Mr. KISELEV said that the time had come to draw up the balance sheet of the activity of the United Nations during its first four years.
142. He had carefully studied the Secretary- General’s report, in the introduction to which Mr. Trygve Lie stated that the year had been, on the whole, a year of progress towards a more peaceful world, and that the United Nations had developed international co-operation in almost every field of human activity on a scale never before attempted.
143. Mr. Kiselev thought that estimate incorrect and, to say the least of it, an exaggeration. He wished himself to analyse the activities of the United Nations during those years.
144. During its three previous sessions, the General Assembly had examined a number of political, economic, and social questions, and had adopted 287 resolutions.
145. Resolution 41 (I) on the regulation and reduction of armaments had not been implemented. That problem, one of the greatest with which humanity was confronted, remained unsolved. The Commission for Conventional Armaments had suspended its work, as had also the Atomic Energy Commission.
146. One might legitimately ask the reasons for that situation. Who were the people who, instead of reducing armaments, were encouraging the armaments race, concluding the North Atlantic Treaty, setting up a Western Union for military purposes, violating in the most flagrant manner the fundamental Articles of the Charter and endeavouring to use the United Nations for their own ends? They were the leading circles in the United States of America and the United Kingdom, beset with the morbid idea of world domination.
147. In his statement of 21 September (222nd meeting), Mr. Acheson, United States Secretary of State, had attempted to justify the policy of his country in that field. He had stated that that policy was in entire conformity with the resolutions adopted by the General Assembly. Facts, however, proved exactly the contrary. It was common knowledge that it was in Washington that the North Atlantic Treaty had been signed and later ratified. It was in that city that conversations were at the moment going on for the conclusion of Mediterranean and Pacific treaties. At the head of the countries which were increasing their armaments was the United States which, by means of the so-called peace-time lend-lease, intended to supply armaments to countries signatory to the North Atlantic Treaty. In the light of such facts, it was not surprising that Mr. Acheson should have said that there was no immediate prospect of universal agreement as to the regulation and reduction of armaments. Delivery of United States war material to western Europe was to continue on a scale sufficient to enable American firms to obtain orders for thousands of millions of dollars. American capitalist monopolies were obviously endeavouring by those processes to obtain new dividends.
148. The morbid dream of world domination, the fear of the impending economic crisis, the desire to pile up war profits — such were the motives which led the controlling circles in Wall Street to pursue a policy of ever increasing military expenditure directed towards the unleashing of a new war. Those who controlled American monopolies were deliberately creating an atmosphere of anxiety and alarm in international relations.
149. According to data given in the information bulletin of a New York bank, the profits of the 525 leading United States companies in 1948 had reached the highest level yet known. Those profits had been from 18.8 to 23 per cent of invested capital, amounting .to 35,600 million dollars, as against 9,300 million in 1940 and 22,400 million in 1945,
150. History seemed to have taught nothing. The total defeat of hitlerite Germany, which had been the embodiment of the forces of reaction, should have served as a lesson to those who aspired to world domination. Nothing of the sort had happened. It was obvious that the United States had become the main centre of threats to the peace and Security of peoples.
151. Despite the assertions of leading circles in the United States and the United Kingdom, the North Atlantic Treaty was plainly contrary to the interests of the United Nations. Its purposes were in opposition to the principle of peace among nations. It was an aggressive military alliance entered into by a group of Member States and directed against another group of Member States. A number of United States senators had agreed, during the debate in the United States Senate, that the treaty was incompatible with the obligations of the United States as a signatory to the Charter and that it was designed to encourage war rather than to contribute to the maintenance of peace. And the Wall Street Journal, an organ of American financial circles, had stated in its issue of 5 April 1949 that the North Atlantic Treaty in fact nullified the principles of the United. Nations.
152. Quite logically, the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty had been followed by a frantic arms race, the creation of a vast network of military, naval and air bases and an attack on the standards of living and democratic rights of the masses.
153. While all mankind was anxiously following the warmongering policy of the United States and of certain other countries, all those who wished for peace had rejoiced at the pacific attitude adopted by the Soviet Union.
154. Mr. Kiselev went on to speak of the economic situation. The Economic and Social Council had failed to solve the fundamental problems before it and had devoted itself to those of secondary importance. Thus it had failed to solve the important question of full employment which had been raised by the World Federation of Trade Unions. Instead of adopting concrete recommendations to fight unemployment and to improve the lot of millions of workers, the Anglo-American majority had merely referred the question to the International Labour Organisation for study. It was well known, however, that during the thirty years of its existence the ILO had faithfully defended the interests of the employers. The matter of trade union rights had suffered the same fate. The question of equal pay for equal work for men and women had also remained unsolved.
155. The delegation of the Byelorussian SSR considered that the Economic and Social Council had failed to take the necessary steps to develop trade relations between Members of the United Nations without infringing the fundamental principles of the equality and sovereignty of all States. It had failed also to take the necessary steps to assist in the economic development of countries devastated by the war.
156. At its ninth session, the Council had examined the question of the development of the economically under-developed countries. It was known that that problem was of interest to a number of countries in which industry and agriculture were at a very low level, and in which the masses lived in destitution. That situation existed mainly in countries which for many years had been, or still were, subjected to ruthless exploitation by colonial Powers.
157. There was an attempt in some quarters to represent the United States plan of technical aid as one devoid of imperialistic aims. It was quite clear, however, that the plan was nothing more than an attempt by American monopolists to secure a political and economic hold on other countries, to ruin their domestic industries and to flood their markets with American goods. They sought to gain control of the resources of strategic raw materials with intent to use them for military ends. Thus, for example, the United States had bought up nearly all the supplies of raw materials in the Belgian Congo. American companies were ruthlessly exploiting the population of that region. Mr. Kiselev gave another instance in support of his argument: according to official statistics, to be found in the Trusteeship Council’s report, only three of the 331 industrial undertakings in Ruanda-Urundi belonged to the Native population. Those three companies were concerned with the manufacture of pottery, basket-making and tanning.
158. It was essential to take steps to prevent American monopolists from enslaving economically under-developed countries under cover of the United Nations. Generous aid must be granted to under-developed countries, provided that such aid allowed them to promote their national economy and to progress towards political and economic independence.
159. Mr. Kiselev then alluded to the statement by Mr. Santa Cruz, representative of Chile, whom he accused of using the forum of the United Nations in an attempt to distract the attention of the General Assembly from the Soviet Union’s proposals (226th meeting) for the achievement of world peace. The Chilean representative had used doubtful arguments, had maintained that the USSR proposals were simply ironical and had thus sought to confuse a perfectly clear issue. Slander on the part of the Chilean representative was nothing new. Everyone was equally familiar with the fact that it invariably came to nothing. There was no need to stress the point further.
160. The delegation of the Byelorussian SSR wholeheartedly supported the proposals put forward at the 226th meeting by Mr. Vyshinsky. The Member States of the United Nations could not disregard the anxiety of all the nations of the world to prevent another war. They must develop close co-operation among themselves. They must take concrete steps for the speedy solution of such international problems as the control and reduction of armaments and of armed forces, the prohibition of the atomic weapon, and the use of atomic energy solely for peaceful ends. Warmongering must be forbidden and all preparations for a new war must be stopped.
161. In appealing to the great Powers to conclude a pact for the strengthening of peace, the Soviet Union had sought to free the peoples of the world from the fear of another war and to bring to fruition the highest hopes of humanity, which craved only security and a lasting peace.