122. May I be allowed to say with what pleasure and great hope I welcome, on behalf of my country and my Government, the nineteenth session of the General Assembly.
123. Peru has reached a decisive moment in its history. While maintaining and developing its Christian and Western heritage, it is reviving the values which are its proud legacy from the empire of the Incas: political unity accompanied by respect for the inherent differences between the various regions, the resolve to bring civilization to other lands, and ardent concern for the welfare of the community,
124. The Government of Peru has devoted its efforts to increasing the amount of arable land, to extending, through difficult terrain, the road network which is to link the principal cities with the outlying provinces and to provide highways through the jungles of the Amazon, filled with mystery and promise, subsequently linking the terminals of those highways to a forest perimeter road, thus making Humboldt’s concept of Amazonia as a geographical unit a reality and forging closer links between the neighbouring countries.
125. As a result of our Government's efforts to implement United Nations recommendations on community services, many schools have been built, bridges constructed and new roads opened and more housing has been built in a single year than in the previous ten years. Industrialization has made great advances in recent years towards the goal of achieving economic independence; the stability of our currency has improved, as has our balance-of-payments position. I can state from this rostrum, without boasting and with complete objectivity, that all this has been done without prejudice to our constitutional structure, by seeking, despite all obstacles, the co-operation of all the public authorities and the essential political co-ordination, by meeting the just claims of labour, and with complete freedom of expression.
126. This is only a beginning and an indication of the immense task which still lies before Peru, the heir to Inca tradition: that of creating new employment opportunities, developing neglected or latent natural resources in order to cope with the population explosion, arresting the tragic exodus from the highlands, the cradle of our culture, by modem agricultural methods such as the use of fertilizers and the efficient organization of co-operatives, and overcoming the handicap of the low prices obtained for our raw materials, which contrast so unfairly with disproportionately high prices of the manufactures we have to import.
127. Since this subject has been dealt with by previous speakers, I need only say that the convening of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development was a most valuable step and that the Final Act of that Conference is a document which deserves the closest study; I trust that the countries which enjoy a favourable geographical position, a great cultural heritage, expanding capital resources and a recognized national personality have been convinced that that personality will find its highest and most just expression in whole-hearted co-operation in order to close that gap, and prevent it from widening into an abyss which might threaten human culture.
128. I should be guilty of insincerity if I failed to mention, or mentioned only in passing, the deep concern felt by Members and friends of the United Nations about the crisis we are facing. A possible solution has been suggested by our Secretary-General, who with his scrupulous impartiality, his universal understanding and his warm humanity embodies the finest ideals of the United Nations. I trust he will accept these words, which I am sure you all endorse, as an egression of our regard for him and of our wishes for his complete and speedy recovery,
129. The remarkable history of the United Nations over the last twenty years encourages us in our confidence that the present difficulties will be overcome. I have been fortunate enough to witness this history in the making. At San Francisco our hopes were based on two fundamental assumptions: firstly, perpetual harmony between the great Powers; secondly, the immediate fulfilment of Article 43 of the Charter on the conclusion by the Security Council of special agreements with all Members of the United Nations and their effective co-operation in cases of threats to the peace, breaches of the peace or acts of aggression. When these assumptions were invalidated by events which we all remember and regret, our Organization seem destined to become the scene of irreconcilable conflicts and fruitless discussions. In life there are, however, inexhaustible resources; there are mysterious forces and the Intangible influence of spiritual values, which one political realist has called the "imponderables", the most Important of which is the calm and heroic determination of a people, a head of State or an organization to carry out its duty resolutely in the face of all dangers.
130. At a time of bitter disillusion and impending crisis, the General Assembly solemnly proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, an affirmation of faith, a call to duty and hope, which had the effect of imbuing the new generations, which yearned for justice and peace, with many ideals.
131. In the course of these hazardous twenty years, often on the edge of abysses which appeared impassable, the United Nations survived the Korean crisis and gave its attention to economic co-operation; technical assistance was developed within the limits of our resources and the specialized agencies carried on their work for children, for the support and defence of labour, for agricultural development and for the expansion of educational opportunities. Regional pacts affirming adherence to the Charter were concluded and even the Suez crisis provided an opportunity for establishing an emergency force — the forces which should have been established under Article 43 not having come into existence — which tinder the banner and insignia of the United Nations, has served the cause of peace.
132. It was pointed out at the time that the responsibility for maintaining international peace and order lay with the Organization as a whole and not with the Security Council alone, although the Council had primary responsibility.
133. There is no need for me to revive the debates at San Francisco and the arguments that were put forward at the 1950 session of the General Assembly. Thanks largely to the determination of the majority of its Members, and with the growing approval of public opinion, the United Nations has fulfilled the purpose for which it was founded by interpreting the Charter in its true spirit, by reference to precedents and in the light of one decisive factor: requirements of a changing world.
134. It can be claimed without exaggeration that the United Nations owes its survival during these twenty years to the evolutionary interpretation of the Charter, which makes it possible for us to apply immutable principles to the change and progress of the modem world. I use the word "evolutionary" deliberately, because it implies that we must constantly review the application of immutable principles to changing objects.
