Before turning to the problems facing the United Nations, on which each Member must define its position clearly, I wish to take this opportunity of thanking the Assembly for the great honour it has done to my country by electing its representative to one of the Vice-Presidencies [474th meeting], in accordance with the wishes expressed by the regional group of twenty Latin-American States.
33. Ecuador is conscious of a rededication to the task which we have freely undertaken of building a better world and saving humanity from the scourge of another war. Faithful to the purposes and principles of the Charter, we repeat our promise to work unceasingly for the achievement of the noble ideals which inspired the authors of that great instrument in which all men of good will have placed their hopes. This has been my country’s undeviating course in the past and will certainly be its aim, with all the more reason, in the future.
34. We are at the dawn of a new age in history. Nobody, unless he is naively optimistic or blindly rash, can deny that we face serious problems; their solution is vital to the future not only of our culture, but of life itself in all its forms. Happily, that very difficulty spurs us on to seek with calm and steadfastness the road which will lead us to truth, to the achievement of, peace, to that wisdom which will reconcile the opinions fighting for dominion over the human spirit.
35. The apprehension which we all feel at finding ourselves caught in a conflagration of incalculable dimensions is very similar, to the anxiety felt, by our ancestors who saw the destruction of the Roman Empire, or who later saw their world widened by the discovery of the American continent. Just as those social events inevitably produced a fresh conception of the world, mankind today must conceive a different picture from that on which he based his explanations of the social, economic and political phenomena of the first years of the century.
36. We must not listen to those who disbelieve in any solution but tragedy or the fatalists incapable of conceiving any solution other than that governed by inexorable materialistic laws. Fortunately, many believe in the transcendental spiritual forces and in the limitless possibilities of human courage which refuses to bow to the force of circumstances but grapples with them and finally masters them. New and more perfect things, ideas and institutions can be built on the ruins of those which have crumbled.
37. In the crisis of the modern world there are many factors which give us a great advantage over other ages of known history; among these factors are our complete knowledge of the causes of the phenomenon and the fact that we have a sensitive and watchful legal instrument which emerged from the First World War and has been improved since the Second. Knowing as we do the radical change which is now occurring, we are encouraged to have faith in the success of our use of that instrument which was established so that the change could take place without violence and without the agonizing scenes which accompanied such changes in other ages.
38. This instrument is imperfect not only because it is a political experiment on a large scale but also because it was the result of a number of compromises between States whose way of thinking, organization and culture differed widely. Our Organization must eliminate these imperfections and embrace new social principles if it is to be, as its Charter says, a centre for harmonizing the actions of nations in the attainment of peace and security. Anticipating the needs which are created by the progress of any juridical system, the Charter provides expressly that the problem of its revision must be raised and that when it is, a conference shall be held for that purpose. It was felt that ten years’ experience would be sufficient to justify any change. The opposition which has been aroused by the mere mention of revision of the Charter is a disquieting manifestation, since it reflects deep distrust between the two groups of Powers into which the political map of the world has unfortunately become divided.
39. Last year very little progress was made in this matter and, as in many other cases, all that could be done was to adopt a resolution [796 (VIII)] by which the Secretary-General was requested to prepare, publish and circulate documents which might be useful to Governments intending to press for revision of the Charter. This matter is not included in the agenda of the present session, and the enthusiasm of many delegations for revision seems to have waned, probably because they fear that instead of obtaining what they desire for the common good, they may destroy this edifice and find themselves once again in a world without law. Our Governments shall have one year, however, in which to reflect on the desirability and possibility of revision and we hope that good sense will prevail and that the proposal will either be postponed until a more propitious time, or that Foreign Ministries will negotiate among themselves a draft revision acceptable to all. What is important for the United Nations is that harmony should not be disturbed and that we should enter on the tenth session with a concerted plan either to revise the Charter in terms previously agreed, or to put aside the idea if by doing so we can avoid a greater evil. Common sense tells us that it is better to continue living with an imperfect Charter which in fact serves to maintain peace, rather than to return to that primitive state of nature, as Rousseau called it, where there was no other law than that of the strongest.
