands of Russia an essentially colonialist policy which differed little from what can be observed today in colonial countries, Uzbeks, Kazakhs, Tadzhiks and other non-Russian nationalities were scornfully called "aliens". They were not considered human beings and were ruthlessly exploited. National differences, hatred and dissension were fomented between these nationalities, and the Tsarist Empire was held together only by bayonets and oppression. When the peoples of Central Asia and Transcaucasia were given their national freedom and equal rights with the other peoples of Russia, they showed their capabilities in the development of their national economy and culture. 208. Did the development of our country suffer by the granting to the peoples of the right of independence and self-determination? Is there strife and enmity between nationalities in our multi-national country or a disintegration of the State? No, there is nothing of the sort, nor can there be. 209. Under the Constitution, each of our fifteen Union Republics has the right to remain in the Union or to leave it, if it so desires. The existence of, nineteen autonomous republics, nine autonomous regions and ten national territories makes it possible to, preserve the national characteristics and cultural originality and individuality of each people and nationality. 210. Harmony and unprecedented unity between all nationalities have been achieved in the Soviet Union. A genuine friendship between nationalities was brought into being, which all the trials of the Second World War could not shake. These great changes benefited not only the national minorities but the Russians, Ukrainians and Byelorussians — the nations comprising a majority of the Soviet Union’s population. 211. We are proud that the experience of the former borderlands of Russia has proved that it is perfectly possible for the countries of the East to do away with backwardness, poverty, disease and ignorance within the lifetime of one generation and to rise to the level of economically advanced countries. 212. And now I should like to turn to other examples which illustrate how the colonialists in fact carry out their "civilizing mission" in the colonies. 213. On the attainment of independence by the former colonies, the annual per caput national income, according to official United Nations statistics, was only $US25 in Indonesia, while in Holland it was twenty times greater. In Burma that income was $US36, in India, $US57, or ten times less than in the United Kingdom. The per caput national income in Belgium at the time when the Congolese people won their independence was thirteen times higher than the income of a Congolese. Moreover, in the Congo, as in other colonial countries, the lion’s share of this extremely low income was taken by the colonizers. 214. Let us take such an important index of a country’s economic development as the output of electric power. On the attainment of independence, per caput output of electric power in Burma was 4 kilowatt- hours a year; in India, about 15 kilowatt-hours, in Pakistan, 2 kilowatt-hours and in Egypt, about 50 kilowatt-hours, while in the United Kingdom per caput production in 1947 was over 1,100 kilowatt-hours. 215. The colonizers kept the enslaved peoples in ignorance and darkness. In 1950 the number of literate persons in Indonesia did not exceed 15 to 20 per cent of the population. In India, even a few years after independence had been won, when steps had already been taken to expand the national educational system, the level of literacy stood at 16 per cent; in Pakistan it was 14 per cent. At the time when the countries of French Indo-China attained independence, there were 330 students in France for every 100,000 inhabitants and 4 for every 100,000 in Cambodia. In 1948 there was one doctor for 67,000 inhabitants in Indonesia. It is not surprising that, as a result of the poor living standards and the lack of proper medical assistance, the average life span in all former colonies is appallingly low in comparison with the metropolitan countries. In a number of these countries a man lives on the average not more than 35 years, which is barely half the average lifetime in the countries that held them in colonial enslavement. This is a legacy of the colonial system that has not yet been eliminated. 216. If, instead of plundering and exploiting, the metropolitan States had really been guided by the interests of the colonial peoples, if they had really given them the assistance of which they like to talk, the peoples of the colonies and the metropolitan countries would have developed uniformly instead of presenting such striking differences in the development of their national economy, culture and prosperity. How can one speak of co-operation, when the level of living in the Western countries is not even comparable to that in the colonies? That is no co-operation, but the domination of one group by the other, a situation in which the latter utilize the labour and wealth of the former, exploit and plunder them and pump their national resources into the metropolitan countries. The colonial peoples have but one road of escape from want and arbitrary rule — the liquidation of the colonial system of government. 217. The supporters of the colonial system are frightening the populations of the metropolitan countries by asserting that the abolition of the system will inevitably be followed by a drastic deterioration in the mode of life of the people of the industrialized countries. These assertions are clearly groundless. 218. In the first place, they betray their authors, who involuntarily admit that the metropolitan countries are continuing to plunder the colonies and dependent countries from which they derive fabulous profits. That is indeed a fact, but it is equally true that the super-profits go not to the metropolitan peoples at large but, mainly, into the pockets of the monopolists. It is not the peoples of the metropolitan countries but the millionaires and billionaires who cling to the colonial system. 