Australia

59. Mr. President, may I offer my congratulations to you, on behalf of the Government and people of Australia, on your elevation to your high and responsible office, Our two countries have been linked in friendship for many years and we are closely associated with each other in various regional organizations, such as the Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East, the Colombo Plan, and the Asian Development Bank; and, at the regular conferences of these and' other bodies, the happy accident of the alphabet has meant that Afghanistan and Australia have sat side by side on many occasions. We have students from Afghanistan in Australia. This year a delegation of members of the Australian Parliament was most hospitably received in your country and brought back reports of the various developments in which we are jointly interested, as well as lyrical descriptions of the beauty of your countryside and the dignity of your people. It is therefore of special pleasure to us to see a citizen of Afghanistan in a position of leadership in the General Assembly of the United Nations. 60. In congratulating you, Mr. President, may I also echo what others have said to the effect that it is fitting in this year that the representative of an Asian nation should be President of the General Assembly. Asia is vast in area and large in population. Indeed, more than half the people in the world live there. A large proportion of the world's natural physical resources is to be found there and, as some of those resources are still latent, the Asian region presents an inspiring prospect of the riches that may still be yielded for the benefit of all mankind. 61. Speaking of Asia in this way Is not to say that, in the United Nations at any time, one continent or one country is more important than another. Our concern is with all humanity. The phrase "We the peoples", with which the Charter opens, means the people of all lands, of all races, of all languages, and of all creeds. The purpose of the United Nations is to harmonize the actions of all of us in the attainment of our common aims. But in Asia today, events fateful to all mankind are rising to a crisis. The outcome of Asian struggles will be felt throughout the world either for good or for ill. The realization of Asian hopes will be of benefit to all peoples; and the frustration of those hopes would retard progress and welfare in all corners of the earth. 62. In Asia today a ruthless doctrine of revolution by the use of force and subversion is being applied and resisted. Asia today is the front line of both the power struggle and the ideological struggle and, no matter what interpretation any of us may put on that contest, and no matter whether the sympathy of any one of us lies in one direction or another, it is plain for all to see the fateful and tragic fact of a clash between great forces and the effect of that clash on human life and human happiness. 63. In Asia today, too, the slow and difficult path towards nuclear disarmament is encountering a new setback, Such hopes as we may have had for the nonproliferation of nuclear weapons and for the limitation of their testing or their use are imperilled today by the nuclear ambitions of mainland China, accompanied by Peking's total disregard for any international effort in the direction of disarmament or control. 64. But, at the same time as we notice these gloomy facts, we can also notice that in Asia today the tasks of development are offering opportunities both more complex and greater in size than anywhere else in the world; many new enterprises which could bring closer co-operation between the strong and the weak are being attempted in that continent. 65. I want to give the Assembly a double picture, a picture of a continent of danger, a picture of a continent of opportunity. As viewed by us in Australia, living on the fringe of the region, it is also a continent of great dynamism where the energy and resolution of its people are moving through great changes towards a new era. In speaking thus, I have in mind chiefly the great Indian sub-continent, the Malaysian peninsula, the Indonesian archipelago, the Philippines archipelago, the Japanese islands, and the whole range of South-East Asia. What the rest of the world — and particularly the Western world — needs to appreciate is that what is at stake in Asia today is not an old order but a new order; not the propping up of out-dated regimes or hopeless and decaying customs, but the establishing of a wider chance for the creation of a new life for the liberated peoples of Asia. 66. I have had the good fortune to travel throughout the region. I have had the opportunity of close conversations with the leaders of all the countries which I have mentioned. I have participated as the representative of Australia in several regional conferences. I have made personal friendships and have learned to value the wisdom of my Asian colleagues. And so I speak with the certainty that the new Asia, to be shaped by the Asian people according to their own understanding of their own needs and interests, is a forward-looking and enlightened area. And I am confident too that the present Government centered in Peking stands for retrogressive forces, and that the countries which are resolved to remain free from the domination of Peking are the positive and constructive forces in Asia today. Those countries are represented here in our midst and their representatives can tell the Assembly more eloquently that I can both of their needs and of their aspirations. 67. The great and immediate need of the whole of southern Asia today is for peace. This continent wants peace badly. But it must be a peace that will last, a peace that will be fair, a peace that will not infringe the rights of any nation, and one which will leave no country under the shadow of fear or in peril of domination by another. The sort of peace which is needed is not the peace of a temporary cessation from strife, but a peace with a future — a foundation for a better life for all our peoples. Do not let us mock those who have suffered, and are still suffering today, in Asia for the sake of their future by giving them only a future of despair. 