57. On behalf of the Republic of Honduras, Mr. President, allow me to congratulate you on being elected to preside over the meetings of this Assembly. My delegation feels certain that your great talents will contribute to the productiveness of this session and to the fulfilment of the hopes we place in it.
58. We wish also to extend a most cordial welcome to the new nations admitted to the United Nations. We offer to them the unconditional friendship of our country, together with our best wishes for their prosperity.
59. The items demanding our attention at this seventeenth session of the General Assembly are numerous and varied. Old unresolved problems, and new problems of a most difficult nature, will challenge our patience and our intelligence. But every new session of the General Assembly opens the way for hopes that are each year renewed.
60. Given the strict time-limit we have imposed upon ourselves, it would be impossible for each of us to comment on every item of the agenda. I shall therefore merely make brief references to some of the problems which Honduras regards as of major importance.
61. Because of our faith in the United Nations and our conviction that it is an irreplaceable instrument for peace and progress, we are profoundly concerned over the crisis through which our Organization is passing — a financial crisis, to be sure, but basically in institutional crisis which reflects the even deeper crisis enveloping the present-day world. It is true that the undaunted efforts of Mr. Hammarskjold and the no less resolute endeavours of U Thant — to which we pay tribute — have helped to strengthen the United Nations and enabled it to overcome the mortal dangers which have threatened its existence. But it now rests with the Members of the Organization themselves to demonstrate their sense of responsibility and their political flexibility, through the adoption of decisions which will again place the Organization on firm economic and moral ground — for only thus will the United Nations be able to perform effectively the duties assigned to it by the Charter.
62. The presence, in this hall, of an increasing number of delegations from former colonial countries is a heartening sign. The colonial system is rapidly disappearing, and the former colonies are today responsible States which are endeavouring to achieve accelerated economic, technological and cultural growth. The face of the world is changing with dizzying speed, and Asia and Africa are providing the clearest evidence of this process.
63. The great industrial Powers of the West are likewise undergoing rapid change, the birth of new economic and political constellations accompanying the rise within them of a new social and humanitarian spirit, in which they rediscover their oldest and most precious traditions while at the same time maintaining their ideal of liberty and giving historic reality to that ideal through the liberation of entire peoples. The communist world, too, is undergoing changes and transformations, opening up pathways to new freedoms and broader perspectives; we find symbolic evidence of this in the fact that the name of Einstein, once scorned in the Soviet Union, is now respected there, while the music of Igor Stravinsky, once considered bourgeois and decadent, is today heard in Moscow.
64. It is likewise heartening that it has been possible to carry through such international endeavours as the International Geophysical Year and the research conducted in the Arctic by Western and Soviet scientists working, often, in close collaboration. Nuclear physicists — the men who best know the dangers to humanity implicit in their science — have met in numerous conferences of scientists from both East and West, at which agreement has usually prevailed. Writers and thinkers from both camps have on many occasions expressed their desire to attain mutual understanding and to work together for the building of a new world.
65. But while It is true that natural evolution is eliminating or attenuating old problems, or offering novel solutions for them, it is equally true that fresh problems are arising — problems even more formidable in character, and for which new solutions are required. Many countries which once formed political entities are now divided, while in many parts of the world internal discord is increasing together with the dangers of armed conflict and bloodshed. If one problem such as that of Algeria has been resolved — to the joy of the whole world — others remain, Germany, for instance, is still denied the promised opportunity of deciding its own national destiny freely and democratically, despite the victors' solemn pledge to respect the principle of self-determination of peoples and although the Charter, in its very first Article, proclaims this principle and demands respect for it.
66. While on the one hand Indonesia and the Netherlands are coming to terms, on the other there is even greater divergency between the great nuclear Powers with regard to those problems which are uppermost in the minds of men, which are increasingly reflected in the agendas of the General Assembly, and which have already been the subject of angry words in this Hall.
