Seven years have passed since the establishment of the United Nations, and we are now foregathered in our new magnificent home. Does the fact that we possess a permanent workshop indicate that we are definitely entering an era of better international relations? The Secretary-General — whose intention to resign we have with sincere regret just learned — in his opening statement [376th meeting] remarked that in 1945 the United Nations had no home except in the hearts of the people.
165. Today we do possess an impressive house of steel and stone, but are we quite sure that we are still as deeply rooted in the hearts of the people as we were seven years ago? That, in our opinion, is an important question, because it is only in the hearts of the people that our Organization and the principles for which it stands can really prosper. We serve an ideal but we must also be realistic; and the realistic approach must take account of the fact that politics is the art of the possible, and that the desirable cannot always be achieved overnight. Over-statements in criticism could turn this Organization away from whatever possibilities for synthesis there are, and lead us astray into a jungle of sterile quarrels of words. The man in the street everywhere expects more than mere oratory and eloquence. First and foremost he needs and expects peace and security, on which basis developments in other spheres — social, economic, cultural — should be built.
166. Now it is exactly in the sector of peace and security that thus far the United Nations has not been able to live up to the high expectations roused in 1945. We all know the reason for this deficiency. In 1945, towards the close of the Second World War, there was reason to hope for continuing agreement among the nations which had combined their forces against their totalitarian aggressors in the East and in the West. Today we see that this ideal is still far from realized and that our world is divided and once again faced by aggressive intent. Once more the political climate is tense with threatening storms. Once more we are obliged to devote our greatest energy to self-defence and to building up collective security and collective resistance against aggression or the danger of it.
167, In one case Korea, the Organization has been able and willing to take action in this field, made possible by well-known exceptional circumstances. The aggression in Korea in 1950 did confront the United Nations with its prime responsibility. The response to the appeal of the Security Council for armed and other assistance to repel the attack and to restore peace and Security in the area has been wide, courageous and magnanimous. The General Assembly, or at least a great majority of its members, has also understood the need to provide the means for collective action in cases where, as a result of disagreement between the permanent members of the Security Council, action would be frustrated, and impotence would take the place of strength. I refer to the “Uniting for peace” resolution [577 (V)]. But we must be on our guard to head off the danger that the unity of purpose displayed on those two occasions may be weakened by those whose interest it is to split our ranks, to sow mutual distrust and to play one part of the world against the other.
168. We are ready and eager to conclude an honourable armistice, now that the aggressor has been largely thrown back to where he came from. But our firmness to uphold the United Nations principles as applied to the Korean problem must not be shaken.
169. Our world today, except where in actual armed-conflict it is compelled to resist aggression with force of arms, lives in the atmosphere of the so-called cold war or, as some would have it, of cold peace. Nobody will maintain that this is a satisfactory state of affairs, or that cold war or cold peace is particularly conducive to the promotion of the purposes laid down in the Charter.
170. Although cold-war and cold peace are far less disastrous for humanity than a real hot war, we must not close our eyes to the many anomalies and injustices which are inherent in the present uneasy world situation, In other words, we ought not to resign ourselves to an indefinite continuance of the post-war status quo in some parts of the world and we should, by peaceful means, seek redress of obviously unjust or unhealthy situations. As a result of the Second World War there are countries which are still artificially divided and under foreign occupation, and where no peace treaty has normalized free life as it should be restored. I am thinking of divided Korea, divided Germany, occupied Austria, and that does not complete the list.
171. Furthermore, there still exists a dangerous imbalance of forces which has threatened the fate of the free world ever since the Second World War came to a close. In our opinion, therefore, we should welcome, be it in a restricted regional sphere, the gradual building up of forces on the side of the free world and the resulting growing correction of this intolerable situation, unless we can remove this imbalance by an effective system of balanced reduction of armaments and armed forces under equally effective international control. But we deeply regret to say that the attitude so far taken by the Soviet Union Government in the Disarmament Commission does not leave us with great hopes in this respect.
