It is a pleasure to me to join previous speakers in extending my good wishes and congratulations to the President. We welcome him for the many qualities which he brings to his high office, and congratulate him out of the sincere feelings of friendship which we entertain for his country.
36. I should like also to pay a tribute to the Secretary-General who, by his energy and devotion, has increasingly excited the admiration of the world and whose unique qualities I have been fortunate to come to value through close personal experience.
37. The past half-century has been a period of convulsion unparalleled in its intensity in the long history of human affairs. Man’s inventiveness, for good and for evil, has transformed the face of human society. It has produced revolutionary changes in the map of the world. It has resulted in two world wars which, in their turn, have promoted an overwhelming desire in the majority of nations for stability and peace.
38. Early in 1945, before the Second World War had ended, my country joined with the United States in propounding a plan for a world organization, a plan which received the approval of the Soviet Government of the time in return for the provision of the veto. This was a somewhat grudging approval, as I recall from the discussions in the Livadia palace in the Crimea in 1945.
39. The Charter of the United Nations, and the setting up of the Organization in which we now sit, was the result. There is no doubt that this conception was the right conception for the modern world — a world so complex that it needs one universal, international organization in which all the nations can meet.
40. By the admission of nineteen new Members in the course of the past year, the Organization has become more representative of the world as it exists. We hope that the process will be continued by remedying in the course of the present session the deplorable exclusion of Japan from our numbers.
41. I wish that I could stand on this rostrum and proclaim that the United Nations is the cure for all our troubles: that we could all of us look exclusively to this Organization for security and justice. This, of course, is not so. We should do well to recognize the fact and understand why.
42. In the first place, the United Nations has no built-in authority. It was intended by those who framed the Charter that the United Nations would keep the peace through the instrumentality of the Security Council. Everyone knows that it has failed in this respect, because the expected degree of co-operation among the five permanent members has not been forthcoming.
43. On the one hand, it has been found impossible to establish the military arm for which Article 43 of the Charter makes provision. On the other hand, the Charter provision on unanimity among the permanent members has from the outset been misused in matters not affecting the vital interests of the Power concerned. As a result, Member States have been unable to regard the United Nations as the bulwark of their security. And, while paying lip-service to the principles of the Charter, some Members have pursued world policies designed to expand their power by methods which have varied, according to the circumstances of the time, from the use of the concealed threat of aggression to more subtle methods of penetrating through political warfare.
44. It was in these circumstances that the countries of the North Atlantic alliance found it necessary, and still find it essential, to unite together in order to provide for themselves the collective security which the United Nations has been unable to offer.
45. For the same reason, countries in other parts of the world have come together in defensive associations. For the past ten years we have in fact been engaged in a struggle between Soviet communism and the free world. Some in the free world are more conscious than others of their responsibilities in this struggle; some give the impression of underestimating the dangers. But all, I believe, are in fact at one in a determination to manage their own affairs and live their national life in their own way, and not to fall victim to the godless, materialistic, totalitarian servitude of Soviet communism directed from the bastion of the Kremlin. Whether our civilization is Christian or Moslem or founded in one of the other great religious systems, in that sense the free world is one.
46. Events and developments during the past fifty years have been crowding in on mankind to such an extent, and fear of a third world war has been so heightened by the increasing destructiveness of new weapons of mass destruction, that attention has been paid in overwhelming measure to those aspects of the Charter which emphasize the maintenance of international peace. But bitter experience has proved that peace at any price is the surest road to disaster. The framers of the Charter, though they may not have expressed it in exactly this way, were very conscious of this all-important point when they laid equal stress on the importance of dealing with disputes and situations in conformity with the principles of justice and international law.
47. During the past five weeks, this Assembly has been dealing with situations of gravity in the Middle East and in Central Europe. In the Middle East, two permanent Members of the Organization, anxious to strengthen in every way the capacity of the United Nations to carry out its task of maintaining international peace and security, are complying with the recommendations of the General Assembly. In the case of Hungary there has, as yet, been no evidence that another permanent Member of the Organization is willing to pay attention to the Assembly’s demands that it should right a wrong which violates every principle of the Charter.