40. The concept of subject and ruling nations does not. reflect the position in the world today. There are very few groups of men still incapable of governing their own destinies. The old way of regarding the world has lost its raison d’être. It arose from the concept of the hegemony of a continent peopled by men of superior race, masters of technology in all its aspects, who assumed the heavy burden of leading ignorant or barbarous peoples to a civilized way of living.
41. The real basis of the so-called colonial policy is the economic exploitation of the weak by the strong, and just as such exploitation has been opposed within States, the present trends of international law have flowed into fresh channels: the Mandate System of the League of Nations, and the Trusteeship System and the provisions of the United Nations Charter governing the Non-Self-Governing Territories. My delegation reaffirms its hope that both the colonial and administering Powers will fulfil the sacred trust which they have assumed and will endeavour to endow the peoples for whom they are responsible with the intellectual, moral and technical ability to achieve self-government and independence, so that the Assembly need not discuss problems of this nature which charge the atmosphere and detract from the spirit of democracy that we are trying to defend against flank attacks by the bloc of Communist Powers.
42. Last year, in the Fourth Committee, my delegation maintained that it is incompatible with the letter and spirit of Chapter XI of the Charter to plead Article 2, paragraph 7, in support of the claim that matters connected with the administration of Non-Self-Governing Territories are matters of domestic jurisdiction. My delegation maintained then, and repeats now, that nations which have not reached full self-government are, as it were, incomplete States which, while possessing the elements of population and territory, lack only government or, in other words, the capacity of self-determination and self-rule. For that reason, possession of their own territory is the inalienable right of non-self-governing peoples and never of the administrators, whose only power over such territory can be compared with the powers under civil law of a guardian over a ward. We can no more speak of the sovereignty of an administering Power over a Non-Self-Governing Territory than we can speak of a guardian’s ownership of his ward’s property. We can only use the term “sovereignty” in connexion with internal administrative measures taken by an administering Power.
43. We deeply regret that there should still be those in this Assembly who claim that such problems should not be raised because no progress can be made by so doing, and, in fact, that to raise them is to erect still greater obstacles to the achievement of the objective towards which we strive. It is well known that Article 2, paragraph 7, of the Charter is the first line of defence of the administering Powers, whereby they deny the Assembly’s competence to discuss such problems and assert that they are matters of domestic jurisdiction. In the last resort it is contended that the existing state of affairs cannot be altered by reason of purely political situations, on the grounds that any such change would endanger peace and security.
44. The delegation of Ecuador has the highest respect for opinions which it does not share, and I shall do no more than explain quite clearly why we think differently My delegation does not wish to precipitate solutions, still less to do anything which the enemies who await any division in the ranks of democracy can seize upon in order to engineer a greater evil than that which we are trying to remedy. No; our argument sets forth concisely my delegation’s attitude towards the anachronistic problems of colonialism; we ask, with profound sincerity and conviction, that such problems should be solved quickly and peaceably, and wherever possible without prejudice to all legitimate interest. We earnestly desire to help populations which do not yet enjoy self-government or which are under trusteeship to achieve the greatest measure of self-government of which they are capable; nor do we mean, by expressing this humane and disinterested desire, to disparage the civilizing work which has been accomplished in many colonies and Non-Self-Governing or Trust Territories.
45. Since that is our position, it is clear that my delegation will take a fundamental view of matters of racial discrimination which find their way year after year into our agenda. Most of the Latin-American nations, in which this grave problem could have arisen, have avoided it by adopting the natural and humane method of mixing races. This mixture of blood which fills certain politicians with horror is today and will remain in the future the only intelligent and Christian way of burying past prejudices and overcoming the Satanic pride of those who despise the coloured races. My delegation will never cease its efforts to achieve an agreement in this matter and to eliminate from our agenda matters which should never have arisen once the Universal Declaration of Human Rights had been adopted.
