The activities of the United Nations, which are the subject of our debate, have as yet been of too short duration to enable us to draw any essential conclusions as to their general character.
In fact, both the Secretary-General’s report, and that of the Security Council, only deal with the first brief period of our work together — the most difficult period, when the United Nations, labouring under the handicaps of a nomadic life, had not yet been able to solve its administrative problems. It was, above all, a preliminary period, when all had not yet learned that our Organization, according to Article 1 of the Charter, should be “a centre for harmonizing the actions of nations” for the attainment of their common ends.
Our greatest achievement to date, or rather the one which constitutes our capital stock, is the fact that our young Organization has become, for all peoples, a real source of hope for lasting peace and friendly co-operation among Governments.
No words of mine can express the great hopes that the United Nations has aroused in the people of Poland, who suffered such enormous losses during the war and during the horrible nazi occupation. To every Pole, the United Nations represents the common interest in maintaining peace, and, therefore, the primary interest of the Polish people.
We have learned from the second world war that peace is indivisible and collective, and that, if it is threatened in any part of the world, the security, peace and freedom of our people are also threatened.
We have learned that only the common effort of all nations, great and small, can maintain and ensure peace; but we have also learned that although, in this hall, we all have the same rights and duties, equal opportunities and equal participation in the decisions of war are not open to us all; and that, consequently, the part we play in maintaining peace varies from one nation to another.
We consider that our Organization is based on the co-operation of the great Powers, that cooperation which was the primary factor in victory and the liberation of mankind, and which today must become the primary factor in maintaining peace.
Is it not evident that all the United Nations share this opinion? Were this not so, would they have signed the Charter which provides that only the great Powers shall be permanent Members of the Security Council, our key instrument in the struggle for peace, and which imposes special obligations on these Powers, thus giving them a special importance within our Organization?
It is precisely for this reason that Poland has opposed, and will continue to oppose, all attempts to divide the great Powers and to create coalitions of nations directed one against the other.
For this reason also, Poland has opposed and will continue to oppose all attempts to interfere with the voting procedure within the Security Council. We consider that the significance of this procedure lies in the fact that it compels the great Powers to seek mutual understanding, to search for what unites them, not what divides them.
It is from this very procedure, a sort of political and legal apotheosis of co-operation and unanimity of the great Powers, that springs the hope derived by all mankind from the United Nations,
Is it not obvious that, not only the small Powers, but especially the great Powers refuse to accept decisions affecting their destiny which are taken in spite of themselves by a fortuitous majority, such as might be formed by the concurrence of nations which frequently remain aloof, remote from great struggles and historic upheavals?
We cannot abandon the principle of unanimity of the great Powers. Should we do so, we should destroy the very foundation of the structure which, at the cost of such great effort, we have just begun to erect!
This, also, is the reason why Poland supports everything in the Charter that compels the great Powers to seek unanimity. It is the reason why, at the Paris Conference, we voted for the principle of the two-thirds majority and against that of a simple, a haphazard, majority.
What we were, and are still, aiming at, is the enlargement of what might be called the sum total of agreement among all the nations.
The Polish delegation, however, has not limited itself, in its constant struggle for peace, to proclaiming and maintaining the principle of unanimity among the great Powers.
Poland adopted the principle that fascism means war, a principle which has been only too dramatically established in recent years; that is why, having fought on all fronts, on land, on sea and in the air, as well as underground, and having suffered most cruelly of all the nations invaded by the Hitler-fascists, Poland has brought the Spanish question before the Security Council.
The echo that went round the world when Poland raised her voice, provides a striking proof of the extreme urgency of this issue.
Is it not a paradox, and a cruel paradox, that long after world opinion has condemned the greatest fascist criminals, Hitler and Mussolini, and after justice has been done, their creature, Franco, should still be in power, oppressing the people of Spain and endangering the peoples of other countries, propagating fascism and scoffing at our efforts towards peace?
We hope that the United Nations will no longer tolerate the intolerable, and will put an end to a situation that may jeopardize the very principles we all wish to see established in the world.
The Polish delegation applauds and welcomes with respect the report of the Secretary-General, in which he deals with the Spanish question with deep insight and an equally deep concern that the United Nations should really fulfil its purpose in the struggle for peace and security. Mr. Trygve Lie has rightly said that the fascist survivors want war and revenge. There is no doubt that by crushing fascism in Spain we should be taking a great step towards maintaining world peace. The Polish delegation notes with satisfaction the position taken up by the Secretary-General, and welcomes it as an expression of that political initiative to which he is entitled under the Charter.