48. I do not now intend to go more deeply into the question of Hungary, which we are debating in another context. The point I wish to make, and make with emphasis, is that the rule of law must be the same for all. There cannot be one rule for those who comply and another for those who defy. Unless our Organization recognizes the need for an even dispensation of justice for all, the United Nations will inevitably undermine the foundation of its moral authority — and it is on moral authority that the United Nations is founded.
49. We are an association of sovereign peoples, without any built-in authority to do this or that. Unless we base our conclusions upon the principles of fairness and justice, universally applicable, I fear that all we may do in the world outside this Assembly hall is to disrupt old friendships and disturb the carefully constructed and delicately balanced pattern of relationships between countries. If it is essential for the United Nations to be guided by these principles, it is almost equally important that Member States should avoid that distortion of the truth which has so often marred our debates.
50. I must here allude to certain allegations by the Foreign Minister of Egypt in his speech in the General Assembly on 27 November [597th meeting]. Fawzi described the Anglo-French operation at Port Said in terms which varied so completely from the facts that one might have supposed that he was describing events which have recently taken place in another part of the world.
51. Extraordinary precautions were in fact taken to minimize damage and casualties in Port Said. Advance warning was given, with serious risk to the Anglo-French forces. The full power which was militarily available was deliberately forfeited. This we felt to be in accord with the purposes of our action which, as hall been explained, was no invasion of Egypt, or attaint on Egyptian sovereignty. The bulk of the damage in Port Said occurred after the Egyptian commander had gone back on the cease-fire to which he had previously agreed.
52. The representative of Egypt, in his speech of 27 November, also spoke of liability for paralysing the Suez Canal. Who, in fact, has paralysed the Suez Canal? The Egyptian authorities have deliberately established forty-nine obstructions in Port Said and the Suez Canal. Some of these were blockships prepared long in advance. These acts of sabotage had no connexion with the fighting and were wanton obstructions of free passage through the Canal.
53. The representative of Lebanon, in his speech in the general debate on 26 November [595th meeting], alleged that thousands of people in Port Said were in a desperate state because the Anglo-French commander had refused access by officials of the International Red Cross and Egyptian Red Crescent Societies.
54. The facts are that an Egyptian Red Crescent train had been admitted on 15 November, and a second train had been admitted on 24 November. There were already at that time two International Red Cross representatives in Port Said, and I understand that the senior of them reported on 24 November that they were satisfied about the nursing facilities and the medical supplies available in the hospitals in the town.
55. The British and French forces in Port Said have o shown that they have nothing to hide. Some fifty correspondents are accredited to the British forces, and twenty-three to the French forces. I suggest that the Assembly should listen to reports of these impartial observers, rather than to the false charges which have been so widely disseminated.
56. It is the hope of my Government that it will be possible to solve both our difficulties with Egypt and; the basic problems of the Middle East in general. We will co-operate in every way possible towards these ends. The problems must be solved. But the task will not be made easier so long as the Egyptian Government continues to use its State-controlled propaganda machine and methods of bribery and subversion to stir up hatred and promote unrest in the Middle East. My Government has a considerable amount of information about these activities which I could bring to the attention of the Assembly. But we are doing our best to heal wounds, not to reopen them, and I do not propose, therefore, to go into them in greater detail. We can and do expect this Assembly to recognize that methods such as these are incompatible with the high standards of respect for the truth which must animate all our activities.
57. Though our attention is concentrated at this time on the Middle East and Hungary, we should do well to recall the continuing role of the United Nations in matters of a less urgent but still deeply significant character.
58. The search for agreement on disarmament is one of the main tasks of the United Nations and, indeed, was one of the principal impulses to the foundation of this Organization. The Disarmament Commission, and, where appropriate, its Sub-Committee, is in our view the best forum for the discussion of this problem.
