98. Mr. President, I should like to convey to you the Dahomean delegation's warmest congratulations on your election as President of this session of the United Nations General Assembly. We hope that your efforts will help to make our work more effective and assist the Organization in fulfilling the ideals which inspired its establishment.
99. I have been wondering for a long time whether it is necessary or useful to take the floor during the general debate which opens each session, and even more so, during the session now in progress. Not that we in Dahomey have not highly appreciated the Organization's great contribution to the cause of peace and decolonization; not that we have not realized everything that has been accomplished and all the catastrophes which have been avoided with its help during the past twenty years, but because we also know, unfortunately, that very little comes of the torrents of words which flow from this rostrum once the echo of our voices has died out. It would be somewhat stultifying, you will agree, for me to repeat the same things we have heard here for two decades and to make one of the 119 exactly identical speeches at the start of this twenty-first session. Moreover, except for the four or five speeches of the great Powers — on which everything depends and which speak only to reaffirm that they refuse to give one inch or to relinquish any of their selfishness, their pretensions, or their world outlook which is closely linked up with their political, economic and strategic interests — who remembers or will remember what we obscure, lowly nations will, have said, since everyone knows that we are no threat to world peace, and therefore are of no interest to anyone?
100. And yet, since we have no privilege to defend, no leadership to safeguard, no ambition, no claims to any sort of hegemony, should not our voice ring louder and farther than that of the protagonists who are too involved to be objective and fair? We are not strong enough to scheme. Let us then try honestly, frankly and candidly to express our alarm, our anxiety, our faith and our hope.
101. The United Nations, like the League of Nations which preceded it, was born of the will of nations to spare the world the general holocausts which, twice in one generation, has nearly destroyed it. Our role is not to be an exclusive club indulging every autumn in a set ritual of resounding and pompous oratory, without changing anything in a world that is plunging headlong towards the abyss. It is rather to be a community devoted to safeguarding the peace, defending the right, building patiently and laboriously, no doubt — for nothing worthwhile is done without great effort — a more prosperous and more fraternal world. But what are the facts?
102. Peace, always precarious, is still threatened to the extent that our eminent Secretary-General — because in his position he sees it better than anyone else — has expressed his alarm and has reached a grave decision. Everyone professes to share his anxiety and appeals to him to change his mind. But what meaning and value can this appeal have if everyone making it is not deeply and sincerely determined to act so that the danger thus perceived and denounced may be warded off, if everyone is not determined to create the conditions in which the Secretary-General's change of mind would not become a cover for hypocrisy or humburg?
103. For five years now, a duly appointed Committee [see resolution 1722 (XVI)] has been holding endless deliberations in a vain effort to bring about general disarmament. Men of astounding achievements, who are about to land on the moon, have in five years been unable to reach agreement on disarmament. Who can believe that this is a sign of sincerity or the result of an insoluble problem? Apart from several newspaper columns, nobody pays any more attention to the work of the Eighteen-Nation Committee — or should we say seventeen — although it once had — and should continue to have — one of mankind's greatest hopes placed in it.
104. Let us ponder the gravity of this situation. Peace, we have said, is threatened. There are people for whom, for over twenty years, peace has been meaningless because they have known nothing but warfare, death and destruction of all kinds with neither truce nor lull. Both sides would have us believe that Viet-Nam is being transformed into a land of scorched earth strewn with countless corpses for the benefit of the country and its people. It is time to put an end to all this. And since everyone professes to want peace, let us stop talking about it and work to achieve it.
105. My Government believes that we must, without further delay, force both sides to act, that we must test their sincerity and good faith. The United Nations should tell everyone directly or indirectly involved in the Viet-Namese affair: enough talk, show us by your deeds that you really want peace.
106. My Government specifically suggests that, under the supervision of a permanent impartial international commission, it should be decided: firstly, that all bombing of Viet-Nam should cease immediately; secondly, that all the belligerents should accept a general cease-fire within two weeks from the effective and definitive cessation of bombings; thirdly, that three months after the cease-fire, all foreign troops on both sides should be withdrawn; fourthly, that after that three-month period, and once the foreign forces have been withdrawn and the situation has returned to what is called for under the Geneva Agreements, a new conference should be held — bringing together all parties involved, including representatives of the Viet-Cong — to determine the procedure whereby the Viet-Namese people, still under international supervision, is to determine its own future, on the understanding that everyone will have agreed beforehand to accept the outcome of this free consultation; fifthly, that by one year from today, this entire programme should be carried out and, whatever decision the Viet-Namese people may reach, the international community should begin immediately to help the country to rebuild, dress its wounds and live again.
107. Some will object that taking a decision here is not enough for that to happen immediately; some of the parties involved belong to this Organization and others do not. How can we obligate those who do not? And how can we force those who are Members but refuse to comply?
