We are keenly aware that we are meeting in one of those periodic crises in world affairs which deeply affects all nations and peoples. We must also be aware that the very existence and activity of the United Nations during this crisis amply demonstrates its worth. I do not wish, even in imagination, to contemplate what might have happened in its absence. Certainly we know that the scourge of a third world war ominously loomed on the horizon, but is now receding. Perhaps we have learned a lesson which, by paraphrasing a famous dictum, we can take to heart: if the United Nations had not existed, it would have been necessary to invent it, for all nature and, I add, humanity cried out for it.
90. We, the Southeast Asians, have the normal quota of satisfied pride when a citizen of our own nation, or when a distinguished representative from among our neighbours, is honoured by this Assembly. On this occasion, I have a double reason for my quota of pride. The General Assembly has elected Prince Wan Waithayakon as the presiding officer of this historic eleventh session, and, at the same time, in the same person has elected my friend from Thailand. During the years I was posted to Bangkok, Prince Wan Waithayakon ably and graciously filled the post of Foreign Minister. I am sure that I speak for many here and abroad when I say that we are indeed fortunate to have him as our president during this session of the Assembly.
91. Further, we are indeed indebted to the Secretary-General of the United Nations and for the unflagging devotion of that new creation of our times, a dedicated corps of international civil servants, capable of harmoniously reconciling national patriotism and supranational service.
92. This leads me to offer, on behalf of my Government, a word of welcome to the nineteen Governments whose admission to this Organization will further contribute to its efficacy. As the United Nations proceeds to exemplify the principle of universal membership in its corporate structure, it is thereby strengthened. My Government endorses that principle. It believes that all sovereign nations are equally eligible for membership in this body. This principle does not necessarily carry with it endorsement of the type of government which any nation adopts. Custom and law are inherently the privilege of any sovereignty, and, in fact, help to constitute such sovereignty. Since the United Nations is an order of sovereign nations aiming to serve the peace, to safeguard one country against invasion by another, and to better the fives of all peoples, it seems to us that the number of the Members of the United Nations should equal the number of sovereign States existing in our one world.
93. It is in the fight of this principle of universal membership in the United Nations that my Government supports the representation of the People’s Republic of China, the admission of Japan and of all other sovereign Governments not yet admitted to membership. We cannot conceive how the area called Asia, the great continent of which Europe is but a peninsula, can be truly represented in our deliberations if these great Powers of Asia are not represented here.
94. It is our hope, therefore, that even those nations which do not wish to establish bilateral relations with the People’s Republic of China or with Japan or with any other country will speedily accept the principle of universal membership and representation for the United Nations. It is no argument to say that because some nation was once condemned by the United Nations, it should therefore for evermore be denied entrance to our Organization. It is rare indeed for any nation so to act as to avoid the disapproval of some nations or group of nations sometime in history. We cannot escape the consequences of the past, but we cannot permit the past to continue to rule the present and necessarily to condition the future.
95. I said at the outset of my remarks that we are meeting during one of those periodic crises which deeply affect all nations and all peoples. Since the Suez Canal issue arose this past summer, our minds have been constantly preoccupied with the affairs of the Middle East. This interest is not one solely of sentiment, though sentiment is surely involved. We are acutely aware of the fact that the opening of the Suez: Canal at the end of 1869 marked a new period in the relations between Europe and the East — not that we of the East have always received the benefit of this; Western enterprise.
96. But, be that as it may, the Suez Canal, historically and contemporaneously, is a most important highway for our international commerce and trade. Accompanying our interest, we must unreservedly recognize that the Suez Canal courses through Egypt’s territory; that it is Egypt’s right to nationalize the operating company; that it is Egypt’s duty also to abide by the conventions and agreements which open the Canal to all countries as users of the Canal. In this connexion, the Government of Egypt has solemnly reaffirmed its obligations under the Constantinople Convention of 1888 regarding the freedom of passage through the Canal. Up to the time its territory was invaded by Anglo-French troops, there had been no violation in respect of those obligations. In other words, Egypt had not given any provocation in that respect. We cannot, therefore, see any justification for any intervention, armed or otherwise, by any Power, in order to ensure its interests in the Canal. If there had been any violation of the conventions and agreements, in the way in which Egypt ran the Canal, the proper registration of such violation, the proper action on such violation, belongs in the first place to the United Nations.
97. Nothing has been gained, in fact, much has been lost — lives, property, friendly relations, encouragement of unprincipled intervention into the affairs of small Powers by big Powers — since the United Kingdom and France militarily intervened in Egypt. I do not link the issue of Israel’s war against Egypt to the Suez issue. Israel has said it was in danger of being attacked, but my Government cannot condone a so-called “preventive war” and must condemn Israel for resorting to this in order to advance its cause. Preventive wars are never, preventive. Wars are wars.
98. What I have here said with respect to the Middle 1 East situation applies equally to the Middle Europe I situation. The armed intervention of the Soviet Union B in the internal affairs of Hungary cannot be condoned and must be condemned. The Hungarians must be left free to shape their own destiny.
