It gives me great pleasure to congratulate Prince Wan Waithayakon on his unanimous election to the office of President of the eleventh session of the United Nations General Assembly. His years of devoted service to the cause of the United Nations, his impartiality and the qualities he has displayed in his international career, are an assurance that the proceedings of this Assembly will be dignified, efficient and constructive.
168. I am happy as President of the first Government of independent Tunisia to be able to bring to the members of this Assembly the greetings of the entire Tunisian nation. In these days of uncertainty, the message that the people of my country have instructed me to bring them, and through them, to the hundreds of millions of people they represent, is one not only of gratitude for their unanimous vote, but also of faith and confidence in the future of the United Nations.
169. I should like to say at the outset that although small, my country is firmly resolved to contribute to the best of its ability to the strengthening of the United Nations and the consolidation of peace so that the principles embodied in the Charter may be not empty truisms but a living reality. We Tunisians experienced the workings of the United Nations during the most crucial period of our national revolution and know what difficulties and what obstacles it faced and still faces. I hope that the few observations I shall make will be received in the spirit in which they were conceived, a spirit that reflects a sincere, wholehearted and honest desire to safeguard the future of the United Nations, to ensure that it endures, for it remains our own hope of one day seeing the establishment of a just order in international relations, based on the equality of all before the law.
170. During the past few weeks we have lived through terrible dangers which still overshadow not only this Assembly but all who are responsible for the future of millions of their fellow-men and have to weigh the effects of each gesture and the consequences of each action. Never have we been so near to catastrophe. Fortunately the resolute action of the United Nations General Assembly has enabled us to avoid the worst. Yet this almost miraculous success is still somewhat precarious. It will remain so until the real causes of the ills that afflict the world are attacked. The time for palliatives is past; the difficulties that beset the international community require action that goes to the very root of the evil.
171. The root of the evil is that some great Powers cannot, or will not, accept the idea of a world free from suspicion and fear, in which all nations, large and small, can freely exercise their sovereign rights, the freedom of each being limited and safeguarded by the freedom of the others.
172. It is clear to anyone who is prepared to face the facts that the armaments race, which, strange as it may seem, appears to increase in intensity in proportion to the efforts made to control it, the outright acts of aggression which have recently been committed against peaceful nations and have aroused the indignation of all civilized peoples, and the inexpiable war being waged at this very moment in Algeria against a proud people whose only crime is their desire to free themselves of foreign domination, are, whatever may be said to disguise the fact, nothing but the direct and inevitable result of the desire of certain Powers for domination. This desire for domination and expansion is a survival of colonialism and is at the heart of the threat to the peace that has existed since the last world war.
173. I realize that the ideological conflict which divides two large groups of States, or, to be more precise, the two strongest Powers in the military sense of the word, would in itself suffice, and has for years sufficed, to keep the world in suspense. But for the time being an equilibrium, albeit terribly unstable, has been found and provides a basis for a precarious peace. If this equilibrium could be maintained, the danger, although real, would be infinitely less. Moreover, there is no reason to believe that this danger may not one day be eliminated by means of a formula already advocated by eminent statesmen, which would enable the two parties to live together and safeguard the rights of each including the right to live under the regime of its choice.
174. But it is the survival of colonialism to which I have just referred that may bring about the destruction of mankind, for, because it permits, encourages or causes aggression against weak or defenceless peoples, it may as a result of intervention that is virtually inevitable, at any moment provoke the general conflagration we all dread.
175. Thus for over two years the nations of the free world have stood aside and watched while day after day the young people not only of Algeria but also of France have been slaughtered. How can the conscience of civilized men, the conscience of mankind, which was outraged by the terrible repression of the Budapest patriots, be indifferent to a war where other men, animated by the same ideal and the same political faith, are fighting and dying every day in an unequal struggle against one of the most powerful armies in the world? Does this long acquiescence not involve a form of racial or religious discrimination which all civilized peoples pride themselves on condemning?
176. We are all against aggression. To be consistent, we must denounce it wherever it occurs, even, and particularly when it is committed by a friendly country. As President Eisenhower said, there can be no true justice if there is one law for our friends and another for our enemies.
177. The fact is that during recent weeks we have seen countries taking stands which were, to say the least, inconsistent. A country that is outraged by aggression in one case approves or applauds it in another. A Government vehemently denounces one act of aggression while simultaneously committing another, giving the impression that it is crying “murder” in order the better to dispatch its victim.
178. The statesman who is conducting an inexpiable war to keep the Algerian people in slavery, says, in speaking of the uprising in Budapest, “There is no peace in slavery”, a noble sentiment we wholeheartedly endorse. He is able in the same breath, to justify the attack he subsequently launched against a country with which he was negotiating, at the very time when the country concerned was engaged in defending its territory against another aggressor.