172. I have referred to regional defence for lack of wider security. I mean first-of all the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. We are witnessing today al kinds of communist manoeuvres to sow discord between the countries of the Atlantic community which are trying to unite their defensive means in accordance with the inherent right of individual or collective self-defence as provided for in Article 51 of the Charter. Opponents of the free world apparently are under the misapprehension that honest difference of opinion — which after all, is but the logical consequence of freedom of mind and of varying national responsibilities — is a sign of the falling apart of those who are determined together to resist aggression if and when it comes. We know that the totalitarian mind is unable to understand this frankness of expression amongst free countries, since in the enslaved totalitarian orbit no free, individual opinion is permitted when directed against the supreme law as laid down arbitrarily by the central overlords.
173. But it would be a serious mistake if this misapprehension should lead the communist, world to think that, where the essential purposes of NATO are concerned — and again I stress that these purposes do not conflict with the security purposes of the United Nations — the unity of will and purpose of the NATO countries could be undermined or impaired. It is in the interest of the peace of the world that nobody should draw so wrong a conclusion. In this common determination of the NATO countries lies a fundamental, vital, force. There may be occasional, and very natural divergences of views on ways and means, but there is no such divergence concerning the ultimate aim: collective security against aggression.
174. We conceive NATO to be one of the most important contributions to that wider collective security which the Charter requires us to bring about. We realize that, in this wider field, the Security Council, for reasons well known to all of us, has failed to organize a permanent international armed instrument for the maintenance of international peace and security. In these circumstances, other means had to be devised within the framework of the Charter, and this has had to be done. There is reason for al free countries to be thankful that frustration in the wider field did not result in passive acceptance of the failure. There is equal reason to hope that other examples of collective organization in other parts of the world may further strengthen security in specific regions and the United Nations as a whole.
175. In this connexion, I wish to say a few more words on the significance of regional organizations since our Belgian colleague has just now so brilliantly and so thoroughly dealt with this subject. In Western Europe, we are witnessing the process of growing integration. There again, the national struggle for life recognizes the necessity for international, and even supernational, cooperation in order the better to guarantee the political, economic and social existence of all the parties concerned. I do not have to remind you of Benelux, whose union constitutes for its three partners the first successful experiment in inter-European co-operation. The Council of Europe has been doing most valuable spadework in this field.
177. In the economic and financial sector, the generous Marshall aid provided by the United States has brought to life the European Organization for Economic Co-operation. The European Payments Union is acting as a clearing house through which today no less than 60 per cent of the world’s commercial payments are being channelled. The Coal and Steel Community — a plan to which the name of the Foreign Minister of France is attached, the so-called Schuman plan — as has been the case with other far-sighted initiatives of these last years, has become a genuine supernational body.
178. In the security field, the basis has been laid for a European defence community which may well finally lead to the acceptance of an Over-all Western European political authority, in other words, to some kind of Western European federation or confederation. True, many difficulties still have to be overcome, but I submit that what is happening there is a most noteworthy evolution, where national authority recognizes the vital necessity of breaking down the walls of outdated absolute sovereignty.
179. The regional idea, often based on a natural similarity and community of positive interests, seems to be gaining ground. Does that make the more universal conception of the United Nations less desirable, less indispensable? The answer must, in our opinion, be most emphatically in the negative.
180. The significance of the United Nations remains entire, not only as an act of faith, but foremost as an instrument for implementing this faith and for applying it in practice to the promotion of universal peace and universal well-being. Yet the ways towards universal agreement and understanding are inevitably long, because in the universal organization the divergences of views and interests are necessarily greater and more numerous than in the smaller and more homogeneous group. Therefore it should astonish nobody, that where urgent, immediate needs of security or of mutual assistance have to be met, the possibility of more rapid solution in smaller circles is not neglected.
181. It is only by proving that it can be as realistic and as effective as these more restricted international groupings, that the United Nations can vitalize the wider community. It cannot — it must not — for a moment forget or neglect its high purposes and principles, but neither must it try to force unrealistic or premature solutions which do not correspond to realities. We must organize our common forces and resources rather than spend them in sometimes needless and avoidable quarrels.