67. The clouds that loured upon the last session of the Assembly have not been dispersed; in some areas they have become even darker. For years now we have been talking at great length about disarmament and peaceful coexistence, but the inescapable fact is that some peoples are being sent large quantities of weapons and encouraged to use them against others. Passions are being stirred up rather than calmed. Not only have nuclear tests not been suspended, they have been periodically intensified, the explosions becoming more powerful and reaching greater heights in the atmosphere.
68. The "cold war" has not subsided; it has, in some ways, grown more intense. Armaments have not been reduced, but are daily being made more accurate and quicker and deadlier in their effect. It is pointless to try to calm our minds and allay our fears by representing ourselves as noble defenders of peace and the other camp as fiendish war-mongers. Our arguments and justifications, our reasons and excuses will be of little avail if this dramatic period in human history finally ends with the destruction of towns and nations, with the incineration of men and women and with the disappearance of that hope which is constantly reborn in children and in nature,
69. For the first time in history the leaders of the two most powerful States in the world have publicly agreed that general and complete disarmament in their nations and throughout the world must be effected. Yet, in total contradiction with their expressed desires, we continue to advance towards a catastrophic end, depicted so variously in scientific and literary works, in film and in drama — an end towards which we are moving as though we were victims of the blind forces of Greek tragedy.
70. In a speech delivered in late 1959 and reproduced in The Strategy of Peace. Mr. Kennedy, now President of the United States, stated the following: "Already our total destructive capacity is sufficient to annihilate the enemy twenty-five times over — he has the power to destroy us ten times. Between us we are in a position to exterminate all human life seven times over." What would the situation be now, three years later, with the further formidable development of nuclear weapons? Even if we had seven lives, our chances of surviving a thermo-nuclear war would not be very great.
71. The Federal Civil Defense Administration of the United States has declared that a 2,000-megaton attack on the United States would produce the following effects in less than one week: 47 per cent of the population would perish, 15 per cent would suffer injury and sickness and 38 per cent would be unhurt, although many of the latter would succumb later in the process of moving about, consuming contaminated food and water, etc. If that were the result of a relatively small attack, we can readily imagine the consequences of an attack ten or fifteen times stronger. But so much has been written on this subject and on the possibility of thermo-nuclear war occurring by accident or miscalculation that we need not labour the point here.
72. Regarding the possibility of "winning" what is called the "cold war", we must examine the meaning of the word "winning". Does winning the cold war mean reducing the other side to such a state of desperation that it resorts to a hot war, a thermo-nuclear war, as a last, suicidal course? Does winning the war of nerves mean causing one's adversary to lose his senses and send his countless messengers of death into the air?
73. The efficacy of threats is steadily decreasing. Statesmen are no longer disturbed by repeated warnings from their adversaries that nuclear war is imminent unless they agree to do this or refrain from doing that. A few may think it best to yield to a vigorous opponent; but the majority of nations, as we see, prefer to take the chance, even to risk destruction.
74. What then are we to do? Maintain the former attitudes which are bringing us to the edge of the abyss, to try every possible new formula? As the President of the United States said last year in this very hall [1013th meeting], "Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind".
75. It is no secret that huge amounts of human and material resources are being expended on so-called defence efforts which, as the leaders of the great Powers themselves admit, in the last analysis have nothing but mutual destruction in view. But we are not making the same economic and intellectual efforts to build and consolidate peace. True, the United Nations exists; but it is not yet well enough equipped, economically and scientifically, to determine the real, the effective means which in the present world situation could be used to ease tensions, to place modern science and technology in the service of peace, and to create a stable and balanced world — a renewed world of human beings in which knowledge is used to promote not death but life.