179. We believe that these inconsistencies are both dangerous and unnecessary. They are unnecessary because as Mr. Mollet, the Prime Minister of France, himself said: “Liberty cannot be crushed when it is on the march.” They are dangerous because conflicts spread, even when they break out in colonial territories. For proof, one need only think of the direct links between events in Egypt and in Algeria, which are in turn directly related to those in Morocco and Tunisia. Moreover, we do not believe that the authors of the Charter intended to establish a dual standard, one Charter for the Magyar peasant and another for the Egyptian or Algerian fellah. The principles they laid down must be of universal application; otherwise the Organization set up to assure the triumph of those principles and to maintain peace would soon lose its raison d’etre as well as its good name. And we all know what the failure of the United Nations would mean.
180. We are gratified that during its two recent emergency special sessions the Assembly took a stand in favour of equal justice for all, in favour of the universality of the principles which we affirm. However, if it is to be really fruitful, the idea should be really universal and extend to all countries where a foreign yoke imposed by conquest is maintained by the terrible weapons of repression or the hypocrisy of legal fictions. The delegation of Ireland will forgive me if I refer to the valiant struggle Ireland waged for centuries against English domination which tried by force to make a reality of the legal fiction that Ireland was an integral part of the United Kingdom.
181. All peoples, and not merely those who have the good fortune to be represented here, have the right of self-determination. The United Nations cannot be content merely to welcome those who have won their freedom, it should hold out its hand to all the peoples fighting to achieve their national aspirations so that they can acquire the dignity of free nations.
182. With nations as with individuals, it is neither healthy nor just — nor in keeping with the spirit of our times — that there should be slaves and free men, first- class citizens and second-class citizens. Under the United Nations Charter there cannot be sovereign countries and dependent countries, free peoples and oppressed peoples. Oppression is all the more deplorable when it is practised by countries in the free world which at home profess respect for the human person. The great weakness of what is called the free world is the fact that it includes colonial Powers which even today are trying to maintain by force their rule over other peoples. The islands of slavery which the colonial Powers maintain in the midst of the free world, like blemishes on a healthy body, are the weak point of the West, its real internal contradiction, the source of the hesitations and misgivings which mark the relations of the young countries of Africa, Asia and America with the West.
183. In the name of Western solidarity, the colonial Powers demand that their partners and allies should say nothing about their mistakes, that they should prop their colonial policy by their silence, favourable votes or even material assistance. They ask that their policy should be endorsed by their friends and even by the United Nations. This is the price they seem to believe should be paid for tire unity of the free world.
184. I am glad to say that both in the ranks of the Western Powers and in the United Nations there is a growing realization of the great harm which is done to the free world and to the United Nations itself by this solidarity in error. It is because the United States has for the first time acted with sufficient firmness toward its allies engaged in the Egyptian expedition and because the United Nations has at the same time demonstrated great energy and firmness that it has been possible to correct the situation in the Middle East. This excellent precedent has restored hope to the hearts of thousands of men and women everywhere and will, I hope, encourage all sincere friends of freedom to take a stand against all attempts at domination, from whatever quarters they may come.
185. Moreover, when a friendly country embarks on a course that leads nowhere, is the best thing we can do to let it go its way, to go farther and farther astray in order to avoid hurting its feelings? Is it not better to do everything to induce our friends to follow a proper course which will be in their own best interest and enable them to regain the trust and friendship of other nations?
186. We might, for example, help France which for over two years has been engaged in a trial of strength in Algeria without winning any military decision and is attempting to justify its Algerian policy by the same legal fiction on which the English domination of Ireland was for so long based, to make the difficult transition. I am sure that in France itself the fountain of liberty which welled up in 1789 and enriched the world has not run dry. Men and women of France who are sincerely devoted to justice and peace arc working courageously that their country may appear as the great democracy it is and continue the tradition of liberty, which is France’s greatest claim to honour in the community of nations. For my part, I wholeheartedly subscribe to the words written a few days ago by Mrs. Andrée Vienot, a great militant socialist and former deputy in the French Parliament. “The real France is the country of law, justice, peace and generosity: that is the true source of her international prestige. Shortsighted realists do not realize how effective that strength and prestige can be nor understand the warmth of feeling with which peoples throughout the world turn to France when she appears in her true colours. But the real France is now betrayed and she appears before an astonished world as a country prepared to set the Middle East ablaze to defend her colonial interests. Now we are at odds with the entire Arab world because of our failure to solve the Algerian problem.”