68. Looking at the whole Asian situation, one can find some encouragement in the ending of the conflict against Malaysia. We in Australia supported the defence of Malaysia at the same time as we tried to keep the way open to co-operation with Indonesia for peaceful purposes. We are glad to learn that Indonesia is to resume its place as a Member of the United Nations and we also welcome the prospect that the ending of armed conflict with its neighbour may lead to closer co-operation between Indonesia and all its neighbours for the benefit of the region and of the world. We also note with pleasure the signs of progress towards better understanding between Thailand and Cambodia on matters that have long been controversial, and the cessation of fighting on the frontier of India and Pakistan, and in these events we recognize the good offices of the United Nations, and in one case also of the Soviet Union. And we can see elsewhere the way in which the nations of the region are working together in many useful ways. A great reconstruction for peace is going on all the time in spite of the conflict, and in this work nations outside the region are making a major contribution. 69. Yet all our hopes for the future face an immediate threat by reason of the war in Viet-Nam. Australia has a very deep interest in the events in Viet-Nam. The Viet-Namese are our neighbours. Our co-operation with them began well before the present fighting developed. For over fifteen years Australia has been providing economic assistance to Viet-Nam. More recently, in response to requests by its Government, we have also been providing military assistance, at first limited to advisers and other technical military assistance, and subsequently including combat forces. We gave that military assistance on our own decision — as, indeed, on our own decision, we have contributed to defence in other parts of Asia — and we made that decision because we feel directly affected by anything that imperils stability and progress in that region. It is with this background of direct interest and military involvement on our part that I speak now on the present situation in Viet-Nam. 70. There existed in Viet-Nam, as the result of the Geneva Agreements of 1954, two separate Governments exercising jurisdiction in the north and in the south respectively. Although the Geneva Agreements looked towards the reunification of the country in accordance with the procedures and principles stated in those Agreements, reunification had not in fact taken place. The simple fact is that two de facto regimes have existed since 1954, and they could have continued peacefully side by side tor the time being, provided that no attempt was made by force to upset this interim arrangement, this modus vivendi. There is, I submit, some similarity to the situations that have existed in Germany and in Korea. These countries, too, are divided and there exists a desire among many of the Inhabitants on both sides in those countries for unification, but it now seems to be generally agreed that force should not be resorted to in order to attempt to achieve unification and that peaceful processes are in the interests of the people of the divided countries as well as of the world as a whole, Viet-Nam should be in the same position. 71. I do not pretend that the situation in Viet-Nam is a simple one. But, from an international point of view, what needs to be kept clearly in mind Is that the Government of the Republic of Viet-Nam, South Viet-Nam, particularly from 1959, was increasingly subjected to a campaign of subversion and terrorism and armed insurrection sustained and supported from North Viet-Nam. The aims of that subversion and violence were to disrupt and destroy the administration of the Government of the Republic of Viet-Nam; the method was assassination and other forms of terrorism; the aim was to intimidate the local population so that they would withdraw their active support from their Government. Another aim was to slash through the economic sinews of the country, to hinder production and to disrupt communications. Those acts combined together were intended also to force the Government to employ increasingly severe measures to maintain law and order, thus making it unpopular and providing a chance to blacken its reputation. 72. Eventually, faced with this calculated campaign sustained with support from outside the country, the Government of the Republic of Viet-Nam sought military assistance from other countries. In response to that request, Australia and, of course, the United States and other countries now have forces in South Viet-Nam. Those forces have grown in number and the operations have been intensified. Until last year, although North Viet-Nam was mounting increasingly vicious and well-armed attacks in the south, North Viet-Nam itself was left unmolested. It was only last year, after war had been waged on the soil of the south for over five years, that bombing of North Viet-Nam began, and even then, so far as human skill and techniques can achieve it, the bombing has been aimed at targets of direct military concern and not at civilian establishments. 73. Of course, we all share the distress at human suffering caused in this warfare. There is none of us that can claim to be more deeply moved by the human suffering than any other Member of the United Nations. There is suffering on both sides. The deliberate and cold-blooded massacres by Viet Cong terrorists, the victims often the wives and the children of the supporters of the Government, are sometimes even more pathetic than the victims of direct military operations. But all this suffering is a reflection of warfare itself. If we could stop the war, it would in itself mean the end of the bombing and the termination of other forms of killing and destruction. 74. How can we stop the war? This is not a war that can be stopped by surrender, or by victory for either side. It can only be stopped by agreement. On our side, the strict and narrow limits of our aims and our readiness for agreement have been clearly stated. Our readiness to agree to cessation of fighting without any claim or penalty or gain has been plainly declared. Up to the present, unfortunately. North Viet-Nam has made it clear that it wants to make gains and impose penalties and assert its own will. It wants not agreement but surrender. And there can be no surrender in that sense, for a principle vital to us all, combatant and non-aligned alike, is at stake. 