46. The world-wide nature of our contemporary civilization makes us think especially of the part played by the interdependence of States and international cooperation. It is well known that social and economic phenomena are universal and that no State can live in isolation. As a result, certain world organizations have arisen, almost spontaneously, since the end of the last century and in our era they are increasing in number to meet the growing needs which no State could satisfy alone without the greatest difficulty. The organization for postal and telegraphic communications in the first place, followed by the organization dealing with matters of health, established the model for a large family of organizations specializing in matters ranging from culture to meteorology which must be studied in all continents and latitudes.
47. Peace is indivisible and in order to obtain a lasting peace it is essential to strike at the roots of war, at hunger, nakedness, ignorance, poverty and sickness. Considerable progress has been made through technical assistance administered or co-ordinated by the United Nations, but not enough has yet been done even to bring us within sight of the desired objective.
48. As far as Latin-America is concerned, and I am speaking particularly of Ecuador, we must state that we are receiving help and co-operation, but on a much smaller scale than what should be given if any serious effort is to be made to raise the standard of living of our people and to close the widening gap between means of production and means of sustenance.
49. In Central and South America there are vast expanses of arable land which have never been touched by the hand of man. I may quote the case of my country (or example, in which we have more than three million hectares of very rich soil which surveys and reports by qualified American and European technicians have compared to that of Java. Yet this soil remains virgin, although it is near the Pacific on the slopes of the western range of the Andes, facing the coast. In spite of all my Government’s efforts and the personal interest of the head of the State, very little has been accomplished in comparison with the magnitude of the task. A great highway from north to south will cut through this region, in which enterprising men will find a marvellous corner of the world where great fortunes can be made and where they can live protected by our laws, which give every guarantee to foreign capital finding honest investment in Ecuador.
50. The assistance which my Government is receiving for the completion of this tremendous highway project designed to link all the regions of Ecuador, formerly divided by geographical difficulties which have hindered our progress, is very little, I might almost say derisory. While a disproportionate excessive and growing share of military aid is given to peoples which may jeopardize the integrity or security of others, no regard is given to those who are making gigantic efforts to develop their own resources and who are not asking for charity but for co-operation by means of credit under conditions compatible with the economic situation of the country. We already have huge files full of technical, reports and plans but we have not as yet received the capital or machinery to carry them out.
51. To make the formation of credit institutions conditional on the results of the plan for universal disarmament is a cruel joke on the countries in the process of development. The discouraging report of the Commission entrusted with this delicate and complex problem will be discussed at this very session of the General Assembly. Despite the efforts made by the Western Powers to close the gap between the negotiators, nothing useful came out of the London meetings, except the conviction that the Soviet Union does not wish to negotiate on the question of disarmament and therefore takes up positions which it knows will not be accepted by the other members of the Commission.
52. We small Powers have no direct part in this process of negotiation for disarmament and are only spectators and, of course, possible victims of the failure of this generous effort, not only in the event of war but also while suffering under this peace which has come to be called the “cold war”. So long as no agreement is reached on disarmament, its chances of efficient economic aid are remote, and as there is not the vaguest hope of such agreement, we must be satisfied with the excellent advice showered on us in massive quantities to which the representative of Chile referred in masterly terms when speaking from this same rostrum [475th meeting-]. Our countries will have to develop by means of their own limited resources added to technical assistance which is on a very small scale in comparison with the assistance requested.
53. My delegation will attach most importance to proposals leading to economic co-operation, the improvement of standards of living and, in general, the development of our countries. The objects of this cooperation are not unilateral advantages, nor of course generous and free gifts, but mutual benefits; we want it to be a business transaction which will return the amount invested plus higher profits than those earned by capital in the developed countries.
54. We have already said [478th meeting], during the discussion of the agenda for this session, that one of our greatest assets is in the territorial sea, in the continental shelf and the land underlying this shelf which is the continuation under the sea of the national territory. The President of the Republic of Ecuador stated recently in a Press conference held at Quito: “Chile, Peru and Ecuador are aware of the importance of this natural resource and the advantages offered by its rational exploitation. For purposes of military defence, the European nations arbitrarily determined the limits which suited them. For the economic defence of the wealth of the sea, the South American nations are fully entitled to fix suitable limits in the light of experience, without prejudice to the freedom of the seas of other innocent purposes.”
