1. Mr. President, I should like to renew my congratulations to you on your election as President of the nineteenth session of the General Assembly. Your selection for this duty is a tribute to your own personal qualities and also, in the same measure, an honour to your country shared by all African States. Since it attained nationhood, Ghana has, in many ways and on many occasions, given a lead to Africa and to the world.
2. The affairs of Africa and events there are of particular importance and significance to us in Malta. Our ties with that continent are many and various, and our interests in it vital. Apart from the Maltese who live and work in North Africa, Maltese doctors and others are rendering service in West and East African countries. We trade extensively with Africa and look on its rapidly-increasing importance as a market for our industries and as a source for our imports. Malta constitutes a link in the communications system between Europe and Africa. Vestiges remain of the Arab association with Malta a thousand years ago in our customs and language.
3. Our way of life has always been influenced by the position of Malta in the centre of the Mediterranean, in the path of the shipping routes crossing that sea. It is safe to say that ethnically we represent a cross-section of all peoples bordering on the Mediterranean. We have easily assimilated such groups without sacrificing anything of our identity. We have acted as a haven to many visitors to our shores, whether they came to us of their own free will or were shipwrecked on our coasts. Since neolithic times we have enjoyed a culture of a high order. Our language was always with us and our flag goes back to the eleventh century.
4. After the decline of the Roman Empire, of which we had formed a self-governing unit, the influence of Europe once again was felt in Malta. As a European country, we naturally gravitate towards the group of nations constituting the continent of Europe and, in the West, we find the closest affinities moulded in a common culture, history and way of life. Within the Commonwealth, of which we are the nineteenth member, we also have strong links particularly with what are now called the older members.
5. I think one can safely say that Britain, Canada and Australia between them now have more citizens of Maltese origin than the total population at present living in Malta. It is as a European country that we hope to cultivate a close association with the institutions of Europe. Indeed, we look forward to participating in the work of the Council of Europe. We expect also, within the United Nations, to contribute to the activities of the Economic Commission for Europe and hope that this would not exclude the possibility of our enjoying a special status in regard to the deliberations of the Economic Commission for Africa in view of our ties with North Africa.
6. What I have said so far gives some indication of our thoughts and their influence on our policies. Basically, we believe in the freedom of the individual under the rule of law. To that end, the Constitution of my country spells out in some detail the fundamental rights and freedoms of the individual, and a constitutional court has been established to protect those rights and to enforce them, as necessary. We believe in democracy based on universal suffrage. We believe in the independence of the judiciary from the executive. We have attained the form of society we now enjoy by a slow process of evolution, spread over centuries, subjected to the vicissitudes of history and to the disabilities of colonialism.
7. It is for these reasons that we appreciate the work done by this Organization in the field of human rights. We will support that work in the expectation that the time is now ripe to consider the question of enforcement of such rights, the protection of which has been agreed upon by the overwhelming majority of States Members of the United Nations.
8. The transition of Malta to national freedom was smooth, hardly tarnished with bloodshed. When freedom came to us we were fortunate in that we did not need to depend on others to staff our civil service or to fill the benches of our judiciary. I say this, not in a boastful vein, but to justify what I have to say now.
9. We are not a powerful nation. In size, if not in population, we are, I think, the smallest nation represented in this Organization. In world politics, therefore, we can have neither great ambitions nor ulterior motives. We hope to have cordial relations with all countries of the world irrespective of their ideologies. But in a special manner we look forward to friendly relations with the peoples and countries bordering the Mediterranean.
10. Subject to what we feel and know is right, to justice and truth, to the overriding need to maintain world peace and to the provisions of the Charter, Malta would rather keep aloof in differences that might arise, or have arisen, among nations. By this we do not mean simply that we choose to sit comfortably on the fence. Indeed, we are prepared humbly to offer the services of Malta and the Maltese in any form which might be considered useful in the eyes of the Organization for the purpose of conciliating in any dispute or of solving some difficulty that might arise. In any such service which we might be called upon to render for the United Nations, we cannot but bring to bear an attitude of mind not conditioned by the prospect of self-gain or by ulterior motive.,
11. If in certain important questions before this Organization we may appear to reserve our position, the Government of Malta craves the indulgence of Member States. It will, it is hoped, be readily understood that, as a new nation, we have our own teething troubles and must learn before we are able to pronounce ourselves on the merits of certain grave problems before us. Even in such matters, however, we shall not fail in our duty and shall seek to apply our judgement in an endeavour to find just solutions in the cause of peace.