219. In the second place, the course of development of many countries that have attained their national independence shows convincingly that with the rapid growth of their national economy, their home markets expand beyond comparison, and they can consume incomparably greater quantities of industrial goods from the more highly developed countries while, at the same time, because of the growth of their own productive forces, they are able to supply more of the raw materials and the various products and goods needed by the economies of the industrialized countries. This is a more progressive and sensible system of relations among countries, that increases the prosperity of the peoples both in the erstwhile economically backward colonial and dependent countries and in the more highly developed ones. 220. The entire march of events and the course of economic and political development pass the inexorable judgement of history on the obsolete and shameful colonial system. 221. We cannot, of course, expect that our proposals for the liquidation of the colonial system, consistent though they are with mankind’s vital interests, will meet with sympathy on the part of those who are still clinging to the colonial order of things. I can hear in advance the criticism of those who defend the colonial system. But to those accustomed to build their prosperity at the expense of the oppressed peoples of the colonies we say this: Think, look carefully at what is happening around you. If not today, then soon, very soon, will come the final collapse of the colonial order, and if you do not get out of the way in time, you will be swept away just the same. The life of the doomed colonial system of government cannot be lengthened either by plots or even by force of arms. Such efforts will merely intensify and embitter the struggle of the peoples against this utterly decayed system. 222. But the number of supporters of the colonial system, even in the colonial Powers themselves, is steadily dwindling and, in the final analysis, they will not have the last word. For this reason, we are appealing to the good sense and the foresight of the peoples of the Western countries, to their Governments and representatives at this Assembly of the United Nations: let us agree on steps to liquidate the colonial system of government and so speed up this natural historical process; let us do everything to ensure that the peoples of the colonial and dependent countries attain equality of rights and become able to decide their own fate. 223. We welcome the sacred struggle of the colonial peoples for their liberation. If the colonial Powers, instead of heeding the voice of reason, persist in their old colonialist policy of keeping the colonial countries in subjection, the peoples which stand for the liquidation of the colonial regimes will have to give all possible help to those fighting for their independence against the colonialists and against colonial slavery. Moral, material and other assistance must be given so that the sacred and just struggle of the peoples for their independence can be brought to its conclusion. 224. The Soviet Union, for its part, has been giving assistance to economically under-developed countries and will continue to do so in ever-increasing volume. We are genuinely helping the peoples of these countries to establish their independent economies and to develop their own industry, which is the mainstay of true independence and of increasing prosperity for the people. 225. Peoples which oppress others cannot be free. Every free people must help those who are still oppressed to gain their freedom and independence. 226. Allow me to express the hope that the present session of the General Assembly will be an historic landmark on the road to the complete and final elimination of colonial systems on our planet. This would be an act of great historic importance, in keeping with the aspirations of all peoples struggling to secure national independence for progressive mankind a whole. 227. In September 1959, on the Soviet Government’s instructions, I submitted at the fourteenth session of the United Nations General Assembly [799th meeting] the Soviet Union’s proposals for general and complete disarmament. The appalling destructive force of modern weapons, the unprecedented pace of the arms race, the accumulation by States of vast stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction, all create a threat to the future of mankind and necessitate a search for an essentially new approach to the problem of disarmament. Our proposals were the practical expression of such an approach. 228. We could only feel gratified at the fact that the ideas we had put forward won unanimous approval in the United Nations and received widespread support from the peoples of the whole world. Guided by the resolution [1378 (XIV)] adopted by the General Assembly at its last session,' the Soviet Union, jointly with other States, took a most active part in the negotiations in the Ten-Nation Committee on Disarmament and strove for the preparation of a treaty on general and complete disarmament. Without waiting for an international agreement on disarmament, the Soviet Union is unilaterally carrying out a reduction of its armed forces by 1.2 million men, i.e., by one third, which is generally recognized as having helped to improve the atmosphere for the disarmament talks. 229. The Soviet Government, which is consistently and resolutely pursuing a peaceful policy, solemnly declares at the present session of the United Nations General Assembly that the Soviet Union maintains armed forces for the sole purpose of defending our country and fulfilling our commitments to our allies and friends in the event of aggression against them. The use of our armed forces for other purposes is precluded because that would be alien to the very nature of our State and to the fundamental principles of our peaceful foreign policy. 230. Our country is compelled to maintain armed forces solely because our proposals for general and complete disarmament have not yet been accepted. We shall do everything in our power to ensure that general and complete disarmament becomes a reality and that mankind is liberated from the arms race and from the threat of a new war of extermination. 231. A year has elapsed since the General Assembly adopted the resolution on general and complete disarmament. Having regard to the present pace of life, that is a comparatively long period of time and we need have no doubt that those engaged in the production of weapons and in the perfection and invention of new lethal means have not let it go to waste. 232. But in the sphere of disarmament not the slightest progress has been made in the past year. What are the reasons for this state of affairs to which we are forced to refer with great regret and serious concern? Who is preventing the implementation of the General Assembly resolution on general and complete disarmament, perhaps the most important and outstanding decision in the history of the United Nations? Who is making it impossible to break the deadlock on the problem of disarmament? 