Mr. DE FREITAS VALLE stated that his country’s participation in the San Francisco Conference had been marked by a spirit of confident hope, so much so that, despite its earlier opposition to the institution of the veto, Brazil had been the first of the fifty States represented there to vote for the inclusion of the veto in the Charter, a fact which showed that Brazil had relied on the five great Powers to use the veto wisely. In London, the whole-hearted co-operation of the representatives of Brazil had been directed towards the task of the establishment of the United Nations by the implementation of the Charter. It had given earnest support to the decision to have the headquarters of the Organization in New York, Its election to the initial membership of the Security Council had been secured by an almost unanimous vote; one of its nationals had twice been President of the General Assembly and it. was currently a member of the Economic and Social Council. By a generous decision of the General Assembly, he himself had been appointed one of the Vice-Presidents of the fourth session. Why, then, should Brazil have cause to complain about the United Nations?
2. It was the purity of Brazil’s idealism that impelled it to criticize the United Nations. Its total lack of prejudice, however, was undeniable evidence of the faith which it had in the future of the Organization. The time had come to return to the spirit of San Francisco.
3. The League of Nations had been a mere instrument of conciliation. The United Nations constituted a great political league for the preservation of tranquillity and the defence of peace — the peace which God had promised to men endowed with that good will which in current times many appeared to lack. It was just as useless to try to fix the blame for that as it was necessary to recognize the fact.
4. It could be asked whether it was the fault of the United Nations that it had not made greater progress. He, for his part, did not believe so, for in his opinion circumstances had been cruel for the protagonists of peace. He could not deny, however, that, as units of the Organization, few Members of the United Nations had shown the detachment from interests and vanities that was necessary if people were to associate without prejudice. Each State, or, more precisely, each Government, had given more thought to its own subsistence than to the progress of the United Nations. Even if it were the sad truth that certain Members were using the United Nations instead of serving it, it could yet be argued, without entering into too many subtleties, that abuse of the services of an institution was a sign of belief in its worth.
5. Mr. Trygve Lie, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, had on occasions fearlessly explained the dilatory progress of the United Nations, placing the entire blame on the shoulders of those who failed to co-operate. Would it not perhaps be fairer to speak of lack of mutual confidence than to seek to apportion the blame?
6. The United Nations could not have proclaimed that peoples were uniting with the determination “to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war” if such determination had not in fact existed. It was that thought that had prompted him to refer to the spirit which had reigned in San Francisco, so much broader than that which had been manifested at the subsequent meetings in London. Every Member, should have the courage to admit that fact and to return to that earlier spirit if true progress was to be made.
7. It was evident that in so doing the Organization should not allow itself to be discouraged by those who sought to criticize the United Nations for the delay in fulfilling the aims for which it had been created. What sacrifice of principles would it have meant for some Members, in cases where the veto was invoked, to think in good faith of a system of equilibrium and guarantees?
8. Exactly three years and eight months had passed since the General Assembly of the United Nations had first met in London, still under the impulse of the spirit of San Francisco, for its initial attempt to set up the framework of the structure the outlines of which had been traced in San Francisco. Every one was living in anxious expectation of arriving at the goal that had been set there. Could not the Organization, from the very first, have been fully capable of doing what was expected of it when confronted with the problems resulting from the war, problems which the victors had unfortunately been unable to solve?
9. Furthermore, the formation of the United Nations had taken place at the height of one of the periodical world crises, and it was exactly during such periods that Governments and peoples accelerated their evolution and moulded themselves to circumstances, while idealism declined. One of the causes of the lack of perfect adjustment within the Organization lay in just such an evolution in attitudes and in international conduct since the time of the San Francisco Conference. While it was an accepted fact that international policy should not be made to undergo violent changes, it was no less true that it was extremely difficult to maintain steadiness in a structure the foundations of which had been laid under the auspices of a group of countries which, from the very inception of the work, had lost the power of mutual understanding and had begun to tread antagonistic paths in the field of collective security. The unhappy obligation of enforcing the Treaty of Versailles had been one of the main causes of the downfall of the League of Nations.
10. What was wrong, therefore, was not the United Nations but the world itself. Proof of that could be found in the fact that while the Security Council conducted its ceaseless round of meetings, the International Court of Justice had done little, not through the fault of its members but because no cases were submitted to it, since people apparently no longer believed in the domination of the spirit over force. The nations were, in fact, afraid of force itself, ‘as was evident from the fact that the Security Council had been unable to exercise its high functions for the preservation of peace. The world might well bewail the conflicts within the Security; Council and the lack of appeals to the International Court of Justice.
