Mr. President, I count it a great privilege to be one of the first to express to you my congratulations on your unanimous election as President of the eleventh session of the General Assembly. Your services to the cause of peace, and especially your devotion to our United Nations, have long qualified you for the high office to which you have been elected and which, I feel certain, you will discharge with impartiality and skill.
2. I now turn my attention to the recent events in the Middle East which brought the world closer to a general war than it has ever been since the forces of Nazism were crushed by the power of the Allied armies. It is common knowledge that the alliance which it was possible to forge against the destructive might of fascist aggression could not be maintained in the years that followed the establishment of a wavering peace. This unfortunate circumstance is at the root of all the troubles which beset the world today.
3. The fact that the United Nations was never able to Marshal sufficient military strength to ensure peace and security wherever a threat of aggression occurred or a breach of the peace was imminent has also contributed largely to the unsatisfactory state of affairs that endangers the very life of every human being all over the world. That is why we rejoice in the establishment of the United Nations Emergency Force that has been set up to enforce the resolutions adopted by the General Assembly on recent momentous occasions.
4. May I be allowed, at this juncture, to express the deep appreciation of my delegation of the initiative taken in this connexion by the Secretary of State for External Affairs of Canada. Mr. Pearson has rendered a great service to the cause of peace with justice. We also agree heartily with the proposals made by the Secretary-General — whose outstanding performance of his duties is a source of pride to all the Members of the United Nations — concerning the duties and functions of the Emergency Force [A/3289, A/3302]. And we hope and pray that this new experiment in world diplomacy may yet prove to be the nucleus from which will emanate the strength that will lend to this Organization the physical power which it has so sorely lacked.
5. While I am dealing with the questions connected with the situation in the Middle East, I must emphasize once again that no solution is apt to bring fruitful and lasting results if the very delicate and complex problems that lie behind the surface of the present crisis are not dealt with courageously once and for all. Two questions are of paramount importance in relation to the unstable peace in that troubled region of the globe. The first is the situation brought about by the forcible seizure of the Suez Canal, and the other is the relations between the State of Israel and its Arab neighbours. Since the Middle Eastern problems are going to be discussed during the eleventh session of the General Assembly, it would perhaps prove of great relevance if the United Nations were to approve certain directives that might serve as a basis for discussion on these two outstanding issues.
6. On the question of the Canal, a number of general, principles have already been accepted by all the parties concerned. On behalf of the delegation of Brazil, I want to stress that we shall favour a solution to that problem that takes into account the legitimate interests of the users of that international waterway but that would in no way impinge upon the sovereignty of Egypt. We should also like to emphasize once again that we could under no circumstances condone any action from any quarter that would bar the right of free passage through the Canal to any country for any reason whatsoever.
7. The bases for a lasting settlement of the state of belligerency that has been prevailing since the days of the General Armistice Agreements between Israel and the Arab countries are more difficult to envisage and to formulate. A few principles, however, govern our attitude and, in our opinion, should be generally accepted.
8. First, Israel is a sovereign State with the same rights and obligations as those of ail Members of the United Nations. Its desire to live in peace with its neighbours seems to us legitimate and conducive to a happy settlement of this thorny question. On the other hand, the grievances suffered by the Arab nations as a result of the emergence of Israel are only too easily understandable. Their reluctance to discuss peace with Israel on equal terms springs from these feelings of antagonism created as a result of the turmoil that has taken place in the Middle East since the Arab-Israel war. The period of time that has elapsed since those tragic days has not proved long enough to allow for the necessary moderation and clear-sightedness on the part of all the Powers concerned. We have, however, reached a crossroads on the general international scene that calls for an immediate and decided effort to settle all the problems that might kindle the spark that may set off catastrophes of unforeseeable consequences. Great statesmanship is required now both from the Arab States and from Israel, and I feel confident that their Governments will prove equal to the tremendous task that confronts them.
