The world is witnessing today a conflict of forces more intense than ever before, the pressure of which has provoked and continues to provoke actions and reactions which strengthen or affect the supreme right of the peoples to obtain a permanent peace.
17. The United Nations was set up for the main purpose of maintaining world security. It gave one of its main organs, the General Assembly, the necessary authority and power to consider or discuss any matter within the scope of the Charter, and to bring it to the attention of the Security Council.
18. Articles 10 and 11 of the Charter assign a well- defined task to the Assembly. They empower it to consider the general principles of international co-operation, which include the maintenance of peace and security, disarmament and the regulation of armaments. They also authorize it to make recommendations on these principles to the Security Council or to the Members of the Organization, particularly with regard to the powers and functions of any of the organs.
19. Fifty-nine States are here convened to exercise their lawful functions, and we fervently desire that our Assembly may merit, with greater justification than any other, the title of a peace-making Assembly, and that it will spare no efforts in its task, not hesitating, even to revise the Charter, if necessary, in order to adopt an efficient system whereby problems not foreseen at San Francisco may be settled. This is a task of paramount importance, and the peoples of the world are entitled to expect great results from it.
20. Respect for the sovereignty and equality of states, non-intervention in domestic matters, improvement of legal principles, economic development and social progress, must be the main objectives of our discussions.
21. The Argentine delegation comes to this Assembly to occupy its place among the free nations, with a mandate which ratifies a position in conformity with those principles, a position which it has always maintained in the United Nations, corroborating its international activities in the course of international political events.
22. This position is a faithful reflection of the will of the Argentine people, exercised through the policy of their Government, which in its turn is the authentic expression of their sovereign will.
23. Some of the serious difficulties which the Assembly will have to overcome have already become apparent. To the task of settling them the Argentine delegation brings the contribution of a position that is indisputable from the legal point of view and is characterized by a positive approach towards the problems of today.
24. This attitude and the ethical principles which have inspired it have enabled her to assess facts, which, as the actual manifestations of policy, might endanger or shatter security, and have prompted her to implement decisions adopted by the competent organs of the United Nations whenever they did not imply a renunciation or weakening of national sovereignty, which the Charter itself expressly recognizes as a fundamental element in relations between States.
25. Argentina was honoured by the fourth session of the General Assembly [231st meeting] in being allocated a seat on the Trusteeship Council. We believe we fulfilled the task then entrusted to us, directing our efforts in that organ towards promoting the development of the inhabitants of the Trust Territories, with a view to bringing them to self-government or independence. As a non-administering authority, we gave the interests of those territories their due importance, and did not allow alien factors to intervene in the solution of the problems affecting the colonial peoples.
26. Devotion to our duties has been accompanied by the exercise of our rights. Even in the Organization’s most difficult moments, we held fast to the hope of a reconciliation between the most widely divergent interests and we laboured to achieve that end. The aims of the Argentine Government were marked by an association of duties with rights.
27. In accordance with that unequivocal attitude, which serves the fundamental objectives of the United Nations' Charter, Argentina has attempted to bring into the discussion of world affairs non-member States which might co-operate in the strengthening of peace. For that reason the admission of new peace-loving members will be supported by the Argentine delegation, which maintains its ideal of co-operation between all nations which desire peace and right.
28. My Government cherishes the hope that the United Nations, in its task, may count upon the support of those countries whose admission is not favoured because of certain political differences of which we are all aware. This Assembly has the means of finding an appropriate and just solution to this problem; the exercise of its sovereign power requires that it should do so.
29. In considering the various territorial questions, we have respected the will of the peoples; and because we faced these questions in a high-minded spirit, our goodwill and our traditional international policy would not permit us to hand over territories — and their populations — to satisfy the interests of third parties. That is the spirit which prevailed in the settlement of the future of the Italian colonies, by which the Assembly recognized the right of Libya and Somaliland to independence. At the present session we shall continue the debate on Eritrea, and we are convinced that a solution will be found which will reconcile the various aspects of the question and reaffirm those principles which are the very life-blood of the United Nations. The first requisite in this connexion should be respect for the natural rights and interests of the inhabitants of Eritrea, upon whom Italy has left her imperishable mark. We are convinced that the civilizing influence of Italian culture will continue to make itself felt upon the African continent.