11. One way in which an attempt had been made to cover current deficiencies, not only in the system itself but arising from unfortunate circumstances, had been to lay undue emphasis on activities which could always be explained but not often justified. The aim, apparently, was to solve concrete problems, often of a material nature, while losing sight of fundamental ones; to heal the body, while forgetting the soul. The body of the Organization was growing at an alarming rate, with an uncontrolled development of organs and functions. Practically every international problem which arose was handed outright to the United Nations or to one of its agencies, without any attempt being made to find out beforehand whether the Organization was or was not equipped to face the question and solve it. The result had been the almost automatic creation of agencies and commissions to solve the problems which were daily submitted to the United Nations as new ones. The problem was not solved but an international apparatus was forthwith created for its detailed study, which tended only to make it more complicated and its solution more difficult.
12. The number of meetings called in consequence of the ever-growing tendency to establish new international machinery was incredible: during 1947, 1948 and 1949, the various organs of the United Nations had held respectively 3,504, 4,092 and 3,683 meetings, and 3,850 were already planned for the following year.
13. Brazil considered that such a procedure was not only misguided but detrimental to the prestige of the United Nations. Mr. de Freitas Valle himself was not there to make charges; still less to denounce that which should be known to all. He realized, however, that some Members might be unaware of the circumstances, since not all had been able to attend the countless meetings, while the Members which had attended had often failed to be adequately represented.
14. The purpose of all Members — for in San Francisco and in London the thoughts of all had been centred on the United Nations of the future — had been to assemble the many international agencies together under what might be called the new Super-State, not to complicate, but to simplify international life. The results in that field could perhaps be said to show that the procedure had been erratic. It would be well to admit that fact and try to remedy the situation.
15. On the other hand, it should be recognized that many of the efforts in question had not been expended in vain. In the, economic field, for instance, the organization of a broad programme of technical assistance for economic development — the pattern for which had been based on President Truman’s high-minded proposal — constituted an important and constructive task. Only with the organization of the plans for large-scale technical assistance would the Economic and Social Council come of age.
16. In the field of social progress, many important achievements were on record. It was satisfying to recall resolution 217 (III) of the General Assembly, adopted on 10 December 1948, proclaiming the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which would be followed by a covenant on human rights and measures of implementation, and by the codification of international law. The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, approved by the Assembly in its resolution 260 (III) of 9 December 1948, also represented a step towards the maturity of the juridical conscience and the settlement of the question of international penal responsibility.
17. Although it had not yet had any direct part in the activities of the Trusteeship Council, the Brazilian delegation had been observing them with great interest and attention. The emergence of colonial peoples to independent life had undoubtedly given rise to a major political revolution. It was to be hoped that the process would be expedited and facilitated by the activities of the Trusteeship Council, which bore an immense responsibility in its function of representing the international consciousness of peoples who were as yet deprived of autonomous political expression. It was not without some concern that the Brazilian Government viewed a certain tendency on the part of metropolitan Powers, governing non-autonomous territories to make use of administrative unions, whether for the purpose of reducing the area of international supervision or whether — which was far more alarming — as a preparatory stage for political absorption. It was, fortunately, the duly of the Trusteeship Council to be on the alert and to curtail such tendencies.
18. The administrative organization of the United Nations, although handicapped by the lack of a better geographical distribution in the Secretariat, was already marked by the outstanding quality of its services and by the regularity with which its increasingly difficult task was being fulfilled. The completion, in 1950, of construction work on the new headquarters would free the Organization from the inconveniences and loss of time incurred by the holding of meetings outside New York, with the consequent impairment of efficiency and the heavy burden on the budget.
19. In conclusion, Mr. de Freitas Valle expressed the earnest hope that the current session would make speedy progress and that the inspiration of political instinct and greatness of soul would result in the solution of some of the problems which were causing so much distress, in particular, that of the former Italian colonies, the fate of which depended on the wisdom and fairness of the decisions the United Nations would make.
20. Reaffirming the confidence of Brazil in the United Nations, he added that no apologies were necessary for the frankness of the Brazilian delegation in pointing out some of the shortcomings of the Organization, since it was Brazil’s desire to see them corrected for the betterment of international life and the welfare of the human race.