I give you the greetings of the Government and people of Liberia. In particular, I give you greetings from William V. S. Tubman, our beloved President, whose pronouncement on foreign policy at the time when he launched his administration, was made in these immortal words:
“The good neighbour policy enunciated and being propagated by the Government of the United States of America, upon whose system of government our own is modeled and whose friendship has heretofore been traditionally sympathetic, is now becoming more actual, dynamic and material. The provisions of the Atlantic Charter, formulated and attested to by the same great Government, as well as by the Government of Great Britain, seem to me to be so basically correct, just and broad that they are capable of uplifting mankind universally to the highest plane of freedom and self-determination; the only test is their belief in. and devotion to the principles made profert therein and their willingness to act and live in consonance with its grand and ideal provisions. These two nations have thereby attracted and attached me all the more to their general national and international aims, as well as by the fact of the democratic character of their national institutions, which would seem to dictate that the closest possible co-operation and collaboration with them and their allies should be sought by us and realized.
“We shall therefore aim at cultivating the closest possible friendly relations with those Governments and shall endeavour to identify ourselves most intimately with them in making practical the four freedoms: freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom from fear, and freedom from want, which they have proclaimed to the world and which we shall expect to apply in equal measure to ourselves.
“In seeking to effect this, mutual confidence must be created by the faithful and honest performance of obligations, by a solemn regard for engagements and by sacrifices and contributions to the fullest extent of our powers.”
Following up this commitment — the deeds bear evidence of full and eventual fruition — these words are a happy augury of the dawn of a new day in Liberia. They are the precursors of the attainment of the full stature of the greatest ideals man still strives for: liberty, equality, fraternity; they are also the precursors of those things which ensure the achievement of the standards set by almost the greatest charter of human liberty, the United Nations Charter, which is rivalled only by the Magna Carta, the Declarations of Independence of the United States of America and of the Republic of Liberia, and the Atlantic Charter, which enunciates the four freedoms, ideals indeed which are not only attainable but must be attained ere we have a lasting and abiding peace. For, so long as inequities and injustices exist on one of God’s broad acres, there will be no peace.
May I here and now declare that the simple but beautiful and altruistic words of the Preamble of our Charter state in succinct essence the dreams of great-souled and good men throughout the ages. Their achievement has been prevented by the base, the mean, the low-bred, the coward, the cheat, the dishonest, the gross, the ignorant men of varying low complexes, who believe they are better than others. They are the men who teach and practice intolerance, hatred, dissension, racism — ignoble men who have left in their wake suffering, murder, carnage, rape, slavery, human bondage, death, destruction, hell and damnation. They are no better than Hitler, Mussolini, Goebbels, Goering, Heydrich, Himmler and Julius Streicher, the Jew-baiter. These types constitute the problems which must claim consideration; for so long as they are permitted to pursue their course at an even tenor, there will be no peace.
How hard is it to dispose of such types? Abiding faith, as expressed in the Preamble of the Charter, in the fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small; the essential human requirements of practising tolerance, living together in peace with one another as good neighbours; the outlawing of the use of armed force or other forms of pressure; the promotion of the economic and social advancement of all peoples — all these are definitely means of solving this acute problem.
In addition, it will be necessary that sham, hypocrisy, make-believe, deception and some forms of what is called diplomacy be eliminated; that men face the hard facts of life, of justice and of fair play, of honour and dignity, of boldness and fearlessness, of insistence against wrong, injustice and advantage.
These things cannot be resolved over night. They require the greatest exercise of patience and of tolerance, the greatest effort and willingness to compromise, sympathize and understand the point of view of each other; the willingness to give and to take, the ignoring of petty differences in the effort to achieve the greatest good for the greatest number: I mean by this the preservation of the essential human rights, liberty, equality and fraternity.
I want to tell you that every single human creature is the object of God’s greatest interest and care, so that as long as one single shred of injustice exists on this globe there will be no peace. Only when every man regards his fellow man as entitled to justice, fair play and an opportunity to live, only when we ensure an even justice for all, shall there be peace. Only when we liberate all who are held in any form of bondage of the slightest degree, when every set of people, according to their ethnic group, shall determine how they prefer to live, will there be that lasting peace we all so much desire and talk about.
I believe that each time that an injustice is perpetrated by one person against another, punishment follows in some form, even if it takes time, so that when one group of people or one nation takes advantage of another, retribution follows, either from within or without, for that breach of the perfect law of God, as well as of those of mankind, products of the Divine within man. Sometimes the process is indirect, and each nation pays for its national or group sins either directly or indirectly. Have no fears, this is inexorable, inescapable. Whenever advantage is taken, it is paid for in some form, even if the course be circuitous.
The heroes and heroines of the two great wars fought for ideals which we, their representatives, seemed never truly to have appreciated, for, otherwise, we should consider war a serious business, and the means of preventing it would not be hedged in on so many sides by discrimination between right and wrong, insofar as their meaning is applicable in the world today, more specifically, between the weak and the strong, the small and the great.
I have never heard that the words “right” and “wrong” have two meanings. It is my opinion, in fact, my strong conviction, that wrong, no matter where found or in whom, is wrong; this is equally true of right. The United Nations should, therefore, have one yardstick by which to determine the actions of all nations, so that whoever is wrong is wrong, and whoever is right is right. When that is determined, the wrong should be immediately remedied and the right upheld.
I dare not criticize the combined wisdom of the nations of the world, but I am of the conviction that this great body must determine, once and for all, how it will proceed in the future against wrong.
It is my opinion that you, the great nations, should be the champions of the smaller ones; you should lend them sympathetic assistance and support; you should not interfere in their internal affairs unless you find them wholly incompatible with right; even then, your effort should be to help them; and I am certain that there is not a single small nation that would not immediately accept fair friendly advice and every form of sympathetic assistance.
I wish to conclude these remarks by praising the efforts of the good men and women and true, like Woodrow Wilson, David Lloyd George, Aristide Briand, Prince Nikolas, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, my hero and second greatest man in American history, Winston Churchill, General de Gaulle, Edith Cavell, Mrs. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the heroes of Stalingrad and particularly Marshal Zhukov, the heroes of Arnhem, the heroes of “D” Day, of Leyte, all those who fought on the home and battle fronts, those promising youths and maidens who laid down their lives as a never to be forgotten sacrifice for peace. They, both the living and the dead, are crying out loudly for peace. Shall we fail them on account of selfishness, on account of national self-interest, on account of rivalry, on account of unwillingness to understand each other, on account of the suppression of truth, on account of unwillingness to give and to take?
I do not believe that the combined intelligence of the world, as it worked together in war and won, cannot work together in peace and win.
Here, and at our respective homes, are the waiting peoples, waiting to settle down to true, happy and contented living — our beautiful and innocent children who again must die if we do not solve the problems of the peace. It can be done, it must be done, it will be done. You can do it, you must do it, you will do it.
To that end, I assure you, the Liberian Government and its delegation here are solemnly dedicated.