Mr. President, first of all permit me to extend to you the most heartfelt congratulations of the Austrian, delegation. We are, together with all the other delegations in this hall, most gratified that ai mad enjoying such a high reputation as a statesman and jurist, a man of such great wisdom and experience, is occupying the highest office in this Assembly at such an important session as the present one.
145. I should also like to avail myself of this opportunity to express my warmest thanks to the Acting Secretary-General for having taken the not inconsiderable trouble, during his fatiguing journey, to include a visit to the capital of my country. In Vienna he had the opportunity of engaging in valuable talks with the Federal President and members of the Federal Government.
146. Although we are still so grievously and deeply smitten at the loss of Dag Hammarskjold, we can consider ourselves fortunate that we have succeeded in finding a man who is not only the representative of one of the world's most ancient peoples of culture but who has also earned great respect and great admiration, even during the short time he has been in office, by the acuteness of his judgement, by his balanced personality and by his realistic attitude.
147. Austria is one of the smaller countries of the world and, like all the others, is therefore particularly interested to see the work of the United Nations crowned with success. Its work can be successful only if it has a Secretariat that operates effectively. But there can be such a Secretariat only if it is headed by a Secretary-General with unequivocal and clear- cut powers, who is not constantly obstructed in the execution of his duties.
148. The United Nations also requires the financial resources to enable it to carry out its important tasks. Although Austria is faced with substantial obligations arising out of various post-war treaties and because of the fact that our country was not spared the devastation of the war, the Federal Government, nevertheless, has not turned a deaf ear to the Acting Secretary-General's appeal and has accepted Austria's quota of United Nations bonds.
149. So far as the Special Fund and technical assistance are concerned, the Austrian Federal Government Will gladly fulfil its obligations particularly because it is fully aware of the beneficial activities of these two important fields of United Nations activity.
150. The United Nations conference on consular relations is scheduled to be held next year in Vienna, and I can assure you that the Austrian Federal Government and all the authorities concerned will do everything in their power to provide proper facilities for this conference.
151. I also want to express my thanks for the confidence displayed in my country by the election of the Permanent Representative of Austria to the United Nations, Mr. Franz Matsch, as Chairman of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space. We are all aware of the great importance of outer space research and we are very grateful to those States which have become the great explorers of our age in this field for the material sacrifices they have made and the energy they have expended.
152. The Permanent Representative of the United States to the United Nations, Mr. Adlai Stevenson, was completely right when, speaking on this subject a few days ago [1125th meeting], he put the question in the following clear terms: "But what does it profit if a few men orbit the earth while below them millions are starving?" Recently at Detroit, I myself said in a lecture that fate will not look kindly upon us unless, at the same time as we set course for the stars, we also do everything possible to make life on Our planet worth living for all.
153. The Austrian Federal Government has already expressed its great interest in the activities of the Economic and Social Council. We sincerely hope that all Member States will support our candidacy, and we wish to thank those who have already indicated their intention of doing so.
154. Austria is today engaged in becoming a welfare State which will embody its efforts to achieve both social security and individual freedom. In its social legislation it often tries to venture into new paths.
155. We are very familiar with the problems of economic development from our own bitter experience. We are engaged in making our country a modern industrial State. Many of our technicians are at work today in several States of Africa and Asia. But even more important is the fact that approximately 6,000 students from developing countries are studying in Austria, including 563 from the United Arab Republic and 733 from Iran alone.
156. Development: problems arouse particular interest in public and private circles in Austria. For example, in the summer of this year, a conference on such problems was held at Salzburg, in which eminent experts from thirty-four countries of Asia, Africa, America and Europe participated. I hope that the delegations will very soon be able to acquaint themselves with the interesting document that was prepared there.
157. If, therefore, Austria is honoured by being elected to the Economic and Social Council, it will carry out this task with devotion and respect for the purposes of that organ of the United Nations.
158. At its sixteenth session, the General Assembly adopted a resolution proclaiming a United Nations Development Decade [resolution 1710 (XVI)]. Member States are asked to intensify their efforts to mobilize and to sustain support for the measures required to accelerate progress towards economic growth in the developing countries, taking, as the objective a minimum annual rate of growth of aggregate national income of 5 per cent at the end of the Decade. By this resolution, Member States and members of the specialized agencies are called upon to pursue policies designed to enable the less developed countries sell their products at stable and remunerative prices and thus to finance increasingly their own economic development. They are also called upon to pursue policies that will lead to an increase in the flow of development resources and to adopt measures which will stimulate the flow of private investment capital on mutually acceptable terms.
159. As early as 1960, the Economic Commission for Europe prepared a very commendable study on this problem and came to the conclusion that the estimated import requirements of the developing countries for 1980 would amount to approximately 860,000 million. When one considers that, in 1960, these countries sold a total of $19,000 million worth, of goods, the full magnitude of this problem becomes apparent.