182. If, on the one hand, we witness this growing tendency amongst sovereign nations towards regional or, international integration in different degrees and for various purposes, we see on the other hand the emergence of new, free nations which for very understandable reasons are emphatically jealous of their newly-born independence and authority — and impatiently anxious that these blessings should within the shortest possible time also be granted to all other peoples and territories which have not as yet attained self-government. They urge an acceleration of the implementation of a charter which engages its adherents to respect the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples.
183. We have all, by our own free will, pledged ourselves to act in accordance with the principles of the Charter. But that does not and cannot mean that, in a world so varied in circumstances and degrees of social, economic and political development, patent remedies can be found which can be identically applied everywhere. Therefore those who administer Non-Self-Governing Territories must be realists as well as idealists, lest they should, by the premature abandonment of their responsibilities as promoters of development and self-government, fail to live up to the fulfilment, of their engagements.
184. I may say, in passing, that this problem is in no way confined to States administering outlying or overseas Non-Self-Governing Territories. There are a number of countries which, within their own metropolitan borders, contain groups of inhabitants too primitive, too under-developed to govern themselves. The fact that no obligation has been accepted to inform the United Nations about such non-self-governing populations can only confirm my thesis that the task of the responsible governing Power cannot be determined or cut short by the impatient emotionalism of well meaning neighbours and friends.
185. These are delicate, difficult and complicated matters. We are faced in various degrees by a combination of territorial, national and international interests which are to a great extent interdependent. Where there is conflict or dispute, or where criticism is called for, a constructive attitude on the part of the General Assembly should take all these factors into account, and each case should be considered on its own merits. I believe that we should as a general rule be well advised to leave to the parties what can be achieved or settled between themselves. Where our competence is beyond doubt, we should encourage them to use the many means for peaceful solution which the Charter indicates, or other peaceful means of their own choice.
186. I said “where our competence is beyond doubt”. There again we find ourselves confronted with a very difficult problem. Our Charter is a compromise between a variety of national individual opinions. The scope of Article 2, paragraph 7, is, as experience has shown, a debatable issue, and it would not serve the interests of the United Nations to neglect the fact that on this point not all of our members see eye to eye.
187. Our Organization, in the form in which it was accepted by its Members, is no super-State, nor is it a world government. We should not presume that it is, for this might well be the beginning of the end of the United Nations. The fact is that our Member States have accepted certain obligations, no more and no less. The fact is that what has been called the private lives of nations, or the sector of domestic jurisdiction and internal affairs, has been left to the responsibility of these nations themselves,
188. Where there is serious doubt, we should submit the question to our highest legal authority, the International Court of Justice, and my country for one regrets that this has not been done more often in the past. Where there is serious doubt as to just where we find ourselves between jus constitutum and jus constituendum we should not force the issue because of extraneous motives, which might endanger the loyalties to the United Nations.
189. In some quarters there is a tendency to read into the Charter more than it contains. I have mentioned the case of Article 2, paragraph 7. I would also mention the case of Chapter XI, regarding the Non-Self-Governing Territories and the administering Powers. The Charter rightly distinguishes between Non-Self-Governing Territories, dealt with in Chapter XI, and the International Trusteeship System, dealt with in Chapter XII. They are two different problems, with two different kinds of rights and obligations.
190. Here again we must be careful not to overstep the limits which the Charter itself has laid down. There is no justification whatsoever to endeavour arbitrarily to change Chapter XI into Chapter XII. Yet the kind of acrimonious criticism which each year, in increasing tone and volume is directed against the administering Powers responsible for Non-Self-Governing Territories, seems to be doing precisely that. The administering Powers which have endorsed Chapter XI of the Charter have thereby accepted certain obligations as a sacred trust. But they have not signed away their own and exclusive authority for the task they have undertaken. They surely have their duties, but they also have their rights. It would certainly not be in the interests of the Non-Self-Governing Territories if the indispensable balance between those duties and rights were neglected or disturbed. It is a well-known saying that too many cooks usually spoil the broth.