76. As early as 1945, at the dawn of the atomic era, Einstein asserted that "a new type of thinking is essential if mankind is to survive and move towards higher levels in 1948 he said; "The 'cliches' of yesterday will no longer do today, and will, no doubt, be hopelessly out of date tomorrow. To bring this home to men all over the world is the most important and most fateful social task intellectuals have ever had to shoulder,"
77. In 1955 another great atomic physicist, Leo Szilard, expressed the view that new political and social inventions were needed to found an organized world community capable of living permanently in peace. Quite recently the Canadian nuclear physicist. Dr. Alcock, stated that, in the consideration of matters relating to disarmament and peace, not only was the scientific method not being used taut no method at all was being employed. He pointed out that while 90 per cent of the total funds invested in research went to the physical sciences, only 9 per cent went to the biological sciences and less than 1 per cent to the social sciences. It is therefore not surprising that we should have made such fabulous progress in the building of armaments, and so little in the building of the new and stable institutions of peace which the atomic age and the survival of our species require.
78. Yet it is true that scientists, writers and thinkers from East and West have made fairly frequent and fruitful contact with each other, as at the Conferences on Science and World Affairs which have been organized from time to time. Just over a year ago, one of these Conferences — held at Stowe, Vermont — was attended by nearly fifty eminent scientists from the United States, the Soviet Union and other countries of the East and the West, who agreed that all other dangers were minute compared with those presented by total nuclear war.
79. The Conferences — which, in order to avoid propaganda publicity, were held in private — recommended the establishment of a special mixed group of experts to study problems such as the organization of world security forces, the development of international law, the adoption of standards to ensure the effectiveness of peaceful coexistence, the creation of international tribunals and the strengthening of the United Nations. It was thought necessary for this purpose to set up study groups under the auspices of non-governmental organizations such as the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the USSR Academy of Sciences.
80. Among other topics suggested for study were the elaboration of methods for dealing with ideological conflicts arising from social upheavals instigated and abetted from abroad, the control of recent scientific discoveries capable of creating new hazards in a disarmed world, the development of a body of international criminal law, the protection of the rights of States against abuses of power by international bodies, and the restriction of propaganda directed against other nations or particular races. Working groups of the Conferences considered various matters connected with disarmament, and proposals were put forward for a joint United States and Soviet Union programme of outer space exploration, for a world oceanographic study, for a programme to identify and utilize the mineral resources of the seas, for the establishment of a world cancer institute, etc.
81. Messages of encouragement and support were sent to the Conference — and this is significant — by the President of the United States, Mr. Kennedy, and by the Prime Minister of the Soviet Union, Mr. Khrushchev. And both the Soviet and United States scientists subscribed to a declaration affirming that the principal goal of the Conference was to find ways of avoiding the misuse of science for the wholesale destruction of mankind.
82. I may say that the Spanish-speaking world has not remained aloof from this endeavour to find a new framework for human coexistence adapted to our age and to modern science. As long ago as 1922, the Spanish philosopher Jos6 Ortega y Gasset pointed out that since the beginning of our century new trends of thought had begun to appear on man's intellectual horizon, creating a system of ideas peculiar to the twentieth century and in sharp contrast with the scientific notions of the previous era. In 1950, another Spanish writer and philosopher, Rafael Rodríguez Delgado, in his work Introduccion a una Filosofia de la Era Atomica, published at Havana, noted that existing antagonisms between large human groups were endangering the existence of the human species, and advised the creation of an economic and ideological structure adjusted to the new era through the discovery of new principles for coexistence and for the transformation of relationships between groups. Mankind, he said, must escape from the "polarizations" established in the course of history — masters and servants, saints and sinners, capitalists and proletarians — and bring about the synthesis of "integrated man", capable of controlling natural forces through machines, physically strong, technically efficient, morally robust and intellectually developed. "The possible solutions for overcoming the present crisis", he argued, "must be total and must encompass all man's relations with his environment and all relations between human groups, giving rise to the birth of a new culture".
83. In 1954 the Sociedad Venezolana de Sintesis (Venezuelan Society for Synthesis) was formed in Venezuela; its members included distinguished thinkers and scientists, such as the biologist Dr. Augusto Pi Suñer, who was awarded the Kalinga Prize by UNESCO. In the Society's declaration of purposes it was stated that "the dangerous polarization of our intellectual world calls for an effort to overcome the antinomies which are apparent in human thought and consequently in human action", and that modern science — which is threatening us with annihilation- must therefore be oriented towards the tasks of human existence.