Ours is not the unhappy tradition of the League of Nations, where the Secretary-General was a mere official in charge of administrative matters, and not the guardian of peace, justice and international co-operation.
However, the Polish delegation is regretfully obliged to observe that fascist Spain is not the only European country where the pernicious and criminal ideas of Hitler are still alive, The Polish people view with anxiety the chauvinist leanings towards revenge that are tolerated in certain parts of Germany.
The Polish people derived deep satisfaction from the fact that, for the first time in history, an international tribunal condemned to death the leading war criminals. But we are afraid that the ideas these criminals have implanted in the German people, poisoning their minds for a long time to come, may revive again in the country which so easily became the world centre of fascism.
We cannot allow the hope of dividing the great Powers, whose unity made victory possible, to revive German military aspirations and thirst for revenge, and to raise once more before us the spectre of German aggression.
We all live and work with two objectives in mind: to maintain peace and to rebuild war devastation. Allow me to emphasize the fact that these two objectives are one and the same.
We have not all undergone the same ravages of war, and it is fortunate that so many nations escaped the sufferings to which the people of Poland were subjected. But I must also state that the reconstruction of devastated countries must not, in the future, become the exclusive task of those who have been most cruelly affected, any more than it has been in the past.
Not only for humanitarian reasons, but also in their own interests, those countries that suffered little or no damage and have benefited from this fact during the initial post-war period, must give help to the devastated countries. This is essential if we are to advance in step together, towards a better future. This is essential if we are to re-establish markets for those countries that lost little or nothing of their productive capacity through the war. And it is essential if we are to keep faith with the millions who died fighting for us all.
The storm of war is over, but hundreds of thousands of human derelicts, stranded like wrecks, still await our help. The problem of displaced persons should be solved in such a way as not to become a weapon in the hands of those who, for political reasons, are trying to delay the repatriation of these unfortunate people. The international assistance they must receive should be directed first and foremost to hastening their repatriation, so that they can return to their families as soon as possible, and help to rebuild their homes.
This should be the aim of any international assistance within the framework of the reconstruction of devastated countries, rather than artificial support of bankrupt good-for-nothings, who are bound to disappear from the political scene.
The eyes of the world are on us now. It is not only the peoples whose accredited representatives are here present who look to us with hope and confidence, but also tens of millions of human beings who, in many countries, are not recognised as human beings at all.
We consider that the Trusteeship Council, the establishment of which is impatiently awaited by the whole world, should begin its work by exposing the hypocrisy concealed in certain statements. Fine words about liberty and democracy, coming from the lips of those who treat the so- called “colonial” peoples in such barbaric fashion, are an insult to humanity.
Of all independent peoples, perhaps the Poles know best how far racial hatred can lead. Six million Polish citizens were murdered in the gas chambers of Oswiecim, Majdanek and Treblinka, merely because they were supposed to belong to an “inferior race.”
It was with, deep emotion that we heard the Secretary-General say, in this Assembly, that millions of people expect us to apply the principles that will grant them equality and human rights.
When we establish the Trusteeship Council, let us think of those millions who are most oppressed, and who are looking to us with hope. And let us not forget that, in our own countries, millions are listening to us; good, simple people who say what they think and call mere talk and hypocrisy by their proper names.
Future generations will not judge us by what we say here about the basic equality of man without distinction of race or nationality, but by what we accomplish.
We are not discouraged by momentary failures or the temporary lack of agreement and unanimity within the Security Council. We are confident that this will change, because mankind wants understanding, not disagreement; prosperity, not poverty; peace, not bloodshed. We are not disturbed by an exchange of conflicting opinions, sharp though it may be, for such is the normal democratic usage in international life.
We hope and believe that the great Powers, on whom so much depends, will, with the help of the United Nations, find a common language, a common path to lead us towards prosperity and human happiness. Is it not for this that we have met together?
No people in the world, no Government, has a monopoly of political wisdom, democracy or political ideas. No Government can claim the exclusive title of leader of mankind.
It is only in unison, that we can accomplish this great task; it is only in unison that we can win the peace as we have won the war. This idea was bequeathed to us by the great President Roosevelt. We believe that the United Nations and its principal organ, the Security Council, will achieve this historic purpose.
The Polish delegation will do everything within its limited means to bring about the unity of nations so sorely needed by the world.