Portugal

Mr. President, I have already had the privilege of paying my respects to you from this rostrum and I take pleasure in doing so again today. 144. This is the first time that Portugal has taken part in the general debate of the United Nations General Assembly. On behalf of the Portuguese Government, I have the honour of addressing the Governments of the peoples of every climate, every race and every belief who are represented here. 145. In my capacity as Minister for Foreign Affairs, I feel the weight of my responsibility, but as a Portuguese I feel at home here, for reasons which I shall explain later. I have already had occasion to point out that my country was kept out of the United Nations for ten years. I mention the fact now only to explain why I shall confine myself to statements of principle in this introductory speech in the general debate, without going into the details of the problems that have been raised and discussed here in the course of the last ten years. Later, there will be an opportunity in the Committees or in the plenary meetings to state and define the position of the Portuguese Government with regard to these problems. 146. For the time being, I feel that my speech should be short and no more than an introductory statement. As people sometimes have a wrong impression of my country, I feel that I shall be contributing to the supreme purpose of this Organization, to fuller understanding among its Members, if I explain who we are. The Portuguese have been accused of dwelling very often on their history. It is not an accusation; it is the recognition of an attitude that is, I believe, not without wisdom, which, indeed, is why we adopt it. The present is a continuation of the past, its extension towards the future. Who then can claim to have shaped his future if he has not reflected on his past, so that he can continue what is good and avoid repeating what was bad? 147. In the last analysis, a nation, like an individual, is a combination of instinct and reason. What, we call civilization is no more than the effort to subordinate our impulsive and uncontrolled actions to the wisdom of reason. Fundamentally, civilization must be humanistic rather than technical. 148. My country is proud that it was able in the course of its history to pass the torch of western civilization to other parts of the world. That torch was lit in Greece, illuminated Rome, and then was miraculously preserved by the Arab world during the centuries of darkness that followed the fall of the Roman Empire. Finally it went round the world, thanks to the European voyages of discovery, in which Portugal played an outstanding part and which permitted the fruitful meeting of western civilization and the ancient civilizations of the East and of America. 149. Since then, we have always been a missionary country, and we have remained so to this day. For centuries we have sought to enter into contact with almost all the peoples represented here. While I would not claim that these relations have always been disinterested, we may say that we have scattered fruitful seeds. It is evident that we have also gained inestimable advantages from these relationships with other peoples — the ability to get along with the most varied peoples, to understand them and to establish ties of genuine human co-operation. We have never thought of ourselves as superior or inferior; we consider ourselves as equals. That is why I said a moment ago that as a Portuguese I felt at home in the Assembly, among the representatives of countries with which Portugal has been acquainted for over 400 years. 150. While I do not wish to dwell continually upon my country’s past, I feel that our history proves that Portugal is, I would venture to say, a Member of the United Nations by right of birth, for it has prepared itself for centuries for this moment at which I declare the firm resolve of the people and Government of Portugal to co-operate loyally in the great work that the United Nations is building here. 151. We are, above all, a people who love peace. Our experience has given us the wisdom to understand that war begets only war and settles nothing. We are in favour of the pacific settlement of disputes and arbitration, a principle embodied in the Constitution of my country. We are for negotiation, for the exchange of ideas and opinions, for respect for treaties, for we believe that in this great world there is room for all peoples, whatever their race, creed or ways of thought. That is why we are sure that the only way to attain universal understanding is to respect the creed, race and ways of thought of others. To attempt to impose our views on others, even without resort to violence, would constitute an invasion of the frontiers of the mind and therefore almost an act of aggression. There will be no peace unless the idea is wholeheartedly accepted that every country has the right to live the political life its people desire. We are against aggressive, selfish and, arrogant nationalism, but we are nationalists, because we are a nation. Any policy which disregards or underestimates the indestructible strength of sound and natural nationalism is, in our opinion, doomed to failure. It is not a realistic policy; at best it is utopian and at worst it would be catastrophic because it would lead to war. Wars are not solely the consequence of deliberate offensive action; lack of understanding and intolerance can also cause them — and have done so. 152. There is another fact I wish to mention, a fact which is essential for a real understanding of Portugal; our talent for unification. In our territories people of differing race, language and religion live side by side. For centuries all these people have constituted a homogenous national unit, without discrimination on grounds of race, origin, colour or on any other pretext. All are Portuguese, all enjoy the same national status, and from generation, to generation we have striven to develop in all the same sense and ideal of Portuguese nationhood. The effort has been successful. 153. I would emphasize that this is not a recent development. On the contrary, it has been in progress for centuries. In this connexion, I should like to cite a report presented to the King of Portugal in the early seventeenth century by one of the chief organs of the Portuguese administration of that period. The report says that the Government’s overseas provinces are in no way distinct or separate from the Kingdom, that they do not even belong to it by union, but that they are members of that Kingdom, in the same way as the European provinces, so that a person who is born and lives in Asia, Brazil or Africa can be just as much a Portuguese as a person born or living at Lisbon. For us then this is not a recent doctrine, for the report I have quoted dates from 1612. 154. I should like now to make special reference to a great country, whose very existence furnishes the finest proof of the sense of universality which dominates Portugal’s history. I refer to Brazil, to whose formation Portugal devoted its best efforts and which today constitutes with Portugal a great community, the Luso-Brazilian community, formally established three years ago by a treaty between the two countries which is unique in history and which represents a splendid reality. The community was created through the centuries by long experience of life side by side, and out of it has grown an indestructible friendship and an identity of language, customs and ideas which might serve as an example of understanding between peoples. 155. In addition to many other questions which will long engage the attention of the Assembly we will have to settle two particularly urgent problems, the questions of the Middle East and of Hungary. It is hard to imagine that the United Nations will have more important problems to consider and try to resolve, for these are fraught with consequences and involve grave responsibilities. 156. To settle the problem of the Middle East, which is, in fact, not one problem out a tangle of extremely difficult and complicated problems, we will have to seek to devise solutions that go to the heart of the matter and provide a basis for a stable and viable equilibrium in that storm-racked area. In the Middle East, urgent and extremely acute problems have arisen which must be settled without delay, and to that end I welcome as a very salutary and plainly necessary measure the creation of the United Nations Emergency Force. 157. But it would be an error to believe that the United Nations will complete its task by solving these urgent problems if it does not also remedy the underlying causes which have brought them into being. It is essential that an effort should be made to study the causes in order to find adequate and balanced solutions that will satisfy the legitimate interests involved, many of which are unquestionably international in scope. In dealing with the problems of the Middle East, we must above all be realistic and view the problem as a whole, keeping constantly in mind all the factors involved and making no judgment out of this context, for otherwise we shall inevitably go astray. 158. As regards the problem of Hungary — that heart-breaking affair which has shaken and still shakes the conscience of the world — it is my earnest hope that the United Nations will find feasible means of remedying the immense evil that has been done and re-establishing as a living reality the essential principle of non-intervention by other States in the internal affairs of any nation. Unless that essential principle is held sacrosanct, international life is impossible. The situation is still worse when intervention is coupled with violence — and violence of so terrible a kind. 159. In conclusion, I should like once more to affirm the desire of the Portuguese people and Government to live in peace, a peace where justice, respect for law and respect for national sovereignty prevail. The United Nations can rely on the efforts of the people and Government of Portugal to achieve that end.