75. It would be quite unhelpful for me to play with words or to try to elaborate the possible terms of a settlement. The overriding considerations in the mind of the Australian Government are that a deliberate and calculated aggression should not succeed in imposing a form of government on a free people, and that the form of government in South Viet-Nam should be acceptable to the people living there and be chosen by them. Surely each of us here would want that right for our own people and would not deny it to others. 76. I regret very much that the response in Hanoi and Peking to the statement made by the United States representative in this Assembly last Thursday [1412th meeting] has been negative. I hope that this negative response is only the routine and almost automatic initial reaction and that fuller consideration may lead them, either privately or publicly, to make a more positive reply to these overtures. 77. In connexion with events in Viet-Nam, I think that some misunderstanding has been promoted among residents in far continents by the familiar device of calling the invading force a liberation movement. We in Australia have long recognized a vast difference between the genuinely nationalist and patriotic liberation movements which brought independence to so many of the countries that are represented here before me, and the so-called National Liberation Front in South Viet-Nam. There is a vast difference between them. Elsewhere in Asian and in African countries, as many representatives here know far better than I, anti-colonial liberation movements were formed and led by teachers, civil servants, lawyers, professional men and members of the services. This important intelligentsia substantially formed the spearhead and the backbone of nationalist movements, and they won the people's support, 78. But it is precisely those groups which the National Liberation Front has failed to attract in South Viet-Nam. Indeed, quite the opposite is true: the Front has found them one of the major obstacles to its aims, and the Viet-Cong has therefore resorted to terrorism, by kidnapping and assassination, against these leaders of community life, especially in the villages and in the smaller provincial towns. The numbers murdered over the past six years now run into tens of thousands. These are not victims of the battlefield but the selected victims of terrorism exercised in order to annihilate the leaders of the community. In the first half of this year alone, over 2,000 village officials, teachers, agricultural officers, medical officers, and so forth, have been murdered by the Viet-Cong. What genuine national liberation movement has ever directed its activities in this way against the trained workers and the intelligentsia of the country that it is supposed to be liberating? In the past few weeks we have seen the spectacle of this so-called "National Liberation Front" directing further bombing outrages against the ordinary people of Viet-Nam who were engaged in the peaceful activity of participating in an election, "Liberation" is a label that Peking and Hanoi have used on this and other occasions to cover policies and deeds that would lead to the enslavement of Asian nations which want to be independent and free. 79. Just over two weeks ago elections were held for a constituent assembly to draw up a new constitution for the Republic of Viet-Nam, and that assembly is holding its first meeting today. These elections can be a significant step forward. Over 80 per cent of the 503 million registered voters cast their votes. The successful candidates come from a wide range, geographically, communally and in occupation. Over half of the successful candidates are under forty years of age. With this representative character there is thus a chance that many elements in Viet-Namese life including younger men and women, will be brought into the processes of political change. These elections, so successfully held in a war-torn country that has a disrupted political structure, could lead to a broader base for the regime and open the way to still further liberalization. 80. It would be a great contribution to the peace of the region, and indeed to world peace, if a just settlement were achieved in Viet-Nam. By the same token it would be dangerous to peace in the region, and dangerous to world peace, if hostilities ceased on unjust terms or in a way that gave encouragement to further subversion, infiltration and terrorism in South-East Asia and other parts of the world, in accordance with doctrines and practices originating in or inspired or supported by Peking. 81. That brings me to the question of China. This question has been before the General Assembly for many years. It particularly to the fore in the minds of the countries of South and South-East Asia and the Pacific. For mainland China overhangs' the region; it has a population of 700 million; it is under a regime which, while calling itself communist, represents all that is most illiberal and backward-looking and violent in communist thought. 82. Without going too far back in time, let me remind the Assembly that within the past four years Peking has engaged in armed aggression against India and is continuing to maintain a threatening posture along the borders of that country; that it has engaged in infiltration and subversion in Viet-Nam, Laos and Thailand, to mention only three countries; and that its leaders and spokesmen, including Lin Piao, who is now coming to the top in Peking, have proclaimed world revolution by violence, not only in Asia, but against most of the Governments represented in this Assembly. During the past month the so-called Red Guards have been stamping out those elements in China which by any stretch of the imagination might be regarded as not conforming slavishly with the though of Mao Tse-tung. 83. Mainland China is therefore an uneasy neighbour for the countries around it. The great question that faces all of us is how to live with mainland China. That is a complex question. I would only submit this thought. Achieving the means of living with mainland China does not rest with us alone. Peking has to make its contribution too. Yet, far from trying to make the idea of its admission to the United Nations more acceptable to other countries, Peking seems bent on challenging the rest of the world. Even this week, timed for the opening of this session of the General Assembly, have come fresh public Statements in Peking of demands it is making about the United Nations. 