233. The facts show that the absence of any progress towards the solution of the disarmament problem is the consequence of the position taken by the United States and by certain other States linked with it through NATO. 234. Throughout the work of the Ten-Nation Committee on Disarmament, the Western Powers refused to start working out a treaty on general and complete disarmament and in every way avoided discussion of the substance of the Soviet programme of general and complete disarmament [A/4219] which the General Assembly had referred to the Committee for detailed consideration. For their part, they made proposals which provided for neither general nor complete disarmament, nor any disarmament at all, but only for measures of control over armaments, i.e. control without disarmament. However, one cannot but see that the establishment of control without disarmament would be tantamount to setting up an international espionage system which, far from contributing to the consolidation of peace, could, on the contrary, make it easier for a potential aggressor to realize his plans which pose a threat to the peoples. 235. The danger lies in the fact that the establishment of control over armaments, if armaments were retained, would mean, in effect, that each side would know the quantity, quality and deployment of the armaments possessed by the opposing side. Consequently an aggressor could increase his armaments to a superior level in order to choose the opportune moment and launch an attack. We will never agree to control over armaments without disarmament, because that would mean conniving at aggression. Our goal is to secure a stable peace, which can be achieved only through the elimination of armaments and armed forces under strict international control, 236. Acting directly contrary to the General Assembly resolution, the Western Powers engaged in meaningless talk on disarmament in the Ten-Nation Committee on Disarmament, trying to impede all progress in the matter and to discredit the idea of general and complete disarmament in the eyes of the world. 237. The Soviet Government, together with the Governments of a number of other States, was compelled to suspend its participation in the work of the Ten- Nation Committee which the Western Powers had turned into a screen for concealing the arms race. It was not easy for the Soviet Government to take this decision, because it was precisely our country that had first raised the issue of general and complete disarmament, and had been doing its utmost to achieve in the Committee a constructive solution to the problem, in strict conformity with the General Assembly resolution. In the circumstances, however, staying on in the Committee would only have meant helping the opponents of disarmament. It was impossible to tolerate attempts to make the great cause of disarmament an object of speculation for purposes inimical to the interests of universal peace. 238. That is why the Soviet Government has placed the question of disarmament before the United Nations General Assembly, a considerable majority of whose members have no interest whatever in the arms race and sincerely wish to see it brought to an end. 239. Bearing in mind the tremendous significance of the disarmament problem and the need to effect a radical change in the course of the negotiations, the Soviet Government expressed the idea that Heads of State and of Government vested with the necessary plenary powers, should participate directly in the discussion of this question in the General Assembly. We note with satisfaction that this approach was duly understood by the Governments of a number of States, whose delegations to the General Assembly are headed by the most responsible statesmen of their respective countries. 240. In submitting the question of disarmament to the General Assembly for consideration in plenary meeting, our basic premise is that a full-scale discussion of this question should finally lead to its solution or , at least, give a more practical direction to the disarmament talks, in which States adhering to a neutral course should now participate, in addition to States belonging to the opposing military groups. 241. In an attempt to facilitate the General Assembly work and to give reality to the disarmament discussions, the Soviet Government submits to the General Assembly for consideration a proposal, "Basic provisions of a treaty on general and complete disarmament" [A/4505], We request the President of the General Assembly and the United Nations Secretariat to have circulated to delegations, as official General Assembly documents, this proposal and our explanatory statement in which the Soviet Union’s position on the question of disarmament is set out in greater detail. 242. The new Soviet proposal on the question of general and complete disarmament, which is based on the provisions of the proposal dated 2 June 1960 [A/4374], submitted by the Soviet Government to all the Governments of the world for consideration, has been drafted with due regard for all the useful ideas expressed in the past year in the course of the discussions on this question in political and public circles in various countries. This proposal goes a long way towards meeting the position of the Western Powers and this we hope will make for early agreement on disarmament. 243. We now provide, in particular, that all means of delivering nuclear weapons to their targets should be eliminated in the very first stage of general and complete disarmament; we have worked out detailed measures for effective international control at all stages; and we have taken into account the wish of certain Western Powers that, from the outset, there should be provision for reduction in the strength of armed forces and in conventional armaments. We have also introduced quite a number of other amendments to and modifications of our programme. In our view all these amendments render the programme of general and complete disarmament more concrete and even more realistic and practicable. 244. Detailed preparation of a treaty on general and complete disarmament is, of course, a complex task which will demand no little effort and labour from all those taking part in the negotiations. In the course of this work various problems may arise whose solution will demand flexibility and a realistic appraisal of the international situation. 