30. It was oil similar deep-rooted democratic principles that our decision to attempt to curtail the privileges granted to some members of the Security Council was based.
31. The pedestal of international security, built upon the equal sovereignty of all States, will not be sufficiently solid to support the effigy of peace so long as the extraordinary power which is called the veto continues to be exercised and to destroy the main value of the Charter.
32. A short time ago the Security Council took the responsibility of recommending that the Members of the United Nations should give the Republic of Korea the help it needed to repel the armed attack and reestablish peace and security in the area of the conflict.
33. The Assembly is now being asked to consider items which will place it in a position to settle by its own vote questions which require a decision of the organ in which all Member States are represented at a time when the Security Council appears powerless to take action. The steps which the Assembly could take in connexion with the war in Korea, the question of Formosa, disarmament, and the control of the use of atomic weapons are, among others, the vital subjects demanding our attention.
34. This should stand out as evidence of the fact that the United Nations in general, in agreement with the opinion of certain members of the Security Council as expressed in the draft resolutions submitted, reaffirms the powers of the Assembly. These powers are the essence of the Assembly’s high mission, in defence of which many delegations, including that of Argentina, have expressed the highest hopes.
35. The economic and social problems submitted for the Assembly ’s consideration are of particular importance. We may say that problems of an economic or social nature lie at the root of any political conflict, whether it be national or international.
36. Moreover, a study of the particular form of community life which has appeared in the modern world shows that peaceful and stabilized economic and social conditions in the internal life of the various nations are now, more than in any other period of history, the best guarantee of international peace.
37. My country has noted — and I venture to draw attention to this fact here — that extreme political views, either of the left or the right, cannot flourish among a population when the state, inspired by the. doctrine of the common weal, has found a solution for these economic and social problems.
38. In my country, the people owe the implementation of our doctrine of the common weal, a doctrine of justice, to the inspired work of our President, General Peron. The doctrine is a synthesis of values and traditions which are the heritage of our culture. It is a harmonious combination of the requirements of individual freedom and of the basic purpose of all democratic societies with social legislation and the full, organic development of the country’s natural resources — a process which the State promotes in order that the advantages of our social legislation may be real and effective.
39. Our economic policy is based on the fundamental principles of humanizing capital and dignifying labour. Under our new Constitution, private capital is recognized and protected as an essential factor in the exploitation of the natural resources of the country; at the same time the workers are not only entitled to a fair wage but are also protected by constitutional principles aimed at according the maximum dignity to labour.
40. This action of the economic system based on justice is complemented by a work of profound public spirit and human solidarity — the Eva Peron Social Welfare Foundation — which lends its support and assistance to the children and the aged, to the sick and the crippled, so that no part of the people is neglected when faced with the elementary necessities of life.
41. If internal social peace is consolidated in all the nations, tension and conflicts of an international character will be reduced proportionately. The violent agitation of the masses with false inflammatory slogans will cease to be used as an instrument for international political infiltration, and will yield to a genuine and absolute respect for national sovereignties.
42. The action which the United Nations can undertake in this field is tremendously important. In the modern world the social benefits to which the nations aspire depend, in large measure, on the co-operation of technically advanced countries with abundant capital. For this reason we favour the United Nations technical assistance programme, and, similarly, the Argentine Government looks with sympathy upon the efforts of the Economic and Social Council to solve the financing of the economic development of backward areas, and to bring about a higher standard of living, full employment and economic stability.
43. It seems to us that, just as the existence of profound social-economic inequalities leading to disorder and disturbance of the peace is being fought within the framework of a national community, so in the larger sphere of the international community it is reasonable that the more richly endowed nations and those with larger resources should play their part in solving the problems of the less developed nations.
44. Even in the interests of the more developed peoples themselves, it is necessary that a genuine spirit of international solidarity should promote improvements in the world’s standard of living, through a wise social- economic policy, which the technical organs of the United Nations should then put into practice.
45. Such a policy must be carried out without delay. To a large extent, a solution of the serious problems which today beset the world depends on our decision to carry out an adequate and vigorous social-economic policy.
46. It is the fervent desire of my Government that these realities should be borne in mind for the good of humanity. To that end, we pray to God and turn for support in this hour of decision to the immortal legacy left us by that most exalted personage, General San Martin, the centenary of whose death the Argentine and other American peoples are devoutly commemorating.