99. In referring to the news of the cease-fire in Egypt, I said in this Assembly on 7 November 1956: “We welcome the fact that some measure of sanity has finally returned [to our friends].” [567th meeting, para. 93.] No small aspect of that measure of sanity in the Middle East situation has come about by the wide acceptance for the first time in modern history of an international police force, now officially termed the United Nations Emergency Force, subject not to national sovereignty but to this very body. My Government, along with several others, has offered a military unit to this Force. It did so not because it likes the idea of a police force in the present situation but because it sees in the mere existence of this new arm of the United Nations yet another instrument by which it can keep the peace and better establish a new and firm peace. We count such gains as precious items in building a spirit and a will transcending the necessary though limited boundaries of national sovereignty. Thus the United Nations Emergency Force is a major step toward sanity.
100. Thus far I have been talking about the crises which have engaged all our attention and our energies for approximately these past four weeks. I now wish to comment on certain other issues which could easily become critical if no solutions are found for them.
101. As representatives may know, Burma is a member of the Trusteeship Council. Its representatives in that body have undertaken their responsibility fully committed to the principle set forth in the United Nations Charter concerning equal rights and self-determination of peoples. This principle governs our action in promoting self-government and in securing the independence of all countries whose people desire the one or the other. In 1954 the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in its annual publication Issues Before the Ninth General Assembly said: “The ‘clublike atmosphere’ which prevailed in the Trusteeship Council for some years has been disturbed in recent months. The time is close at hand when decisions will have to be made concerning the future of several Trust Territories.” Obviously it was healthy for the world that the “clublike” atmosphere be disturbed. And, what was “close at hand” in 1954 is closer at hand in 1956.
102. According to the Population and Vital Statistics Reports of April 1956 published by the Statistical Office of the United Nations, approximately 24 per cent of 632 million of the world’s population have achieved self-government or independence since the Second World War. Another 45 million are destined for self-government and independence. But this leaves more than 100 million people living in lands under alien political domination. They represent part of the magnitude of the task before us. The communiqué issued by the Prime Minister of Burma, U Ba Swe, and his colleagues of India, Ceylon and Indonesia on 14 November 1956 at New Delhi, called attention to the prevailing modes of colonialism. These modes vary in North Africa, in the Middle East, in Middle Europe and in Asia. But essentially all the Prime Ministers expressed their concern at “the revival of the spirit and methods of colonialism” and their determination “to resist any resurgence of colonialism whatever form it may take”.
103. Not all the questions of colonialism arise in the Trusteeship Council. Obviously the special emergency sessions of the United Nations General Assembly have dealt with both varieties of this dread political disease. My Government sincerely hopes that this Assembly will speed the time-table of self-government and independence which the Trusteeship Council applies. Also it is hoped that the Assembly will see fit to consider the worsening and deteriorating relations affecting respectively France and Algeria and the Netherlands and Indonesia. Perhaps discussion here will convince the democratic Government of France that it might wisely extend full democracy, an unequivocal choice, to the Algerians. And the discussion might convince the democratic Government of the Netherlands that when it “quits” an area which it had conquered by arms and trade more than three centuries ago it is better to quit it fully, unequivocally. Once the Government of the Netherlands removes the thorn of West Irian, it can then voluntarily renew the ancient ties between Indonesia and itself. I venture to predict that such ties will become stronger and more friendly in direct proportion to the withdrawal from West Irian — or become even worse than they are now if the Netherlands unwarrantedly remains in this ancient portion of the Indonesian Archipelago.
104. There are two other matters remaining for brief comment. My Government initially welcomed the atoms-for-peace proposal first put forward by President Eisenhower. It is indeed gratified to note the progress already made. It looks forward to the actual operation of the atoms-for-peace organization, whose existence and structure are now being practically shaped, and whose actual functioning may be expected in mid or late 1957. In conjunction with the eighty nations whose energies brought this to pass, my Government wishes to express its hope that cheap atomic power, available curative atomic radiology and other uses of the fission and fusion of the atom — these contributions of science — may soon confer their bounties on the majority of the world’s population who, in fact, need them.
105. Finally, my Government wishes to express its appreciation of the United Nations Expanded Programme of Technical Assistance. We continue to benefit from it and from the continuing work of the specialized agencies, including the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development. We look forward to the new operation of the International Finance Corporation. It is, to us, another illustration of the way in which a world economy with serious imbalance may be upgraded. Since we regard any upgrading in any national economy as a potential, if not actual improvement in the world economy, we therefore believe that the United Nations Technical Assistance Administration, the specialized agencies, the Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the International Finance Corporation build both a productive structure and an infrastructure which necessarily contribute to all nations. It is yet another example of the well established point that one’s self interest is frequently served by having a just regard for the Interest of others. To round out this assemblage of institutions for mutual aid my Government heartily joins some forty-six other Governments who have announced their support for SUNFED, that is, the Special United Nations Fund for Economic Development. The wry joke used to be made that the SUNFED is for the unfed, with the implication that it benefits only the “have-not”, impoverished nations.
106. Perhaps it may be fitting for me to end my remarks at this point with a brief quotation. We, the representatives of seventy-nine countries who are seated here, and the countries whose delegations should or shall eventually be here — “we are members one of another”. Until we realize that on this earth, we shall have no true peace.