55. This defines in a few words my country’s view of the law relating to these natural resources, formerly unknown and exploited by persons devoid of technical knowledge as a result of whose activities many species of great value in the international market have been threatened with extinction. Chile, Peru and Ecuador are proceeding in full agreement to defend their interests and are confident that the rights on which they rely will be respected within and outside our continent.
56. My delegation wishes warmly to congratulate the Secretary-General on the work he has accomplished in the reorganization of the Secretariat and the commissions and for the suggestions he submitted on this same subject to the Economic and Social Council at its last two sessions. A very desirable change in systems and methods of work is gradually taking place and, while producing appreciable savings in the expenditure of the United Nations, is at the same time resulting in more efficient and technically more perfect work without that flood of documentation, much of it unnecessary, which used to deluge the offices of delegations and Foreign Ministries. The personnel policy is further evidence of the wisdom, judgment and energy of the Secretary-General and will restore confidence in the devoted staff of the United Nations. The presence of the Secretary-General at the principal debates of the Economic and Social Council was commented upon favourably, and he was informed that his attendance had set a very useful precedent for the Council and for the Secretariat which should not be abandoned.
57. The representative of Uruguay said in his statement [481st meeting] that the doors of the United Nations should be kept open to any legitimate complaint on the part of its Member States. And in his annual report on the work of the Organization [A/2663, p. xi], the Secretary-General says: “. . . the importance of regional arrangements in the maintenance of peace is fully recognized in the Charter and the appropriate use of such arrangements is encouraged. But in those cases where resort to such arrangements is chosen in the first instance, that choice should not be permitted to cast any doubt on the ultimate responsibility of the United Nations. Similarly, a policy giving full scope to the proper role of regional agencies can and should at the same time fully preserve the right of a Member nation to a hearing under the Charter.”
58. The precedent established by the Security Council in the case of Guatemala is extremely dangerous inasmuch as it implies distorted interpretations of the Charter and in a way closes its doors to an American State applying to the Security Council for assistance when it feels that its case should be heard by that body. We are members and staunch supporters of the Organization of American States, but we cannot by any means agree that it has exclusive jurisdiction in a dispute such as the one I have just mentioned. My Government took a firm and fundamental position on this question and informed the Security Council accordingly in an official communication [3/3255]. We hope that there will be no more such negative decisions by the Council, lest the prestige of the Organization suffer and one of the fundamental objects of the Charter — protection against attack — become illusory or come too late.
59. My Government considers that the political system and internal structure of a State are by contrast with some other matters I have mentioned — questions exclusively within its domestic jurisdiction in which no intervention by a foreign Power should be tolerated. It recognizes of course the possibility that in a world of interdependent States, certain agreements should be worked out for warding off common dangers, such as the spread of Communist imperialism. Nevertheless, realizing the part played by the small Powers in world affairs, my Government does not believe it would be proper for it to adopt extreme attitudes wholly out of keeping with its true capacities. It will not associate itself with or support any proposal without previously analysing it first in the light of its own interests, and secondly in the light of those which are involved in regional and world problems. Its attitude will therefore be one of constant defence of the moral and legal principles which are the only strength of the weak.
60. In the General Committee my delegation supported the item proposed by the United States delegation concerning the development of the peaceful and scientific uses of atomic energy. The Soviet Union delegation’s support of the inclusion of the United States proposal on the agenda has met with widespread enthusiasm in international public opinion and there is hope that for once the two great Powers will act in agreement and that man may be able to use a force which in the past was thought to be God’s alone: the power to transform matter and to release the gigantic forces of the atom. President Eisenhower’s idea has met with a most auspicious reception. We shall also support the resolution to be proposed on this subject, a milestone in the realization of peace which will still cause so much anxiety and sorrow to those who have the honour and the heavy responsibility of guiding the destiny of mankind.