84. I repeat that the big question that faces us is that of living with the Peking regime and helping to fit it into the international community. Recognition of Peking and its admission to the United Nations would not in themselves be solutions of the bigger problem of relations with China. That problem would remain. Therefore we should avoid over-simplifying the question of China and should avoid seeing that problem simply in terms of recognition or of admission to the United Nations. 85. Australia regards the Charter of the United Nations as a treaty to which all Members have become parties. Peking has made it plain that it does not accept the terms of that treaty. If it enters the Organization at all, it will, it says, do so on its own terms. It has denounced the United Nations in its present form. Some of my colleagues here — and I say this with deep respect for them — seem to me to be arguing that this is a matter about which there can be negotiation after Peking has been admitted to membership. Surely, if it is seen that some negotiation is necessary in order to adjust the views of the candidate to those of the established Organization, that negotiation should be commenced before and not after admission. Is Peking not to give any sign at all that it will pay regard to the Charter? China asks the United Nations to change. Is China itself not to make any change to fit itself into the United Nations? 86. Another point which is fundamental in the attitude of the Australian Government is that the Government of the Republic of China, centred on Taiwan, should not cease to be a Member of the United Nations and should not be handed over to the rulers of Peking. Taiwan has a population of about 14 million people. That is more than the population of most Members of the United Nations, and none of those Members with the same or smaller populations should easily agree that because Taiwan is much smaller than mainland China, it should be sacrificed in order to reach a settlement with Peking. Would any of us like to see our country sacrificed in order to reach a settlement with some country greater in size than ours? Taiwan is a prosperous and developing country and if Peking took it over its people would undoubtedly suffer materially, quite apart from the savage reprisals they would undergo. We have all read with horror of what the Red Guards are doing today on the mainland of China to stamp out the slightest diversity of thought or conduct, even after eighteen years of rule by Mao Tse-tung. It needs little imagination to think of what those same Red Guards would do if let loose today on Taiwan as a result of any decision which we might take. Surely we cannot, in common humanity, quite apart from political considerations*, acquiesce in turning this island and its people over to Peking, nor should we acquiesce in such a change In its representation in the United Nations as would call into question its right to exist as an international entity and to enjoy the protections belonging to a Member State of the belonging to a Member State of the United Nations. 87. Hitherto, I have spoken entirely of Asia. Australia is a country of the ECAFE region, and so it is natural that we should think primarily of the region to which we belong. But we are part of the world as a whole. The future of individual nations, including ourselves, is vitally affected by relations between the great Powers and by developments in great issues like disarmament and nuclear weapons. Australia, I think we can claim, is not neglectful of its obligations in respect of the rest of the world apart from its own region. In the field of security, outside that region, Australia has participated in two world wars, making very substantial contributions and suffering losses in Europe and the Middle East; and it was a big contributor through UNRRA to the relief and resettlement of Europe. At present Australia has a police contingent in Cyprus and has been, and still is, a financial contributor to programmes like the relief of Palestine refugees, the United Nations Emergency Force and to United Nations operations and programmes in Cyprus and the Congo. We have tried to take our place in world affairs. 88. We are also, of course, aware of the difficult problems of Africa, particularly through our own diplomatic missions there and because we have common membership with many African countries in the British Commonwealth of Nations. Australia has contributed to technical assistance programmes in Africa. We have African students in Australia, We have had welcome visits also from many Ministers and distinguished citizens of African States. African educationalists and technical experts have assisted us with their advice on the administration of the dependent Territory of Papua and New Guinea. We look forward to all these contacts and more between our country and Africa increasing. 89. There are before the present session of the General Assembly a number of items relating to southern Africa: Southern Rhodesia, the Portuguese colonies, South West Africa and South Africa itself. On the principles and objectives relating to all those countries, the Australian position can be stated very simply. Australia believes that a society and form of government cannot, and should not, persist where a minority dominates a majority and where basic human rights and opportunities are denied to any of the population. We believe in basic human rights and participation for all persons in the life of a country. We believe that neither a majority nor a minority should be oppressed, or denied human rights or shut off from opportunities of participation, in government. 