33. Mr. President, allow me to preface my observations on the world situation by saying that my delegation rejoices in the circumstance that the generous gesture you made last year in withdrawing from competition with our able and honoured past President, Sir Leslie Munro, has been rewarded by your election to your present high and important office. We know that you will prove yourself a worthy successor to him and that you will continue to conduct our proceedings with dignity, competence and impartiality.
34. In some respects, the task of speaking in our annual general debate is not an enviable one. He who endeavours to report on the progress made towards the achievement of the purposes of the United Nations has no good tidings to bring but only a tale of thwarted hopes to tell. This is the seventh time that, at this rostrum, I have tried to take stock of the world around us, and I would be less than honest if I were to say that during those seven years threats to the peace have been removed, the principles of justice and international law upheld, friendly relations among nations improved, and the obligations assumed by the Members of our Organization fulfilled in good faith by all of them.
35. And yet the aims set forth in our Charter are not just idle words, invented by cunning politicians to beguile the gullible crowd. The objects of the United Nations are ideas that live in the minds of many people, and the conviction of their rightness is so strongly held that — in my country, at any rate — there are few who would not be willing to make serious sacrifices for their attainment.
36. Is it the Organization, then, that is at fault? To say so would be to seek the easy excuse of the bad workman who blames his tools for the unsatisfactory results of his labours. If the principles of the United Nations were honestly, consistently and sincerely applied, international peace and justice would be secured. The fact that they are at present so often in jeopardy is not primarily due to any shortcomings in our machinery but rather to the acts of men and of peoples who disregard the rules and who for selfish reasons endanger the security of mankind. It is they who eschew the ways of peaceful development and who do not shy away from the use and threat of power, violence and aggression to impose their will on others; it is they who cause the troubled state of our world.
37. The months that have passed since the twelfth session have unfortunately brought several instances of transgression and violation of the precepts of good neighbourliness. Some of those instances are well known to all of us; others have created less of a stir in the world at large. One of them it is my duty, as Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, to recall to your special attention.
38. The Republic of Indonesia has taken a number of measures against the Netherlands and against Netherlands subjects that have made it impossible for my countrymen to continue to live and work in Indonesia. Businesses, enterprises, large and small, and property of Netherlander have been seized and taken over without payment — or promise of payment — of any compensation whatsoever. All treaties and agreements have been unilaterally rescinded, and obligations — even those arising from credits granted and agreements entered into after the transfer of sovereignty — have been repudiated. During the past year nearly 40,000 Netherlander have been obliged to leave their houses and homes in Indonesia and property of private Dutch firms and individuals amounting to approximately $1,250 million has been taken away from them. These spoliations have, naturally, caused serious economic and financial damage to my country. But that is not the main reason why I mentioned them here. Since 1945 the people of the Netherlands have been able to recover quickly from the destruction and plundering inflicted on them by five years of occupation, and we know that we have enough vitality equally to overcome the harm that Indonesia desires to cause us. The nearly 40,000 men, women and children who have been forced, during the past few months, to leave that country, where most of them had lived all their lives, will eventually be integrated in the Netherlands. The economic and technical potential repudiated by Indonesia will find new means of performing useful service. And there are also other reasons why I have felt obliged to bring to the attention of the United Nations the injustice perpetrated by Indonesia against my country. One of those reasons is that injustice committed in the community of nations, apart from destroying the fabric of international law, undermines peace and security, for which, under the terms of the Charter, we all are jointly responsible.
39. But there is a more specific reason why my Government is perturbed by the unlawful actions in which the Government of Indonesia has seen fit to indulge with regard to my country. That reason is that we are convinced that such actions may have repercussions for other under-developed countries. It is sufficiently known in this Assembly what the attitude of the Netherlands Government is in respect of the problem of economic development of under-developed countries. We have made a perhaps not altogether insignificant contribution to the establishment of the Special Fund, which we hope will commence its operations in the beginning of the coming year. The wrongs we have suffered at the hands of Indonesia have not caused us to change our attitude towards the need for extending aid to under-developed countries. But I submit, it is clear that, in the international as well as in the national sphere, no economic co-operation can be lasting without a minimum of well-founded confidence, politically and economically. If countries in need of aid break down on one side what has been built up on the other, then such behaviour endangers the concept of collective prosperity for which, in the past, the Netherlands has so repeatedly and strongly argued — and we will continue to do so. It is also for this reason that I am deeply concerned over the ill effects that may ensue for Ore cause of international aid which my Government so warmly supports. In order that this cause should prosper it is necessary that the individual States should mind their obligations as well as their rights, their interdependence as much as their independence. To give appropriate form and expression to this interdependence may even be said to be one of the principal aims of the United Nations. That aim can be achieved only if the consequences of interdependence are loyally accepted and carried out.