191. I do not intend in this general debate to express an opinion on all the major problems with which the Assembly is concerned. My delegation will have ample opportunity to do so in the Main Committees. international fund for economic assistance to under-developed countries. We welcome the fact that this idea is in the process of being placed on a businesslike basis, thanks to studies by the Secretariat and the Economic and Social Council, Last year, the Netherlands delegation expressed its sympathy for the principle of the suggestion put forward by Chile, but we are of the opinion that such a plan could only be put into effect if we succeeded in achieving a more constructive co-operation between the more developed and the less developed countries. As long as the relationship between these two categories of peoples, for a variety of reasons, remains sometimes highly controversial, we can hardly hope to achieve sound and realistic results. Here also there is a clear interdependence between political and economic factors, and here also we must endeavour to establish a favourable climate for closer mutual understanding concerning the legitimate interests of all the countries concerned; otherwise we shall merely create new conflicts or intensify old ones.
192. The General Assembly is no court of justice. We are a political body, and premature judgment or denunciation is not the best way to further the process of persuasion. After all, the General Assembly has no power to go beyond the making of recommendations. Its powers are thus limited, because its primary functions are not those of direct intervention, but rather of an advisory nature; that is, to discuss, to develop friendly relations, to promote respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, to promote economic and social progress, and so forth. Promotion, however, is not the same thing as imposition. Our progress, therefore, cannot be but gradual, since in our heterogeneous world the development of a generally accepted code of conduct takes time.
193. It is the determined policy of the Netherlands Government to promote the expansion and co-ordination of various forms of international co-operation in political, military, economic, financial, social and cultural fields, in which my country is taking part. Our faith in the work of the United Nations remains one of the fundamental pillars of our foreign policy. For that reason I have permitted myself to point out certain developments which, in our opinion, might, if not corrected, be detrimental to the strength of our world Organization.
194. In this connexion, I wish to say that the Netherlands Government — on the positive side of the work of the United Nations — is following with particular interest the problem of rendering assistance to underdeveloped countries, in order to bring about a sounder and better balanced world. It gives tis ground for satisfaction that this kind of assistance increases from year to year. On the other hand, it is to be regretted that so far it has not been possible to place sufficient financial means at the disposal of these endeavours. The reasons are to be found in economic difficulties, in insufficient international rapprochement, and perhaps, most of all, in the fact that a heavy extra financial load has to be carried by the Western world for the defence of its own security.
195. There has been before us for some time a proposal made by the representative of Chile [A/C.2/L.77], Mr. Santa Cruz, for the establishment of an
196. We live in a period of accelerated post-war transition, and the United Nations is called upon to be a co-ordinating and stimulating force. But if discussion and recommendation should become political ends in themselves, then such activity might well kill the effect which unprejudiced counsel could otherwise have produced. We should merely estrange nations and peoples from our Organization and encourage new isolationism.
197. We are faced with problems vital to all of us. World peace is insecure, and there are places where nations are fighting and men are dying. The desire for national freedom, where this has not yet been achieved, the struggle for human rights and for decent standards of living, are piling their increasing weight on top of a world already staggering under the load of unsolved problems of rehabilitation after the devastations caused by two world wars within a quarter of a century.
198. The United Nations can render great service as an institution where the nations of the world can pool their wits and energies in order to design a pattern of co-operation with which to overcome the obstacles in our common path. Let us try earnestly to understand each other’s positions and motives, in order to find ways and means of reconciling diverging interests, on the basis of a common standard of fundamental political faith.
199. That standard is, or should be, the Charter. We know that it is not perfect. In 1955 it will come up for revision. That is a serious matter in which my government is deeply interested. The ground should be thoroughly prepared, and for that reason we welcome the suggestions put forward in this Assembly to make timely provision for a preparatory commission. But for the present we have the Charter, and we have accepted it as it is now. It has given us hope, it has given us guidance, and it has given us the beginning of strength. May it also give us the wisdom to harmonize our actions.
200. I pray that, under divine guidance, we may succeed in developing the United. Nations ever more into a beneficial and efficient instrument for the achievement of the noble ends which it is pledged to serve.