108. The first question raises the problem of the admission of the People's Republic of China to membership in the United Nations, an issue we do not wish to evade. My Government believes that it is
neither realistic, reasonable nor wise to ignore a nation of 700 million inhabitants and the Government which undoubtedly rules that nation. Probably there are much more than differences — sometimes a real gulf — between mainland China's ethics and philosophical and ideological concepts and our own. This is even truer today, judging from the unsettling news coming from that vast country. But just as we do not want others to impose philosophical or ideological choices or a certain way of life upon us, we do not wish to force others to think as we do, feel as we do, or react as we do. Coexistence is impossible without tolerance. And it is unfortunate that the People's Republic of China shows so little of the latter.
109. We think that if Peking China wishes its seat in the United Nations, it should be admitted, provided that its admission would not result in the eviction of nationalist China. For if we do not have the right to impose on the Peking Chinese an ideology which they do not want, we also do not have the right to impose on the nationalists a regime they formally repudiate.
110. Whether or not China belongs to the United Nations, it is a member of the human community. If proposals for peace are reasonable, fair and honestly and sincerely accepted by all, we cannot imagine how China alone can ignore them. In any case, it is time for the community of nations to unite with determination and without compromise against all those — great or small, of the East or West — who refuse now or in the future to accept the law and to help set the machinery of peace in motion.
111. The second question is the means which the Organization has or should have at its disposal to impose on everyone the decisions reached here. This is a major problem and we fully understand the real difficulties it entails. But until it has been solved, our main task will remain undone. Until it has been solved, the hot war — the cause of tears and bloodshed — which is leading to the apocalypse, will rage on in one area or another between Members of this Organization; States which subscribed to the Charter and are present here will continue daily to flout with cynicism and impunity the principles that form the very foundation of our Organization; the United Nations will merely be the shield behind which the great Powers can do whatever they like.
112. Let us speak frankly: we must know and state clearly what we want to do, and we must do it. We must revise the Charter, define unequivocally what is within and not within the purview of the United Nations and provide the Organization with the means to force compliance with the decisions reached, if necessary. Otherwise, despite the fine resolutions we adopt here, South Africa and Portugal will continue to exchange knowing, contented smiles, 200,000 Rhodesian whites will continue to defy and hold 119 nations in check, and peoples of goodwill will continue to doubt, for they have good reason to do so.
113. In addition to the impotence we have just discussed, our own International Court recently delivered a scandalous and wicked judgement under the guise of legal and fallacious reasoning which, in order to safeguard what it erroneously claims to be the letter of the law, has violated v.s spirit. It is a serious matter that such an institution should have failed in its duty, and it is urgent that we correct the situation.
114. We in Dahomey also believe that serving the peace requires respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries, renunciation of the threat or use of force, and the settlement of disputes between countries through negotiation. That is the groundwork on which the international community can build a peaceful life in accordance with the United Nations Charter and the Charter of the Organization of African Unity. Dahomey fervently hopes that these principles will be applied universally, and most of all in areas of tension in Africa, the Far East and the Middle East.
115. In order to maintain peace, it is of course most important that we find rapid solutions to the world's burning political problems. I have pointed out some of these difficulties and outlined several solutions. But this peace will be only illusory and short-lived if in another area, no less important and perhaps more fundamental — the economic and social area — the present alarming discrepancies persist.
116. Even more than the existence of these discrepancies, the most upsetting feature of our time is the way in which these discrepancies are growing rapidly and dangerously worse. The phenomenon is so widespread that it has become almost a cliche to say that the rich countries are growing richer, while the poor are growing poorer. Two factors are helping to speed on this catastrophic development: first, the steady deterioration in the terms of trade as between the developed and the developing countries, and second, a marked slacking off in foreign aid. In world trade we are witnessing a fall in the prices of primary commodities, which the developing countries produce, whereas the cost of manufactured goods, which the developed countries produce, is rising. The developing countries' share of world exports, which was only one third in 1950, fell to barely one fifth in 1962.
117. In addition to this, there is what I just called the Slackening off in foreign aid. In recent years, the national income of the developed countries has continued to grow at a rising pace. In contrast to that increase, the amount spent on foreign aid has steadily decreased. In 1961, when the idea of the United Nations Development Decade was introduced, aid to developing countries amounted to 0.83 per cent of the gross national income of the developed countries. Resolution 1711 (XVI), which recommended that aid should be increased to 1 per cent of this national income, was therefore by no means an ambitious measure. But what has happened to this modest goal, now that the United Nations Development Decade has reached the half-way mark? Far from increasing within the modest limits that had been suggested, the amount of aid to developing countries has not even remained stationary, since it was barely 0.69 per cent in 1965.
118. The world cannot remain indifferent in the face of these factors inhibiting the development of the less fortunate countries. His Holiness Pope Paul VI who, exactly one year ago, honoured the United Nations with his presence, recently made a statement as brief as it is significant: "Development is peace."
119. To ensure this development and to remedy the alarming situation mentioned earlier, we see three possible solutions: a sustained effort by the developing countries themselves; a far-reaching reform of the structure of world trade; and a substantial increase in foreign aid. As to the effort of the developing countries, the first to be interested in their own economic and social growth, no one in good faith can doubt the great sacrifices they are making for their development.