245. But we must all soberly realize that no amount of flexibility will help in the solution of the disarmament problem and that all the efforts and labour devoted to that end will go to waste as before unless all the participants in the negotiations are guided by a desire to make mankind’s age-old dream of disarmament a reality. 246. However, in the Ten-Nation Committee on Disarmament, the United States and its NATO partners clearly lacked this desire. So far there is no sign that they have the desire now. In this connexion it is impossible to disregard the new attempts which the United States made shortly before the General Assembly began its work to sidetrack the issue. Is it not clear to everyone that that was precisely the aim pursued by the United States in seeking a meeting of the United Nations Disarmament Commission a few weeks before the opening of the General Assembly’s fifteenth session? As the work of the Ten-Nation Committee has shown in practice, difficulties arose in the negotiations on practical disarmament problems in that Committee as a result of the Western Powers’ unwillingness to solve the disarmament problem. The Soviet Union proposals submitted to the Ten-Nation Committee for consideration are widely known and were appraised by international public opinion as perfectly clear and entirely realistic. It should be emphasized that they took into account some of the Western Powers’ wishes and proposals. Nevertheless, Mr. Lodge, the United States representative to the United Nations on the question of disarmament, asserted that the Soviet Union was selling "a pig in a poke". In that case the question is whether Mr. Lodge, like the hero in oriental fairy tales, has not put himself in to a "poke" which prevents him from seeing what everyone else can Bee and understand perfectly well. 247. We were also surprised by another statement made by Mr. Lodge, opposing submission of the disarmamentquestion to the General Assembly for consideration at the present session. He said: "We ... think that world opinion ought to hear it and ought to hear it in a forum like this which is devoted exclusively to disarmament, and not merely hear it in the General Assembly where it is only one of more than eighty other issues." 248. I know Mr. Lodge personally, and I am surprised that he has such a low opinion of his own work; after all, he represented the interests of the United States in the United Nations for many years. Perhaps it is precisely because he is so familiar with all the questions under discussion in the General Assembly that he counts them by the dozen and would rather try to transfer them to an auxiliary body in order to hide them "in a poke" away from public opinion. 249. We have the greatest respect for all the Commissions of the United Nations, but for us the highest, most representative and authoritative forum of the peoples is the General Assembly of the United Nations. We hope that the representatives of States from all continents who are gathered here do not share Mr. Lodge’s point of view and will not regard the question of disarmament merely as one of more than eighty agenda items. This is the vital question which is agitating the whole of mankind, and it is strange that the representatives of the United States in the United Nations do not understand this. 250. Still more brazen attempts were made in the United Nations Disarmament Commission to direct the disarmament negotiations onto a path that could not possibly lead to a solution of the problem. How else can we regard the proposals which the United States put forward in the United Nations Disarmament Commission, to the effect that the United States and the Soviet Union should each place, under international supervision, 30,000 kilogrammes of fissionable materials intended for nuclear weapons — a proposal, incidentally, repeated yesterday [868th meeting] by the President of the United States — or that these countries should start shutting down one by one the plants producing such materials for military purposes? 251. Only an ill-informed person can believe that these proposals are aimed at reducing the threat of nuclear war. Indeed, the American proposals do not provide either for the elimination of nuclear weapons or for the destruction of stockpiles of such weapons, or even for the prohibition of their use. They provide for the removal of a certain quantity of fissionable materials from the stockpiles of these materials which have been accumulated by States for military purposes. It is well known, however, that the existing stockpiles of fissionable materials are so huge as to be more than sufficient to annihilate whole countries and peoples. It is significant that the United States, in putting forward its proposals, said nothing about the quantity of nuclear weapons and of fissionable materials for their future manufacture which would remain at its disposal after the allocation of the 30,000 kilogrammes. If the United States had mentioned that, it would have been still more obvious that such a step would by no means alleviate substantially the threat of nuclear war. 252. The Soviet Government is deeply convinced that only a radical solution of the problem of disarmament, providing for the complete prohibition of nuclear weapons together with the cessation of their manufacture and testing and the destruction of all accumulated stockpiles of these weapons, can accomplish the task of delivering mankind from the threat of nuclear war which hangs over it. This is precisely the aim which the Soviet Union is pursuing in consistently and resolutely advocating general and complete disarmament. 253. All this, in our view, leads to one important conclusion. In order finally to break the deadlock on the disarmament problem, the General Assembly should call to order those who are hindering its solution and are trying to replace business-like negotiations on disarmament by empty beating about the bush. 254. Soberly appraising the situation and the correlation of forces in the world, the Soviet Government is profoundly convinced that disarmament in our time is not only necessary but possible. The struggle for peace has now become a great watchword mobilizing the peoples. This is a fact to be reckoned with even by those Governments which are still infected with an unhealthy attraction towards the policy of cold war and the armaments race. 255. The United Nations has no more important or more urgent task than that of helping to ensure that disarmament becomes a reality and that practical steps — the return of soldiers to their homes and the destruction of weapons, including nuclear weapons, and the means of their delivery, are at last begun. 