40. I do not wish to limit my intervention to this note of caution and criticism. My delegation has come to this Assembly with the instruction and the will to take a constructive part in the debates.
41. For the Netherlands our membership in the United Nations means, first, that on the political plane of this Assembly we are in favour of establishing a United Nations peace force. We are heartened by the thought that progress is being made towards the organization of such a force. Its existence might prevent the carrying out of plans of would-be aggressors. In this connexion I feel impelled — as did my Australian colleague, Mr. Casey, at the previous meeting — to quote with full approval the memorable words of Mr. Dulles: "When one regime attempts by force to take additional territory which has long been under the authority of another Government, recognized as such by a respectable part of the world community, that is a use of force which endangers world peace." [749th meeting, para. 28.] Indeed they are memorable words.
42. We shall do what we can to assist in creating possibilities for disarmament and declare that we will support cessation of atomic tests with proper supervision of compliance.
43. We trust that the situation in the Near East will improve, and in Europe we hope that, with relaxation of tension, one of the most serious political evils — that of the division of Germany into. two parts — will be remedied. Some 20 million Germans in the eastern part of that country should be allowed to exert their right of expressing their opinion on the reunification of Germany by means of free supervised elections.
44. With grave misgivings we notice on our agenda such subjects as Cyprus and Algeria. We fervently hope that the parties concerned — friends of my country-will themselves find solutions to their problems.
45. In the second place, our membership in the United Nations signifies that we shall continue to co-operate in rendering effective, where necessary, the exercise of fundamental human rights. My delegation is a firm supporter of the principle of self-determination. We welcome the fact that the barren concept that the fundamental human rights should be fortified only by conventions is now increasingly being complemented by practical action and advisory services in this field.
46. Thirdly, our membership in the United Nations implies for us that we shall continue to urge a much more extensive and comprehensive activity of the United Nations family in the economic and social sector. The recent resolutions aimed at obtaining in 1960 an appraisal of the integrated programmes of the United Nations and the specialized agencies for a period of five years in advance are, in our view, of inestimable value. My delegation hopes to see the Expanded Programme of Technical Assistance gradually grow to a ceiling of $40 million.
47. The Special Fund will, if it succeeds financially, ring in an era of transition to the much greater concept that once received the name of the Special United Nations Fund for Economic Development (SUNFED) and which would provide for a flow of money to the under-developed areas for the financing of their economic infra-structure. For 1959 the Netherlands Government has decided on a contribution of 14 million guilders (about $3.7 million) in convertible currency. With great interest I noted last week in the speech of the Secretary of State of the United States [749th meeting] a growing inclination of his Government to cooperate in large-scale multilateral financing programmes.
48. My delegation holds that the United Nations has a far more important task than the one so far performed in the field of stabilization of the prices of primary materials. Maybe the coming session of the Commission on International Commodity Trade, of which the United States and the United Kingdom have now also become members, will be able to do pioneering work in this field.
49. Perhaps it is time to investigate, during the coming years, whether the Economic and Social Council does actually function in such a manner as to live up to the responsibilities placed upon it by our Charter. To increase its membership to twenty-four would be one step in the right direction that could be initiated during this session. In any case, my delegation hopes that the countries with strong economies will increasingly make use of the United Nations as a channel for their economic policies. Allow me to repeat here what I said on this subject in Geneva this summer: "The use of target figures and time-tables may improve our methods of dealing with the world economy. "In striving towards this aim the Economic and Social Council might do worse than to take a leaf out of the book of the political organs of the United Nations. It is a generally accepted custom, when political controversies are dealt with in the political organs of our Organization, for these organs to make recommendations directed at the parties and sometimes to send observers and even, in special cases, an emergency force. Is there any reason why the economic organs of the United Nations should not gradually evolve similar methods and practices: recommendations in concrete cases, collective action in emergency situations?"
50. These are in brief the intentions, hopes and expectations that animate the Netherlands delegation to this session of the General Assembly. May God grant that its work will redound to the benefit of mankind.