90. What I have just said determines the Australian position on Southern Rhodesia, It was stated by us some years ago in the United Nations before the Rhodesian question became the burning subject which it is today, Australia has refused to recognize the unilateral and illegal declaration of independence by the regime in Rhodesia, In response to the request of the United Kingdom Government, which Australia, recognizes as being sovereign in Rhodesia today. Australia was one of the first countries in the world to apply sanctions against Rhodesia. 91. Since the General Assembly is now debating South West Africa concurrently in plenary session, I shall not occupy time in this general debate by speaking in any detail on this subject at the present moment. Let me say only this: in the final meeting of the League of Nations Assembly in 1946 Australia took an active part in negotiating the resolution under which the international obligations of all the Mandatory States were held to continue after the League ceased to exist. Today we regard South West Africa as a Non-Self-Governing Territory, one in respect of which there are specific international obligations. We shall follow the debate in the plenary meetings concurrently with this general debate, with deep attention and care and as occasion may require we can express our further views on this subject in those meetings. 92. Earlier in my speech, I spoke of the need for peace as a foundation for the future. I have necessarily been preoccupied with some of the immediate dangers to peace. Briefly, but most emphatically, I want to say that the fruits of peace will not be gathered for all peoples in all lands unless concurrently, with great energy, with a deep and penetrating wisdom and a common purpose, we can work together to help each other master the tasks of economic and social progress, remembering that the gain from economic success is not to enable only a few to benefit, but to allow the whole international society to live a better life. Full prosperity cannot be achieved or maintained by any nation, great or small, in isolation from others. The economic handicaps suffered by any one nation are a handicap to all. We need each other; we are important to each other. 93. We can see plainly certain problems. One is the production of more food and the free availability of food at prices remunerative to the producer and practicable for the consumer. While we are all engaged either as givers or receivers in international aid programmes, aid is not the permanent and complete solution. The fuller development of resources, particularly in the developing countries, with the attendant problems of access to markets, capital investment, the sharing of technology and the availability of technical and managerial skills, challenge us all to more resolute efforts to work together constructively. In that work Australia will endeavour at all times to play its due part. 94. In our view, too, these problems are inseparable from the total problems of world economic conditions. The strong economies have to be kept strong and vigorous at the same time as the weak economies are being strengthened. We can all swim well together, but we can also all sink together. The great Powers have a responsibility — as well as an enlightened self-interest — to use their strength for the common good. They can do this only if they themselves can maintain a high level of economic activity. So I say the example for both great and small Powers to follow is one of growth and not restriction. 95. This morning I shall not expand our views on major aspects of this great problem, but I wish to refer in passing to two ancillary matters arising in the United Nations itself. First, I express the hope that the Advisory Committee on the Application of Science and Technology to Development will press on with its work in a way that will have a practical impact upon national and international development programmes. Secondly, I think it is important that the work of the United Nations in the economic field should be efficient and that resources should not be wasted on administrative machinery where they could be better devoted to development itself. We have to guard against fragmentation of work in the United Nations family, and there are a few disturbing signs of this. I draw attention also to the valuable report of the Ad Hoc Committee of Experts to Examine the Finances of the United Nations and the Specialized Agencies. The report is relevant to international work in the field of economic development as well as to some other matters. 96. In conclusion, I just want to say this: Australia keeps in the forefront of its foreign policy support for the purposes and principles of the United Nations. We value the associations we form within the Organization and at the meetings of its specialized agencies. It was against that background that some time ago we made known our deep appreciation of the services of the Secretary-General, and expressed the hope that he would continue in office. Should U Thant find it possible to do so, that would be highly agreeable to us. 97. It is quite understandable that the United Nations, having no life except that which its Members give to it, should show evidence of the maladies that are present in the world today. Having no will except that which its Members give to it, the United Nations reproduces the tensions and the strains of international affairs. Organizations that are formed by the membership of political States cannot have virtues higher than those of international politics. We should not perhaps expect too much. What we do have, however, is a Charter in which the statement of purposes and principles gives us always a central point of reference. What we do have is an organizational framework and a meeting place where nations talk together and try to work together. We should call for tolerance and patience and a constant striving for a common faith; and although these are not days of quick achievement, let us all continue to work as best we can for peace, for security and for the welfare of all our peoples.