More than a year has elapsed since the United Nations came into being in America. Since its inception, the Organization has become somewhat larger and stronger. We fully share the hope that it will become stronger in the course of time. Arms and military might are powerful weapons, but the force of world opinion is far more potent. It may be defied for a time, but it cannot be flaunted always and forever. The study of mankind contains countless instances of this fact. The final victor in every type of strife is invariably the conscience of the world and justice, which is its divine source.
It has been said that the League of Nations was a failure. This statement may be true, but perhaps it is not quite complete. The League of Nations was a stepping-stone. We have today created a more highly developed and a more universal realization of the ideal for which it stood. The aspirations which took their early shape in the League of Nations, the conception of replacing individual power and individual security by collective security, have, amidst the ups and downs of the events of the last quarter of a century, nevertheless steadily followed their course of development. These goals will doubtless be attained. Turkey is not among the pessimists who harbour doubts as to the future of this Organization. With courage, with determination and with faith, we look forward to the predestined success of the United Nations.
I express these feelings under the deep impression which I received from President Truman’s great speech. The President of the United States said, and I quote:
“The United States will support the United Nations with all the resources that we possess. The use of force or the threat of force anywhere in the world to break the peace is of direct concern to the American people.”
These words are a strong guarantee of peace in the world and of the triumph of the United Nations.
I am anxious to abide by the recommendation of our President, Mr. Spaak, for brief speeches. I will therefore avoid details and will confine myself to mentioning a point related to principles. In the opinion of the Turkish delegation, the prime requisite for accelerating the success of the Organization is conformity between words and deeds. If we have on the one side, the ideal of the Charter and, on the other side, a manifestation of various political events which are in no way compatible with that ideal, the distance which separates the United Nations from their goal will surely have been increased.
By the same token, the veto should not be allowed to constitute a recurrent obstacle to the settlement of disputes. The acceptance of the, veto by the nations represented at San Francisco was based upon such an implied condition. The path of freedom is one and indivisible, and justice has but one measure. If these two axioms are followed with sincere impartiality, the problem of the veto will have solved itself.
The political and social existence of mankind has always in the long run been based upon the will of the majority. There is no reason why the veto should constitute an exception to this rule. Nevertheless, if, for a period of transition, it may not be found possible to eliminate the veto entirely, we should at least consider the means of limiting the field of its application.
The time has come to remove the concepts of right and justice from their abstract state in text and speeches and to bring them in to the realm of reality and action. The eyes of the past and the future are upon you. Turkey has done her share in the endeavour to attain the United Nations ideal, which is the highest manifestation of civilization. She will continue to do her part.