256. A great aim is worthy of great effort. The Soviet Government expresses the hope that all States concerned with the strengthening of peace will exert their energy and spare no effort to solve the disarmament problem, the most important problem of today. There can be no doubt that the peoples of the whole world will be deeply grateful for a decision by the United Nations General Assembly on disarmament questions. 257. The peoples of the Soviet Union and the Soviet Government are striving unremittingly to have the principles of peaceful coexistence firmly established in relations between States, and to ensure that these principles become the fundamental law of life for the whole of modern society. There is no communist- devised "trick" behind these principles, but simple truths dictated by life itself, such as that relations between all States should develop peacefully, without the use of force, without war and without interference in each other's internal affairs. 258. I am revealing no secret when I say that we have no liking for capitalism. But we do not want to impose our system on other peoples by force. Let those, then, who determine the policy of States with a different social system from ours, renounce their fruitless and dangerous attempts to dictate their will. It is time they also recognized that the choice of a particular way of life is the domestic concern of every people. Let us build up our relations having regard to actual realities. That is true peaceful coexistence. 259. We cannot disregard the fact that a much greater force than the desire, the will or the decision of any Government is acting in favour of the policy of peaceful coexistence. That force is the natural desire, common to all mankind, to avert the calamities of a war in which all the unprecedented means of mass destruction accumulated in recent years would be used. 260. Adoption of the principles of peaceful coexistence does not, of course, mean that we have somehow to begin to rebuild relations between States on a completely new basis. Peaceful coexistence is in fact already a reality and has received international recognition. Proof of this is the fact that the General Assembly has twice in recent times adopted resolutions confirming the need for peaceful coexistence. Whether they want it or not, even those States whose Governments still do not wish to declare their agreement with the idea of peaceful coexistence are forced in practice to follow it in many respects. 261. The problem now, in fact, is how to make peaceful coexistence safe, how to avoid the departures from it which very often give rise to dangerous international conflicts. In other words, as I have already once said, we have not much choice: it is either peaceful coexistence, which would promote the highest human ideals, or else coexistence "at daggers drawn". 262. Anyone wishing to describe how peaceful coexistence looks in practice might point to the relations maintained by the socialist countries with the new States of Asia, Africa, and Latin America which have freed themselves from colonial oppression and have started to follow an independent policy. These relations are marked by true friendship, great mutual sympathy and esteem, and the granting of economic and technical assistance to the less developed countries without any political or military strings attached. Another good example might be the relations maintained between the countries of the socialist camp and neutral capitalist States such as, for instance, Finland, Austria, Afghanistan, Sweden and others. 263. I feel that the ideas of peaceful coexistence may triumph even in those countries whose Governments have not yet abandoned their hostile acts against socialist States or their crude pressure on uncommitted States which pursue an independent policy. Even in those countries there is a growing realization of the danger of the cold war policy and of a reckless balancing on the brink of the precipice. 264. On my last visit to the United States I met statesmen, businessmen; workers and farmers, scientists and trade union leaders. These meetings had great importance for me, and also, I think, for the people I met. My conviction has grown that the American people do not want war, that in the highest strata of American society there are people who are profoundly aware of the need to live in peace and to exclude war from the life of mankind, people capable of going against deeply-rooted prejudices. 265. I left the United States feeling that there were real possibilities of dispelling the gloomy shadows of suspicion, fear and distrust from the relations between our States and that the Soviet Union and the United States could go hand in hand in the name of consolidating peace and establishing effective international co-operation among all States. I must say that this conviction has not been shaken in spite of all that has happened between the United States and the Soviet Union in recent months. In our time it would be the height of absurdity if the two most powerful States could not agree between themselves. This must be done, if only because of the enormous importance of the relations between the USSR and the United States for the fate of the world. The Soviet Government is ready to continue doing everything possible to improve relations between our country and the United States. 266. The policy of peaceful coexistence assumes a readiness to solve all outstanding issues without resort to force, by means of negotiations and reasonable compromises. We all know that during the cold war years such questions for the most part did not find a solution, and that led to the creation of dangerous foci of tension in Europe, Asia and other parts of the world. 267. We have not yet unravelled the international tangles which are the legacy of the Second World War. Foremost among these is the conclusion of a peace treaty with Germany and the solution on that basis of the urgent question of West Berlin. The fact that no peace treaty has yet been concluded with Germany is entirely the responsibility of the Governments of the Western Powers which, to speak plainly, have been sabotaging the settlement of this problem for many years. These Governments have made it a practice to reject peremptorily all the Soviet Union’s proposals for the conclusion of a German peace treaty, while they themselves have put forward no proposals of their own on the subject throughout the fifteen post-war years. 