160, We are convinced that the modern, rich, industrial States must make considerable efforts and that all those that are in a position to do so must make part of their national income available to those nations which today are experiencing great difficulty,, in satisfying the most urgent needs of their citizens. But a real and lasting rise in the standard of living can be achieved only if the relations between the industrial States and the developing countries are based to a greater extent on a genuine economic partnership.
161. The developing countries require rich markets where they can sell their commodities at prices acceptable to them. Again, the industrial” States must develop their production in such a way that their national income becomes ever greater and it thus becomes increasingly easier for them to make a corresponding part of this national income available to other peoples.
162. In this connexion, economic integration has a prominent part to play so far as Europe is concerned. In 1960, the Western European States alone absorbed as much as $12,000 million worth of the developing countries total exports of $19,000million. A larger consumer market is possible only through the economic integration of Western Europe. Such integration will strengthen "the economies of the European nations and also enable them to participate to a greater extent in the development programmes of other States.
163. As the representative of a country, which, while observing its strict neutrality, is desirous of participating in European integration, I wish to assure you on this occasions that the States which Wish to create a large common market in Europe, in which the countries of the European Economic Community as well as the countries of the European Free Trade Association would participate, are far from pursuing objectives based on power politics or military designs.
164. Occasionally we hear it said that the, United Nations finds itself in a crisis because the number of smaller States has become so great since San Francisco. It is my opinion that the principle of one State, one Member, one vote, must remain intact because it is a fundamentally democratic principle. The large States have many other possibilities of throwing their weight into the balance of world politics.
165. It Is the obligation of all of us who hold by the principle of equality in the United Nations to do everything in our power to prevent the United Nations from becoming a field of manoeuvres for political propaganda, it is precisely the small States which must realize the significance of their responsibility in every vote,
166. I have already mentioned that the United Nations has a particular significance for the smaller countries. Thus Austria has been submitting during the past two years, in order to facilitate a solution, one of its most important problems — the South Tyrol question — to this forum.
167. Since the last session of the General Assembly, new possibilities of a development in the South Tyrol question seem to have emerged. The Austrian Federal Government has been endeavouring to avoid anything that could hamper a favourable development. It has, therefore, desisted from requesting the inclusion of the South Tyrol question in the agenda of this year's session. But I do not want to conceal the fact that this attitude has not found general approval in Austria at all.
168. The dispute over South Tyrol has not yet been settled, and the resolutions adopted by the General Assembly at the fifteenth session [resolution 1497 (XV)] and the sixteenth session [resolution 1661 (XVI)], in which the two parties were Called upon to resume the negotiations with a view to finding a solution for all differences relative to the implementation of the Paris, agreement of 5 September 1946, have not been fulfilled.
169. The Austrian Government, therefore, regards it as its duty to inform the General Assembly of the present status of this problem as it appears to it. This report seems all the more appropriate as in the Special Political Committee, forty speakers at the fifteenth session and thirty-four speakers at the sixteenth session took the floor on the subject. This great interest shown in the South Tyrol question has been and is undoubtedly of enormous influence for a favourable development of the problem. In the debates in the Special Political Committee the Austrian delegation explained in every detail the historical background and all the problems of the South Tyrol question.
170. In 1919, as a result of the First World War, South Tyrol was separated from Tyrol, and even today this loss is felt very heavily in Austria. On 5 September 1946, the so-called Paris agreement was concluded between the Austrian and the Italian Governments, which was supposed to bring about a system of measures to assure to the German-speaking South Tyroleans "Complete equality of rights with the Italian-speaking inhabitants" of the Province of Bozen in order "to safeguard the ethnical character and the cultural and economic development of the German speaking element". This quotation from the Paris agreement was also inserted in the preamble of General Assembly resolution 1497 (XV).
171. Between Austria and Italy a dispute over the implementation of the Paris agreement has arisen — the Austrian side being of the opinion that only the granting of autonomy Jo lie Province of Bozen, as proposed by the South Tyrol representatives in both houses of, the Italian Parliament, would do justice to the spirit and the letter of the Paris agreement.
172. This opinion seems to the Austrian Government c to be all the more appropriate since this autonomy should apply to a territory exactly circumscribed in the Paris agreement. The fact that special autonomy was also granted to other regions in Italy, such as Sicily', shows dearly that such a solution is in accordance with the principles of the Italian Constitution without impairing the integrity of the Italian State.
173. Since it proved impossible to agree on this problem through diplomatic channels, the Austrian Government decided to submit the question to the General Assembly fifteenth session.
174. I would like to recall that already on 21 September 1959, I had announced in my speech before the General Assembly at the fourteenth session [800th meeting] that Austria would be compelled to take this step should it not be possible by other means to achieve satisfactory living conditions for a minority of 250,000 living closely together in a country of 50 million inhabitants,
175. Today I would like to spare you a description of the bilateral negotiations between Austria and Italy, conducted during 1961 in accordance with the mandate in General Assembly resolution 1497 (XV); and I shall therefore confine myself to informing you why we believe that in the past year a certain development in a favourable direction has emerged.