9. It seems to my delegation that the greatest possible mistake we could make in this difficult moment would be to fail to analyse the deep underlying causes of all those disturbing facts. By its quick and decisive action, the United Nations may have prevented or postponed the dangers of a military conflict, but it cannot be said that the great pressures that created the conflicting factors have been removed. It is up to us all, in the Assembly, to put utmost frankness at the service of world peace and try, through it, to point out the causes of disturbances that must be removed before the basis for a lasting and just peace can be found.
10. There are very obvious economic motives behind all the phenomena we are trying to understand. It seems quite clear that most of the political and military pressures that were brought to bear recently on the international scene have been fundamentally at the service of the most basic economic needs of the different participants. On the one side, we see less developed countries, whose peoples cannot accept under-development any longer, in a frantic search for the means by which to accelerate their development process, entering different systems of military alliance in the hope of thus deserving a greater degree of help from the leaders or sub-leaders in those systems. On the other hand, we see the developed countries trying to perpetuate a system of international relationships that will guarantee for them in the future, as it did in the past, a virtual lifeline of essential supplies to which their economies have become adapted through long periods and whose disappearance would entail readaptation hardships they are not psychologically or economically prepared to face. The very problems arising from the competition between the free enterprise group of nations and the centrally planned economies must be, in the long run, solved by the ability of each group to foster or speed up economic development.
11. With the President’s permission, I shall now make a few remarks on the other event that has stirred the feelings of the whole world in recent weeks. I am referring to the action undertaken by the armed forces of the Soviet Union to quench and raze the legitimate aspirations of the gallant people of Hungary. During the debate that took place on this issue during the second emergency special session of the General Assembly, my delegation had the opportunity of expressing its opinion on this tragic event [569th meeting]. I only want to add that we are convinced that those who lost their lives fighting in the streets of Budapest did not die in vain. Their cause, which is the cause of freedom, cannot be destroyed by the sheer weight of power. Among those countries which are closely linked to the Soviet Union, a trend has been set which is irreversible. The sooner the mighty Russian nation recognizes this fact, the better it will fare in the long run, for the real and loyal friendship of free nations has always proved a better guarantee of security than any other form of influence or domination.
12. I shall now say just a few words about two important international issues, one on the European scene and the other in the Far East. Unity in Europe is an indispensable element to world peace. Unity in Europe can never be achieved without the reunification of Germany. Conditions in the modern world have changed so radically with the advent of atomic power that the danger of a recurrent German aggressive spirit is no longer an important threat to the security of the countries neighbouring that once powerful nation. We recognize the special interests of the Soviet Union in the settlement of the German question, but we cannot admit that it would be in the interest of the Soviet Union to keep alive this issue and by so doing to block the natural peaceful development of progress in Western Europe. As regards the Far East, Japan has to play an increasingly important role in world affairs. To this end, it is urgent that Japan be admitted to the United Nations and that the manoeuvres that have so long impeded that action cease forthwith.
13. I have already mentioned the formation of the United Nations Emergency Force as a highly commendable development of far-reaching implications for the future effectiveness of United Nations action. It might be wise for the General Assembly to envisage certain, practical measures to ensure the implementation of resolution 377A (V) paragraph 8, in order that the armed forces of every Member State might have, on a permanent basis, one or more units always available to the United Nations. These units, the size of which would be left to the discretion of the Member State concerned, could perhaps some day fly the flag of the United Nations together with their own national flag. The psychological effect to be derived if this suggestion were accepted would tend to create, on a world-wide basis, a feeling of greater respect for our Organization, and the requisitioning of troops in obedience to resolutions adopted either by the Security Council or by the General Assembly would come to be regarded as normal procedure.
14. During its history, the United Nations has never before been beset by so many problems of a political and economic nature. May I express the hope that, at the end of our labours, the world will say that the eleventh session of the General Assembly was worthy of the great hopes that mankind placed in it.