187. We therefore believe that it is the duty of France’s friends — and we are among them — and the duty of the United Nations to help France to break the present deadlock. As we see it, such intervention by the United Nations would be friendly and constructive. France itself now acknowledges that a solution cannot be achieved by force of arms. Moreover, it is evident that constitutional arrangements granted as a concession can no longer, even if sincerely applied this time, offer a solution capable of satisfying the national aspirations of the Algerian people. The United Nations must therefore help France to redefine its relationship with Algeria with a view to a political solution that takes into account the complexities of the situation in Algeria and the unyielding determination of the Algerian people to win recognition of its natural right to independence. United Nations assistance on these lines cannot be regarded as interference by any State in France’s internal affairs.
188. Moreover, the liberal solution we advocate would allow for a transitional period; it would consist of several stages. One might be a cease-fire, as in the case of Egypt, and the dispatch of the international police Force the formation of which is, in our view, one of the greatest steps forward since the establishment of the United Nations. The United Nations General Assembly might set up a conciliation or good offices commission, consisting of three or four distinguished persons whose views would carry weight and would be likely to be acceptable to both parties. This commission for peace in Algeria would work out with the parties the conditions for a cease-fire and for the negotiation of a lasting peace and force cooperation between the two peoples. When the ground had been cleared and the broad lines of a compromise agreed to, a cease-fire might lie arranged and guaranteed by the United Nations which would then send its international police Force to supervise the application of the ceasefire and to ensure that it was respected.
189. If France would now accept this procedure it would crown in a spectacular manner the policy it initiated in Tunisia on 31 July 1954, through which it has secured peace at both ends of North Africa and the friendship of the Moroccan and Tunisian peoples. Once peace was restored, it would find on the southern shores of the Mediterranean a friendly North Africa which was prepared to offer its sincere co-operation and would safeguard the interests of France and its nationals better than the force of arms. France would thus remove the grievances and prejudices that have grown up against it on all sides as a result of its colonial policy. France would again be seen in its true colours and within a few weeks peace would be restored in one of the world’s most troubled areas. North Africa, which aspires to unity, order and prosperity, would be able to fulfil its mission as a link between two complementary civilizations.
190. We, for our part, preach only what we have practised. Throughout our long struggle for liberation and in the conduct of our relations with France, we have always advanced and secured the acceptance of negotiations and peaceful solutions. At all times, we have shown great moderation and, while we have never yielded on questions of principle, we have always been very patient in discussing means of practical application. Today our relations with France are still developing smoothly from colonialism to equality, from subordination to co-operation.
191. Some problems remain; economic problems inherited from the colonial agreement, and military problems resulting from the stationing of a large force of French troops whose presence in an independent and sovereign State is no longer warranted. We are not seeking to place our problems before the General Assembly. It is our firm hope that a peaceful negotiated settlement will be reached directly between France and Tunisia.
192. In our international affairs and in the United Nations we shall at all times preach moderation, a constructive approach, pacific settlement and negotiation, we shall always oppose aggression, whoever the aggressor or victim may be. We shall work to strengthen the United Nations so that it may be not only a moral force but a genuine supranational tribunal which lays down the law and has the ability to enforce it.
193. In a world where technical progress daily tightens the bonds between peoples, peace to a very great extent depends upon a more equitable distribution of the world’s wealth. The excessive differences in the standards of living of the various countries are undoubtedly a danger, not so great perhaps, as the expansionist ambitions and desire for domination of some Powers, which we have just denounced, but nevertheless real. The great economically privileged countries understand the position; in many cases the effort they have made to provide technical and other assistance to the under-developed countries deserves our admiration, and we gladly pay a tribute to it. But here, as in other fields, the assistance given must not be coupled with political conditions and the country receiving assistance must be capable of using it effectively to further its economic development and must provide foreign capital with the necessary safeguards by means of appropriate legislation.
194. Of all the forms in which assistance can be given, we prefer international assistance because it satisfies the requirements that must be fulfilled to maintain the independence of States. The technical assistance organization established by the United Nations has proved itself an excellent instrument for the promotion of economic development, particularly since effective steps have been taken to ensure effective co-ordination of the assistance provided under bilateral or multilateral agreements and that furnished by the United Nations itself.
195. In the case of financial assistance, we believe that the same path should be followed. We therefore hope that the Special United Nations Fund for Economic Development will at last see the light. In this connexion, we doubt the wisdom of linking the establishment of the Fund to the question of disarmament.
196. A young and essentially peaceful country, Tunisia yields to none in its interest in disarmament, but it believes that economic development is in itself a factor for peace such that its achievement would eliminate many of the causes of war, gradually ease world tension, and remove the most evident reason for the maintenance of national armaments.
197. We know that the great Powers alone can, within a few hours, destroy man’s entire heritage and even, it is said, wipe out every trace of life on earth for all time. However, we also know that they alone cannot build the world of the future to which mankind aspires; it must be achieved by the combined efforts of all nations, great and small, or it will never be achieved at all. Let us wager that, by grace of goodwill, patience and wisdom, the vision of that world will soon enter into the realm of reality.