176. In the fall of 1961, the Italian Government, obviously under the impression, that a solution of the problem of the South Tyrolean minority had become more and more urgent, decided to appoint a special committee which was instructed to study the question, of South Tyrol and to submit the results of these studies to the Government. This committee, finally established by Government decree of 1 September 1961, consists of seven South Tyrolean members, one Ladin and eleven Italian representatives. Originally the composition of the committee had been envisaged on the basis of parity.
177. Although fully aware that this step constituted an internal Italian measure, the Austrian Government has sincerely welcomed it, since it represents the first attempt by an Italian Government since the incorporation of the South Tyrol, into Italy, in 1919, to arrive at a solution of the problem in direct consultations with the elected representatives of the minority. The special committee embarked upon the substance of its task in the late autumn of last year. Since then it has been possible to arrive at a compromise in a number of questions. However, many questions, and among them the most important ones, still remain without solution. As far as I know, recommendations of the committee require the consent of the Italian Government in order to be implemented, and in so far as their Implementation necessitates legislative measuring, also the consent of the Italian Parliament. You will thus understand that the establishment of this committee is only a beginning — but surely a beginning which deserves our favourable comment.
178. Approximately at the same time, an encouraging development in the South Tyrol question took place Within the Council of Europe. The Political Committee of the Consultative Assembly decided to establish a Sub-Committee under the chairmanship of the President of the Belgian Senate, Mr. Paul Struye. In January 1962, Mr. Struye went to Vienna and to Rome on an information trip, and during his visit to Rome he also established direct contacts with the representatives of the Trentino-South Tyrol Region,
179. The Austrian Government, on its own initiative, has done everything to promote the favourable development which was taking shape, and it was only after no final result emerged in spring 1962 that the Austrian Government, on 8 March 1962, proposed to the Italian Government that bilateral negotiations be resumed, in pursuance of the resolutions of the General Assembly, This proposal was reiterated on 19 April 1962. On 13 June 1962, the Italian Government finally expressed its readiness for a meeting of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs in July of that year.
180. In the negotiations which were held at Venice on 31 July 1962, it was agreed not to request the inclusion of the South Tyrol problem in the agenda of the seventeenth session of the General Assembly, in order to enable the Italian study committee to complete its task. The result of the committee's work is to be considered, after the Italian, Government has stated its position on these results, at a further meeting of the Foreign Ministers later this autumn. Furthermore, it was agreed that in the meantime both delegations would report to the Assembly, during the general debate at the seventeenth session, on how the South Tyrol resolutions had so far been implemented.
181. The Austrian Government trusts that it will be possible to resume the bilateral negotiations within the shortest possible time, and that by then the essential points will have been settled within the Italian study committee. The solution of all questions which might then still be open would-be attempted in negotiations on the substance of those questions.
182. The meeting in Venice has led to an improvement of the climate of the negotiations, a fact which the Austrian Government acknowledges with satisfaction. The Austrian Government trusts, however, that this development will also have its influence on the situation in the Province of Bozen and will lead to those alleviating consequences which the South Tyroleans desire.
183. The General Assembly in its resolution 1497 (XV) has included provisions for, the case in which the negotiations do not lead to satisfactory results. I do hope, however, that it will not be necessary to have recourse to paragraph 2 of the operative part of that resolution. The Austrian Government acknowledges with satisfaction that sincere attempts arty being made on the Italian side, also, to arrive at a solution of the problem. However, the Austrian Government feels obliged to stress that only a comprehensive solution can be the basis of an enduring settlement.
184. The Austrian Government has no interest whatsoever in seeing the South Tyrol problem remain the object of further disputes between Austria and Italy. The Austrian Government is interested in a settlement which will make such disputes superfluous. Over the past years the spirit of European co-operation has brought the peoples of Europe much closer together — and this is particularly true of those peoples which had been separated by century-old quarrels. The Austrian Government is convinced that this same spirit of European co-operation will also show its beneficial influence in the near future for those people who live on both sides of the Austro-Italian border.
185. The fact that the General Assembly at its fifteenth and sixteenth sessions adopted resolutions recommending a solution of the differences existing between Austria and Italy; the establishment of the Italian study committee; and finally the initiative taken by the Council of Europe: all these facts are viewed by the, Austrian Government as encouraging signs which prove that it has been possible to attract universal interest, in the South Tyrol problem.
186. If we succeed in finding a solution of the South Tyrol problem satisfactory to all concerned, we shall have created new and improved political and economic conditions for a quarter of a million people. But beyond that, Italy and Austria, in their determination not to deviate from peaceful and unbiased negotiations, will have acted in the spirit of the Charter of the United Nations.