84. Only a month ago, in a periodical published under the auspices of the Association of Spanish University Graduates in America, the Spanish version appeared of a study — issued earlier in English — which I think might be useful in the direction to which I am referring. It is entitled "Goals for the Human Race", and it offers constructive proposals for the lessening of the ideological conflicts which accompany the conflicts of interest dividing our world.
85. Among the voices which are making themselves heard with increasing insistence in support of peace, I would mention that of Pope John XXIII, who has spoken out on numerous occasions for peace, freedom and social justice and who has recently affirmed that the coming Ecumenical Council of the Catholic Church must express and encourage the yearning of mankind for a peace free of armed conflicts and having its roots and its guarantee in every human heart.
86. In the field of concrete achievement, we must mention the existence of many centres and bodies — generally of a university nature — concerned with a scientific study of the problem of building a stable and peaceful world. In the United States, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the Institute for International Order, the Peace Research Institutes, the University of Michigan Centre for Research on Conflict Resolution, the Duke University World Rule of Law Centre, and the Creighton Catholic University Peace Research Centre; in Norway, the Oslo Centre for Social Research; in Japan, the Hiroshima Institute for the Sciences of Peace; in India, the New Delhi School of International Studies; in Switzerland, the Geneva Postgraduate Institute of International Studies; and many other institutions which it would take too long to enumerate, are studying various aspects of the basic problem. However — as was said just over a year ago by Mr. James J. Wadsworth, well known in these precincts as former United States Representative, and now President of the Washington Peace Research Institute — whereas every human group, enterprise, trade union or Government continually analyses projects and evaluates the future, the remarkable fact is that no one is actually devoting himself to projecting and planning, on a scientific basis, the establishment of peace.
87. Attention was drawn to this state of affairs at the national level, in 1958, by a United States Senator, who noted with surprise that in the State Department of his country there were only six or seven officials working full-time on the problems of disarmament. The Senate Sub-Committee on Disarmament, he said, was surprised at the existing disparity between the theoretical and practical efforts being made by the world to control and reduce armaments and the energies devoted to the development, manufacture and improvement of weapons.
88. It is true, however, that a beginning has been made in remedying this situation. As is well known, the Government of the United States recently created an agency for arms control and disarmament, which proposes to study the question of world peace and security on a scientific basis; for this purpose some 250 officials — many of them scientists — will study the economic, political, legal, social, psychological, military and technological factors which have a bearing on the prevention of war; and we believe that other countries are also making efforts in that direction, although we lack adequate information on this point. Be that as it may, the positive work being done in this field remains infinitesimal, and will have to be multiplied many times over if it is to have any radical effect on the world's destiny.
89. These are the reasons and the hopes and fears which led the delegation of Honduras to submit a draft resolution and to propose for the General Assembly's agenda an item [item 23] entitled "Organization of peace".
90. Much work goes on in institutes and universities all over the world in the cause of peace, without the United Nations having any reliable and direct information regarding its results. Numerous conferences of scientists interested in preventing a destructive war are held with hardly an echo reaching us through the newspapers. Many public and private initiatives go forward in north and south, in east and west, without our being able to enjoy the encouragement and inspiration which are to be derived from these developments. Many significant efforts are undoubtedly being made in the fields of the social, legal, economic and political sciences, as well as in the spheres of philosophy and religion, without our receiving due information about them. The United Nations cannot remain indifferent to these events in the governmental and private spheres, which are continually increasing in number and importance. As we said in the explanatory memorandum accompanying our draft resolution, "The United Nations . . . should co-ordinate and promote such efforts on a world-wide scale and become the focal point for their extension, thus fulfilling its historic function of eradicating the scourge of war by every means in its power".