268. As a result of this, the situation in Europe remains unstable, fraught with the danger of acute conflicts. The absence of a peace treaty is particularly pleasing to the revanchist and militarist forces in West Germany. They are taking advantage of this in order to advance step by step towards the fulfilment of their purposes, which are dangerous to the cause of peace. At the time of the war in Korea, when relations between the Great Powers were greatly strained, they brought up the question of creating the Bundeswehr and succeeded in doing this. Today we see the ruling circles in the Federal Republic of Germany becoming active, hoping that the present tension will enable them to obtain possession of nuclear weapons and rockets. 269. Although the Summit Conference, which among other things was to have considered the question of a peace treaty with Germany, was disrupted, we consider that there exist objective conditions for an agreed solution of the problems remaining at issue after the last war. As we have already stated, the Soviet Government is prepared to wait a while with the solution of the problem of a German peace treaty in order to try and reach agreement on that treaty at the summit conference which the Soviet Union has proposed convening in a few months’ time. We should like to hope that the Soviet Union's efforts in this direction will be supported by the Governments of the United States, the United Kingdom and France. 270. The Soviet Union considers that, in order to strengthen peace in the Far East and throughout the world, it is most essential to settle the Korean question. 271. Only madmen could think of settling the Korean question by armed force. The only correct proposal, namely to leave the solution of the question of the peaceful reunification of Korea to the Koreans themselves with no interference from outside, is finding ever wider acceptance. An essential condition for this is the immediate and complete withdrawal of all United States troops from South Korea, for their presence poisons the atmosphere not only in Korea but throughout the Far East and has made possible such shameful facts as the rigging of elections in South Korea. The proposal of the Government of the Democratic Peopled Republic of Korea to establish a confederation of North and South Korea is just as reasonable as the proposal of the Government of the German Democratic Republic to set up a confederation of the two German States. It is the only way to lay a sound foundation for the reunification of these States. 272. In recent years, at critical moments in the course of international life, the peace-loving States have more than once had to speak out in defence of the just cause and to take effective measures to ensure that events were directed into a peaceful channel. The United Nations helped to rebuff the aggressors who encroached on the freedom and rights of Egypt, and it helped to call to order those who were intervening in Lebanon and Jordan. We should like to hope that the United Nations will successfully accomplish the responsible tasks imposed on it by the still alarming situation in the world. 273. Experience of the work of the United Nations has shown that this body is useful and necessary, because in it are represented all the States which are called upon to solve, through negotiation and discussion, the pressing issues of international relations so as to prevent them from reaching a point where conflicts and wars might break out. That is the positive aspect of the work of the United Nations. That, indeed, constitutes the main purpose of the creation of the United Nations. 274. However, in the course of the Organization’s activities, its negative aspects have also come to light. These negative aspects found expression in the fact that certain countries have hitherto been able to impose their will and their policy in the settlement of particular questions in the United Nations to the detriment of other States. This does not further the principal purpose of the United Nations, it does not promote the adoption of decisions which would reflect the interests of all the countries in the United Nations. 275. The executive machinery of the Organization is also constructed in a one-sided manner. It often approaches the solution of questions from the standpoint of a particular group of countries. This is particularly true of the activities of the United Nations Secretary-General. The Western countries which are members of the military blocs of the Western Powers usually exploit that office in their own interests by nominating for the post of United Nations Secretary-General a candidate acceptable to them. The result is that in many cases the practical, routine work of the United Nations and of its Secretariat is carried out in a one-sided manner. The staffing of the Organization is also one-sided, 276. The bias in the implementation of practical measures on the part of the United Nations Secretariat was particularly glaring in the case of the events which have taken place in the Congo. In implementing the Security Council’s decisions, the Secretary-General in effect adopted the position of the colonialists and of the countries that support the colonialists. That is a very dangerous thing. 277. We are now firmly convinced that the time has come to take steps to create conditions for an improved functioning both of the United Nations as a whole and of the Organization’s executive, working organ. I repeat, the matter relates primarily to the Secretary-General and his staff. We must particularly bear in mind the necessity for certain changes and improvements, with a view to the immediate future. 278. For instance, we are now conducting negotiations on disarmament. For the present the United States and its allies are making every effort to resist general and complete disarmament and are finding all sorts of pettifogging reasons to thwart or at least stave off indefinitely a settlement of the disarmament question. But we believe that good sense will prevail and that sooner or later all States will bring pressure to bear on those who resist a sensible solution of the disarmament problem. The United Nations Secretariat must therefore be adapted even now to the conditions which will come into being as disarmament decisions are implemented. 