135. May I, as a former professor, quote the famous authors, of Parliamentary Logic: "Identical principles do not necessarily produce the same effect; they do so only when applied to identical objects". If the principles of the Charter are to be applied to different situations, we, like the Roman praetor whose decisions were made on the basis of a just interpretation of the development of law, must examine every circumstance and every case in order to apply the unvarying principle in the fairest possible manner,
136. Although the present dispute and the crisis it has brought about may be due fundamentally to conflicting interpretations of the Charter and perhaps to differing legal concepts, it is clear that, apart from these latent difficulties, there are other practical difficulties of a financial and economic nature in connexion with peace-keeping operations, whether for the halting of aggression, for prevention or for Co-ordination.
137. At the same time I feel it my duty to state, with the same sincerity with which I have set forth the inviolable principles of the Charter, that in considering the nature •1 the different financial operations, we must use common sense together with technical knowledge and differentiate between the ordinary proceedings of the Organization and its extraordinary operations. The latter, although performed in compliance with a duty unquestionably incumbent on all Members, may involve some differentiation based on the fundamental responsibility which the Charter conferred on the great Powers, namely, direct responsibility in the events that have occurred — a historical fact that can be proved — and immediate interest determined by geographical position or regional solidarity.
138. The advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice, which legitimately declared the principle of universality and of the obligation of all Members of the United Nations, preserved the criterion that specific definition of the obligation should depend on the various conditions imposed by circumstances. The previous decisions of the General Assembly favour this criterion of relativity and flexibility, which in no way affects the immutability of the principles of the Charter.
139. At this time, the representative of a small Power should really do no more than express his sincerest hopes that, in the spirit of San Francisco, which requires all organs of our institution to work in harmony, a way will be found of restoring to the United Nations its full range of activities.
140. It would be wrong to overlook the fact that recently there have been important changes in the international environment. A current of opinion, rising above ideological and political frontiers, is supporting the efforts being made to consolidate peace. It may be said that today all spiritual forces are being mobilized in favour of an international order based, not on the mere balance of power, always uncertain and unreliable, in the nuclear age, but on an acute vision of the essential harmony of human interests, and in favour of promoting the improvement of the standard of living of the masses, restoring to science its specific mission of furthering life and progress rather than destruction and death.
141. We today are witnesses of this extraordinary mobilization, which has culminated in the journey of His Holiness Paul VI to India, a magnificent pilgrimage in which the voices of the representatives of the greatest religions of the world have joined in a message of peace and of mankind's desire that armaments should be reduced and that all resources should be applied to relieving the dereliction, hunger and disease suffered by two thirds of the human race.
142. The resumption of the General Assembly opens up an immense field of action. There are many encouraging symptoms, including the ratification by more than a hundred countries of the Treaty banning nuclear tests — although, unfortunately, not underground tests — and the pronouncement of so many institutions in favour of a policy of co-operation and intelligence. The debates on disarmament are showing more and more clearly the undeniable truth of these principles to which I should like to draw the Assembly's attention: firstly, control applied equally to the Powers concerned is contrary neither to their sovereignty nor to their dignity; secondly, control, which is a means of application in every multilateral treaty, is in the case of disarmament, an essential element of the treaty itself; and, thirdly, maximum nuclear power with maximum deterrent force is merely an illusion and a deception because there will always be the possibility of a miscalculation, of an unfounded hope or of a suicidal urge which, like an imminent sanction, accompanies the hallucination of hegemony.
143. The conquest of outer space seems certain and one advantage is that there is relative agreement between the Powers on the necessity of keeping it free from claims to sovereignty and the use of nuclear arms. The road is open to a more solid position affirming the jurisdiction of the United Nations under the auspices of a multilateral agreement on the peaceful uses of outer space and the scientific results of its explorations.
144. International harmony presupposes not only means of common accord but psychological readiness for peace through the sincere and final refusal to profit from any circumstance which might harm the prestige or position of another nation which, because it is a Member of the United Nations, is a sister nation. Today the danger to peace lies not in open threats, in violent rupture or in flagrant aggression; it lies in indirect means, in the encouragement of political anarchy and in the support of subversive movements as part of the illusion of spheres of influence, of. those spheres of influence which led to the rivalry of the great Powers throughout the nineteenth century and the present twentieth century. It is therefore most desirable that the principles of economic and cultural co-operation proclaimed in our Charter should be put into practice. There is room within this co-operation for peaceful competition, a sort of creative rivalry which would in itself bring the recompense of great prestige and recognition of the highest services in the cause of humanity.
145. Our brothers from Africa and Asia have proclaimed a policy of non-alignment, that is to say of considering themselves isolated from the former tendencies to political, economic or cultural hegemony. We interpret this declaration as an intention to give effective application to the principle of self-determination. The validity and acceptance of that principle will guarantee not only political independence but also, logically, universal peace. This just desire calls for a suitable response from the Great Powers, namely, the renunciation of all unilateral or selfish influence and the decision to co-operate for the good of the developing Powers, through parallel actions of multilateral agreements, or through regional agreements or arrangements or by generously developing even further the specialized organs of the United Nations.
146. A few moments ago I said that universality was a prerequisite not only of justice but of peace. Peace is indivisible because it is universal in the noblest sense of the word. Peace, like spiritual values, calls for tribute from the great and contributions from the small. By drawing closer to universality, therefore, the United Nations has given its objective of peace a sure and strong basis. That desire for peace which has its place in the hearts of all young nations, and which this body has started — and will certainly continue — to recognize at this session, must be considered one of the imponderable factors of spiritual value which animate this institution.
147. I shall conclude by merely recalling the lesson of long experience: the alternative, facing the world is clear. It is not the hegemony of a group of Powers over other Powers. No, that was the alternative of the past; today it is either complete legal and moral order or universal destruction by the atom bomb.