120. Dahomey has undertaken a rigorous austerity programme and has implemented a plan to increase its domestic production considerably.
121. Moreover, the Secretary-General noted a few months' ago in a statement to the Economic and Social Council:
"The current World Economic Survey, 1905, for its part, rebuts the arguments of those who have contended that the developing countries have done little in the last five years to mobilize their domestic resources. It shows that in the first half of the United Nations Development Decade, despite disappointments and failures, the developing countries did succeed over a broad front in increasing their own contribution to their development. And while, as the survey indicates, much remains to be done, and only the first halting steps having been taken in many areas, there is good reason to believe that the developing countries will succeed in improving still further the mobilization of their internal resources for development during the second half of this Decade."
But these efforts to increase their resources are thwarted in part by the meagre earnings the developing countries derive from the sale of their products on the world market in comparison with the cost of the capital goods they have to import.
122. This explains the importance we attach to the work undertaken by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development to reform the structure of international trade. The first Conference, held in 1964, defined the principles which should govern world trade. We feel that the faithful application of these principles is of the utmost importance. We want the second conference, planned for 1967, to be a negotiating conference which will lay down a number of specific measures that can be implemented immediately and effectively. Such measures would enhance the value of our countries' products and would thus have a decisive impact on development.
123. But such development can be achieved only if foreign aid is stepped up. Indeed, and I quote from the same statement by the Secretary-General: "In an impressive number of instances, the main limitations are not domestic but rather the insufficiency of external resources" [ibid.]. We expect this foreign aid from international bodies and the specialized agencies and also from the developed countries. We hope that these bodies and agencies will increase their valuable contribution to the development of the third world. The recent establishment of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization [resolution 2089 (XX)] reflects this concern in that
UNIDO will be equipped with facilities for promoting industrialization effectively in the developing countries.
124. We might have expected the organs granting financial aid for development to show more understand _ng than they have so far towards the poorest countries. The popular saying that people lend only to the rich is borne out — as we know only too well — when an appeal is made for strictly private funds. But this policy is hardly to be expected from institutions whose major concern should be to further development.
125. The demands and terms which these institutions often attach to their loans make it difficult for the less fortunate countries to obtain them, and it is precisely these countries which need them most. Such practices have the tragic result of widening even further the gap between the various stages of development, a gap which others are doing their utmost to close. A serious reform of these institutions' regulations and, particularly, their practices, is imperative if they are to meet present needs more effectively, for these needs no longer resemble those to which these institutions were accustomed when they were first set up.
126. I explained earlier how assistance from the developed countries had decreased in inverse ratio to the increase in their national income. More active participation by these countries is essential for the accelerated development of the third world. The very existence of highly developed and highly industrialized countries is in itself a handicap for those which are not developed, a handicap which the former generally did not face at the start of their economic and industrial growth. This drawback can be overcome only if the developed countries take their responsibilities more to heart and increase their aid to the developing countries.
127. The percentage of aid in relation to the developed countries' national income, set as a target of the United Nations Development Decade, is the minimum which the developed countries should reach very rapidly. This would be a first stage until a more detailed programme is set up. It may not be long before we seriously examine the idea and methods of a genuine international tax system, a sort of "cosmic tax", that would reflect the modern world's recent awareness of its undeniable community of interests.
128. One of the most intelligent figures the United Nations has known, the late Adlai Stevenson, last year expressed this basic fellow-feeling in a striking metaphor which is part of his moral legacy and which I should like to quote:
"All men travel together, passengers on a little spaceship, dependent on its vulnerable reserve of air and soil; all committed for safety to its security and peace; preserved from annihilation only by the care, the work, the love given to this frame craft. It cannot be maintained half fortunate, half miserable, half confident, half despairing, half enslaved — to the ancient enemies of man — half free, in a liberation of resources undreamt of until today. No craft, no crew can travel safely with such vast contradictions On the resolution of such contradictions depends the survival of all mankind."
129. The success of the United Nations also depends on the smooth operation of the Secretariat and the various specialized agencies. It is time for both to reflect the Organization's universality and to stop being the stage for displaying the hegemony of certain groups, linguistic or otherwise. We French-speaking peoples have neither an inferiority complex nor, even less, a superiority complex. We ask for no privilege or favour. But neither are we resigned to being imposed upon by cliques or to suffering discrimination as regards employment in these bodies and the working facilities at our disposal. I am saying this solemnly from this rostrum because I wish to leave no doubt regarding our determination in this respect.
130. I should like to conclude my statement by paying a well-deserved tribute to the Secretary-General, U Thant, and by warmly welcoming the new independent State of Guyana to our midst. We believe that the best way to thank the former and welcome the latter is for us to act so that everyone can still, believe in the United Nations, its mission and its effectiveness; to vow that, come what may, we shall not disappoint all those who have their eyes fixed on us; to make peace, law and justice triumph; to make true international solidarity prevail. Dahomey will do its modest part and apply all its faith and energy to achieve this end.