12. For such a cause it may be found possible for Malta to make available to a United Nations peace force its own manpower resources in the form of a small armed unit. We feel our university, three hundred years old and soon to be housed in a new building, can also make a valid contribution in the field of cultural exchanges, which are so effective in cementing friendship and consolidating peace.
13. In our quest for peace and justice in the world we take a stand against colonialism in whatever shape or form it has, reared or will rear its head. We define the term as domination or exploitation of the weak by the strong, whether political or economic, whether overt or insidious. We recognize at the same time, in regard to colonialism, that all that is not black is not necessarily white and all that is not white is not necessarily black. The fact that we are a former colony will not affect the balance of our judgement, nor will our size and location dampen our enthusiasm for justice.
14. For the same reasons that we are against colonialism, we support and associate ourselves with the stand taken by the developing countries in the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, which was held in Geneva earlier in 1964. We hope that the decisions of the Conference will be followed up, not only by the establishment of an appropriate administrative machinery, but also by speedy action towards more dynamic and fairer international trade policies.
15. My Government views with dismay the waste inherent in the application of national resources to the creation and maintenance of armaments. We join others in the pursuit of a policy seeking to relieve the tension which motivates the maintenance of arms and to reduce the arms which, in turn, cause tension. This we do, not only in the interest of peace, but because we know that these resources should be applied freely in an attempt to attain a more equitable distribution of wealth in the world. Malta accordingly supports the studies being pursued in the United Nations relating to the economic and social consequences of disarmament.
16. My Government believes that the main hope of increasing, substantially and rapidly, the volume of international economic development and technical assistance to the developing countries resides in the utilization, under international auspices, of some of the resources freed by general disarmament. General disarmament, however, may not be attainable in the near future and we are, therefore, anxious that due weight be given, in current studies, to the more immediately useful question of ascertaining to what extent and in what ways the developed countries would be willing to devote the recent comparatively small reductions in their military expenditure to the acceleration of economic and social progress in the world.
17. What I am about to say, I hope, will not be construed as presumption on the part of a "new boy". Malta has long been a beneficiary of technical assistance provided by the United Nations and its specialized agencies and as such can speak on the basis of some experience.
18. Very often in developing countries, such as mine, difficulties arise, not merely because of the lack of investment capital, but rather out of the unavailability at home of certain types of capital goods, specific skills and special materials. Developing countries look increasingly to the United Nations family to assist in this regard. It seems, however, that there is much dispersal of effort in the disposal of the limited resources available. This appears to be in part the result of the approval of hundreds of resolutions urging special priorities for a great number of specific projects throughout the economic and social field. The effect has been a lack of flexibility, which in turn may have caused a decline in the effective utilization of the resources used.
19. Accordingly, Malta welcomes the consolidation of the Special Fund and the Expanded Programme of Technical Assistance into a United Nations development programme. We regard this as a first step in the direction of achieving better planning, simpler administrative arrangements, greater flexibility and more effective results. Such consolidation, especially if carried into the field of the regular and special programmes of the individual agencies, may well prove to be conducive to better co-ordination between projects and to a reduction of administrative costs. It may not be out of place here to mention that, when account is taken of all factors, the contribution demanded of recipient countries towards the implementation of projects often exceeds 80 per cent of total costs. This is excessive. These are some aspects of the assistance given by the United Nations family in the economic and social field which would bear closer examination.
20. Before closing, 1 would like to extend my grateful thanks to the Assembly for the courtesy and attention with which it has heard me. I would also like to repeat that the Government of Malta places the resources of its country and of its people at the disposal of this Organization for whatever service may be considered useful in the pursuit of peace and brotherhood among nations.