59. We are studying the Soviet Government’s statement of 17 November 1956 [A/3366). I am bound to say that the statement suggests that the intention is to disrupt the North Atlantic alliance, while making no attempt to remove, nor even to alleviate, the political situations which have made such defensive organizations necessary. The timing of the statement suggests that it is a diversionary measure, to distract attention from the repression of freedom in Hungary.
60. The Assembly will have noted that the Soviet Government has revived its demand for the elimination of the world’s stockpiles of nuclear weapons. However, they must know that this suggestion is quite unrealistic so long as there is no known method detecting hidden stocks of such weapons. The one step forward contained in the latest Soviet proposals is the somewhat grudging acceptance of the principle of aerial inspection, as part of the system of control. But the Soviet Government says only that it is “prepared to consider the question of employing aerial photography” within an area 800 kilometres east and west of the present demarcation line in Europe, “provided that the States concerned give their consent” [A/3366, para. 27].
61. Since the United States and ally but a very narrow strip on the western frontier of the Soviet Union would be outside this area, this would provide no guarantee against a major surprise attack, which was the purpose of the original proposal made by President Eisenhower.
62. Apart from the step forward made in respect of the principle of aerial inspection, I regret to note the Soviet Government’s statement is as vague as ever on the crucial question of effective international control. This is for us, and for any country valuing its security, the most essential element in any disarmament plan. Nevertheless, we are prepared to discuss the latest proposals of the Soviet Government and to see whether they provide a basis on which progress can be made.
63. So far as my Government is concerned, it believes that any comprehensive disarmament programme must proceed by stages and must be related to the settlement of major political problems. We believe that such a programme should begin under international control "with such reductions as are possible today; that it should provide that, at an appropriate stage, the build-up of nuclear weapons would be discontinued; that there should be an effective control organization which would include aerial surveys, and that it must be possible to suspend the process of disarmament if there should be a threat to the peace.
64. In conclusion, I would like to revert to the situation in the Middle East. It was against the background of a world-wide struggle between Soviet communism and the free world that a long deteriorating situation erupted, on 29 October, into major hostilities between Israel and Egypt. Since the Security Council had proved itself incapable of dealing with the situation which had arisen, the British and French Governments felt it their duty immediately to intervene. After the two parties had agreed to a cease-fire, we also gave orders to cease our military action. And we made it clear that we should be glad if the United Nations would take over the physical task of preserving peace.
65. Thus the conception of an international force came into being, gaining rapid support in the United Nations. The United Kingdom delegation also supported this proposal. As soon as it became apparent that the United Nations Emergency Force would shortly be capable of carrying out the physical task of preserving peace, the Government of the United Kingdom decided that the withdrawal of our forces in the Port Said area could be carried out without delay.
66. As is known throughout the world, the Allied Commander-in-Chief has been instructed to seek agreement with the United Nations Commander concerning a time-table for complete withdrawal, taking into account the military and practical problems involved. With good faith on all sides, we believe that this timetable can be carried out in a short time.
67. But there are serious dangers ahead in the Middle East, and the United Nations will require resolution and vigilance in facing them. We have all been disturbed by reports of continued Soviet machinations in this area — machinations exposed by Anglo-French operations. It would be a poor ending, indeed, to the great conception of the United Nations force, and the exhaustive efforts made here in the United Nations, if the only result were to be the opening of the area to Soviet communism. If that danger can be averted, we can look ahead to a settlement of the outstanding problems of the area. The United Nations would indeed have failed if the opportunity were missed, once and for all, to achieve the peaceful conditions in the Middle East which have eluded us for so long.
68. Events viewed under the magnifying glass of the present time often result in a distorted series of images, and we must not lose the grand perspective of reality. Whatever our past tradition, whatever our present policies, we are all involved together in this ferment of the mid-twentieth century. There is no short-cut to peace. However, this much can be said. The United Nations can avoid mistaken judgements, providing it preserves a sense of history and has a perspective on the future. Only with a sense of the need for justice will the United Nations be able to create the conditions of mutual confidence which are the necessary foundation for world peace.