279. An identical point of view has emerged in our proposals and in those of the countries making up the NATO military alliance regarding the necessity of following up an agreement on disarmament with the establishment of armed forces of all countries, under international control, to be used by the United Nations in accordance with the decision of the Security Council. 280. The Soviet Government considers that if a correct approach is taken to the utilization of these international armed forces, they may indeed be useful. But the experience of the Congo puts us on our guard. That experience indicates that the United Nations forces are being used exactly in the way against which we warned, a way we emphatically oppose. Mr. Hammarskjold, the Secretary-General, has taken a position of purely formal condemnation of the colonialists. In actual practice, however, he is following the colonialists’ line, opposing the lawful Government of the Congo and the Congolese people and supporting the renegades who, under the guise of fighting for the independence of the Republic of the Congo, are actually continuing the policy of the colonialists and are evidently receiving some reward from them for their treachery. 281. What is to be done in this case? If this is how the international armed forces are to be used in practice, to suppress liberation movements, it will naturally be difficult to reach agreement on their establishment, since there will be no guarantee that they will not be used for reactionary purposes that are alien to the interests of peace. Provision must be made to ensure that no State falls into the predicament in which the Republic of the Congo now finds itself. We are convinced that other States also realize this danger. Solutions must therefore be sought which would preclude Similar occurrences in the future. 282. The Soviet Government has come to a definite conclusion on this matter and wishes to expound its point of view before the United Nations General Assembly. Conditions have clearly matured to the point where the post of Secretary-General, who alone directs the staff and alone interprets and executes the decisions of the Security Council and the sessions of the General Assembly, should be abolished. It would Jae expedient to abandon the system under which all practical work in the intervals between General Assembly sessions and Security Council meetings is determined by the Secretary-General alone. 283. The executive organ of the United Nations should reflect the real situation that obtains in the world today. The United Nations includes States which are members of the military blocs of the Western Powers, socialist States and neutralist countries. It would therefore be completely justified to take that situation into account, and we would be better safeguarded against the negative developments which have come to light in the work of the United Nations, especially during the recent events in the Congo. 284. We consider it reasonable and just for the executive organ of the United Nations to consist not of a single person — the Secretary-General — but of three persons invested with the highest trust of the United Nations, persons representing the States belonging to the three basic groups I have mentioned. The point at issue is not the title of the organ but that this executive organ should represent the States belonging to the military block of the Western Powers, the socialist States and the neutralist States. This composition of the United Nations executive organ would create conditions for a more correct implementation of the decisions taken. 285. In brief, we consider it advisable to set up, in the place of a Secretary-General who is at present the interpreter and executor of the decisions of the General Assembly and the Security Council, a collective executive organ of the United Nations consisting of three persons each of whom would represent a certain group of States. That would provide a definite guarantee, that the work of the United Nations executive organ would not be carried on to the detriment of any one of these groups of States. The United Nations executive organ would then be a genuinely democratic organ; it would really guard the interests of all States Members of the United Nations irrespective of the social and political system of any particular Member State. This is particularly necessary at the present time, and it will be even more so in the future. 286. There are also other difficulties which Members of the United Nations are now experiencing. These difficulties are due to the location of United Nations Headquarters. One would think that the United States, which calls itself a free democratic country, would do everything it could to facilitate the work of the United Nations and provide all the necessary facilities for the representatives of States belonging to the Organization. Practice shows, however, that the United States restricts and infringes upon the rights of the representatives of various States. There have been cases for instance, where the representatives of young African and Asian States have been subjected to racial discrimination in the United States and even to attacks by thugs. 287. The representatives of the United States authorities explain the various restrictions on the rights of representatives of States Members of the United Nations by saying that it is difficult to ensure their security. I wish to emphasize that we have a better opinion of the hospitality of the American people than the one that might be formed in the light of such statements and restrictive measures. But these statements cannot be disregarded, nor can we fail to take into account the difficulties which are created for the work of the United Nations in such circumstances. 288. The question arises whether thought should not be given to selecting another place for United Nations Headquarters, a place which would better facilitate the fruitful work of the international body. Either Switzerland or Austria for instance might well be chosen. I can state with full authority that, should it be considered expedient to move the Headquarters of the United Nations to the Soviet Union, we would guarantee the best possible conditions for its work and complete freedom and security for the representatives of all States, irrespective of their political or religious convictions or the colour of their skin, for in our country the sovereign rights of all States and the equality of all nations, big and small, receive the highest respect. 