91. To this end we propose the establishment within the United Nations of a special committee for the organization of peace. The United Nations, through this committee, would encourage and co-ordinate the responsible scientific efforts being made all over the world in favour of peace, publicizing the most positive aspects of those efforts. It would thus become the centre for a co-ordinated endeavour, in both the governmental and the private spheres, calmly to determine — with the help of objective scientific methods, and eschewing all propagandist and partisan motives and passions — the best methods of making disarmament and peace a reality, and the practical procedures which could be adopted for that purpose.
92. In our draft resolution we invite Member States to establish government departments or ministerial services — either with a degree of autonomy or as a part of other departments — for peace and disarmament, with a mandate to study ways and means of resolving present conflicts and of preventing the development of conflicts in the future. We should point out that, in our view, such research and its results also may be useful in connexion with domestic questions, since by studying and investigating the causes of external conflicts it is possible to gain a better understanding of internal conflicts — the latter being often closely linked with the former — and such governmental bodies will therefore be able to contribute not only to world peace but to domestic peace and progress and to national stability.
93. There is an evident advantage in having official bodies, in various nations with differing social and political systems, committed to the common task of determining the causes of conflicts and seeking solutions to them. No only will such organs express clearly their own particular views and solutions, but through a study of the views of others, it will be possible to create the common system of theory and practice which is so urgently required in order to give unity of purpose and outlook to a world threatened by schizophrenia and destruction.
94. Secondly, the draft resolution requests national and international non-governmental organizations particularly concerned with peace and disarmament to conduct scientific inquiries on ways and means of resolving conflicts. The contribution which the social, economic and political sciences have already made to the understanding of our problems is doubtless considerable, but there is still much more that they have to do in order to cap this understanding with new means of solving the problems.
95. As I have already mentioned, the draft resolution asks in particular for the establishment, with the co-operation of the specialized agencies concerned, of a special United Nations committee for the organization of peace. This committee of the General Assembly would really be experimental in character, since the task is one of great complexity. The committee would be asked to collect documentation relating to scientific inquiries on the problems of peace and disarmament and on appropriate means for attaining those ends. It would further encourage the establishment of the government departments or services for peace already referred to, by undertaking a study of the structure and purposes of those which exist or are contemplated and by circulating the relevant Information to Member States. Finally, it would be asked to submit to the General Assembly at its next session a report In which it would summarize and evaluate the documentation collected, recommend procedures for conducting fruitful inquiries on peace and disarmament and the limitation and elimination of weapons, and examine the advisability of establishing a permanent committee to continue this work, In the light of the findings and the experience gained.
96. The Committee — and we regard this as fundamental - should work in a serious, factual and technical way, and the echoes of the "cold war" should not be heard in its discussions. With this end in view, it could enlist the assistance of scientists and thinkers of universally recognized merit who would be acceptable to all groups — leading figures who stand above ephemeral passions and are accustomed to consider man and his destiny in a historical perspective and not in the context of the immediate situation.
97. As is clear from what I have said, the intention is not that the committee should carry out a routine task and produce a report which no one will want to read. What is envisaged is a responsible, honest and intelligent endeavour, rising about temporary interests and concerning itself with the essence of the permanent interests of the human race. It should be a creative endeavour, similar in scope to those marking the great junctures in the history of mankind, when man changes the course of his destiny on earth.
98. We urge and beg the General Assembly to give its unanimous support to this experiment. This may be one of our last opportunities to divert science from the cause of war and harness it for peace. A small cause can sometimes produce great effects: a drop of water can result in an overflow from a glass, and a tiny change in speed can alter the course of an artificial satellite and turn it towards the earth or send it into orbit.
99. Possibly this modest initiative may bear fruit and its unanimous acceptance by the General Assembly may revive the hopes of a world living under the shadow of nuclear terror. But even if this new endeavour to organize peace should meet with failure, like others before it, and the thermo-nuclear war which we all fear and to which we seem to draw ever nearer should finally be unleashed, the work done in the meanwhile by the committee for the organization of peace may perhaps be of use to the survivors in enabling them, with more success than we have had, to build a rational, prosperous, peaceful, free and just world — a task in which man has so repeatedly failed throughout his strife-torn history, and in which he must eventually succeed if he is to survive.