289. You are all aware that the Soviet Government supported, at the time, the proposal that the: United States of America should be selected as the seat of the United Nations. But recent developments indicate that the United States apparently feels this to be a burden. Should we not give thought, then, to freeing the United States of this burden? 290. The Soviet Government, in placing before the representatives in the General Assembly its proposals on the vitally important questions of the day, would like to stress their special and extraordinary importance for the fate of the world. 291. The importance of the disarmament problem needs no special demonstration. This problem is of such cardinal significance that it must assuredly be discussed at the plenary meetings of the General Assembly. 292. The question of the abolition of the colonial regime is also of such great importance that the necessity for its consideration at the plenary meetings of the General Assembly will clearly meet with the full understanding of all delegations. 293. We consider that the question of the aggressive actions of the United States of America against the Soviet Union, as manifested by the dispatch of United States aircraft inside the borders of the USSR, has acquired exceptionally great importance. This is in itself a deed which oversteps the limits of relations admissible between States in time of peace. But the question assumes particular importance for the reason that Mr. Eisenhower, the president of the United States, himself declared the aggressive flights of United States aircraft to be a normal matter allegedly necessary for the security of the United States. At the same time the United States Government arrogated to itself the right to dispatch such aircraft in the future as well. This is why, since the issue involves the violation of the sovereign rights not only of the Soviet Union but of other States as well, the question of the aggressive actions of the United States should be dealt with by the General Assembly’s plenary session. 294. A continuation of such actions, and especially their interpretation by the President of the United States as a matter of State policy, may at any moment plunge mankind into a third world war. I repeat, therefore, that in the opinion of the Soviet Government this question, too, like the questions of disarmament and the liquidation of colonialism, must be discussed by the United Nations General Assembly in plenary session rather than, in committee. 295. What we have in mind is that at this session of the General Assembly the representatives of the overwhelming majority of States of the world should express their views on the cardinal problems which today agitate public opinion and all the people in the world who are interested in the further development of freedom and democracy and yearn for peace for themselves and their children. 296. The Soviet Government hopes that the proposals it has raised for questions to be considered at the present session of the General Assembly will meet with support and understanding, since they are prompted by a sincere desire to secure a better life and tranquillity on our planet. 297. Indeed, man lives and works in order to make the fullest possible use of his powers, his talents and his potentialities. The world of our time is diversified but at the same time it is one. We live on the same planet and it will depend on us how we arrange our affairs on it. 298. Man's mind is working wonders today. Tomorrow even vaster prospects will be opened in the realm of science and technology. The important thing is to ensure that the great scientific achievements of our age serve the good of the people. 299. I think you will agree with me that the attention of hundreds of millions of people is focused these days on the General Assembly hall. What do the peoples of all these many countries of the world expect of us? They expect a just and honest settlement of the crucial problems of our time. The peoples may err in their choice of governments. One or another historical situation may lead to injustices in any country. But however complicated the internal relationships in States may be, people naturally hope and trust in better things to come. People want to live and prosper and, above, all, they want their children to have more and live better. 300. For this reason we must all - and I say this on behalf of the Soviet people — be deeply aware of our high and special mission. Mankind has advanced so far that it cannot tolerate in its life the remnants of the grim reactionary past. Mankind has advanced so far that it comprehends the deep and grave danger of abusing and misusing scientific achievements for the sake of an arms race. 301. So let us leave to our successors, our children, our grandchildren and great-grandchildren, good memories of our time. Let them hold up the people of our time as an example and say: once the inhabitants of the earth faced difficult and extremely complex problems, but, gathering together in the United Nations General Assembly, they succeeded in settling them in order to ensure a better future. 302. So let us act in such a way as to make the fifteenth session of the General Assembly not only an Assembly of hopes but also an Assembly of the realization of hopes. 303. The Soviet Government is ready to do its utmost in order that colonial servitude maybe destroyed here and now, that here and now the problems of disarmament may find their concrete and effective solution. 304. The Soviet Government is ready to do its utmost in order that the testing of nuclear weapons may be prohibited here and now, that this means of mass destruction may be prohibited and destroyed. 305. It could be said that these are complicated problems and that they cannot be solved atone stroke. But these are problems posed by life itself and they must be solved before it is too late. Their solution cannot be evaded. 306. In concluding my statement I wish to emphasize once again that the Soviet Government, guided by the interests of the Soviet people, by the interests of the citizens of a free socialist State, once again proposes to all: let us talk, let us argue, but let us settle the questions of general and complete disarmament and let us bury colonialism that is accursed of all mankind. 307. There must be no further procrastination or delay. The peoples of all States, whatever their social systems, expect the United Nations General Assembly at last to adopt decisions according with the aspirations of the peoples.