The delegation of the Byelorussian SSR considers it necessary to express its views on the results of the work of the United Nations during the past year. As representatives are well aware, ordinary people in every country are deeply disturbed at the present strained international situation, and the peoples of the world want a firm and lasting peace. The question naturally arises as to what the United Nations has done to relieve the international tension, and how it has coped with the tasks incumbent upon it under the Charter.
51. It must be said outright that the United Nations has not fulfilled the tasks assigned to it, although it could and should have fulfilled those which concerned the maintenance of peace and the strengthening of international co-operation.
52. In his speech yesterday [393rd meeting], Mr. Eden, dealing with the problem of international cooperation, enumerated a series of questions which are on the agenda of the seventh session of the General Assembly. He drew attention to the questions on which agreement has not been reached, or with the consideration of which no progress at all has been made. He sought, but with no good reasons, to represent the situation in such a way that responsibility for the failure to settle these questions so far would seem to rest with the Soviet Union. When these matters are considered, it can be shown without difficulty that responsibility for this rests with the Anglo-American block itself, which has done a great deal to prevent the settlement of such questions as that of Germany, Austria and others, thereby flagrantly violating the relevant international agreements, to which the United Kingdom has appended its signature.
53. Mr. Eden dealt with the Korean question, but here again he adopted the same course — that of attempting to shift responsibility for the situation from the wolf to the sheep.
54. It must be observed that instead of repeating the slanderous, vulgar fabrications about the “iron curtain” and such like malicious untruths about the Soviet Union and the peoples' democracies, it would have been better if the Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom had found it possible to deal more seriously in his speech with the afore-mentioned questions. Instead, he preferred to dispose of them in a few superficial phrases in which, moreover, he gave a distorted picture of the real situation.
55. The war that has already been going on in Korea for more than two years is, as everybody knows, profoundly disturbing to the peoples of the whole world. The peoples demand that this war, which has given rise to a dangerous tension in international relations, should immediately be brought to an end. The course of events, however, shows that the Korean armistice negotiations which have been proceeding at Panmunjom for fifteen months have not yielded any positive results owing to the provocative behaviour of the United States.
56. North Korean and Chinese prisoners of war are still being shot and tortured. The terrible annihilation of the Korean people is continuing, Korean towns and villages are being systematically destroyed, and the most inhuman means of destruction, such as bacterial weapons, poison gases and napalm bombs, are being used against children, women and old people, In two months alone — from 28 January to 31 March 1952 — the United States Air Force made 700 raids, using bacterial bombs and various Objects infected with deadly microbes (cholera, plague, typhus, etc.), at 400 different points in North Korea and in the territory of the People’s Republic of China, These facts have already been established by authoritative international commissions, and the peoples of the world are well aware by what methods and procedures the American interventionists are conducting the war in Korea.
57. With affected indignation, Mr. Acheson, and after him Mr. Eden, denied that the United States had used bacterial weapons in Korea This unsupported denial, however, is refuted by numerous facts and documents. The ruling circles of the United States have long been preparing for bacterial warfare. Mr. Vyshinsky, Chairman of the USSR delegation, spoke convincingly about numerous facts connected with this preparation in his speech at the [383rd] plenary meeting of the General Assembly on 18 October last. To supplement the facts that have already been mentioned, I shall refer only to the following.
58. On 29 July 1952, the American periodical Look pointed out that at least five United States Government institutions were engaged in the preparation of bacterial weapons: the United States Army’s Chemical Service, the Public Health Service, the Department of Agriculture and the Army and Navy medical services. The periodical writes that the preparation of these weapons is being conducted at three levels: the production of more virulent bacteria, research on the means of combating the enemy’s bacteria, and perfecting the means of spreading new bacteria. The periodical states: “Most of them [the bacteria] exist widely in nature, and do not, after all, cause major epidemics. The trick is to increase their potency — by breeding, by deliberately creating mutations and breeding the more lethal mutations . . . Such synthetic bacteria and viruses will be able to cause real epidemics . . . And it is primarily this work which is going on under cover in such places as Camp Detrick in Maryland, and which is completely secret.”
59. This bacterial warfare was prepared in close collaboration with the Japanese war criminals, who had already had experience of such nefarious procedures. In 1946, General MacArthur selected and dispatched eighteen Japanese war criminals for work in bacteriological laboratories in various parts of the United States — Maryland, Mississippi, Utah and so on, so that their criminal experiences could be put to use.
60. It would be possible to adduce many other facts which show that the purpose of bacterial warfare is the widespread dissemination of epidemics aimed at the mass annihilation of people. The United States ruling circles thought they would deal with North Korea in lightning fashion by sending against it large land, air and naval forces, but the heroic Korean people resolutely defended their homeland and decisively repulsed the invaders.
61. The fact that the United States has conducted its war of aggression in Korea in an inhuman fashion has been admitted by General MacArthur. As reported by the issue of Vital Speeches of April 1952, General MacArthur, speaking on 22 March 1952 before a joint session of the Mississippi Legislature in the town of Jackson, said: "… we enforced upon the Korean people the dreadful tragedy involved in the exclusive use of their soil as the sole battleground. As a consequence, death has come to hundreds of thousands of, defenseless Korean civilians and a nation has been devastated and gutted”. I do not think any comment on this statement is needed.
62. In connexion with the war of aggression in Korea, it is impossible to ignore the fact that the annual report [A/2141 and Add, 1] of the United Nations Secretariat to the seventh session of the General Assembly contains attempts to justify the United States aggression in Korea, to defend the anti-popular, degenerate regime of Syngham Rhee and to spread slander and falsehoods about the People's Democratic Republic of Korea and the People's Republic of China.
63. Speaking in the General Assembly on 17 October last [382nd meeting], Mr. Martin, the representative of Canada, stated that the Canadian Government was in favour of the earliest possible conclusion of an armistice in Korea and the confinement of the war to the Korean peninsula, and that it had intervened in the Korean war in order to resist aggression. We have heard such statements from the Canadian representative on several occasions, but the Canadian representative, made no mention of the fact that, having proved unable to break the heroic resistance of the Korean people in open warfare, the forces of the invaders, flagrantly violating the elementary principles and standards of international law, were using against the Korean people such barbarous instruments as napalm bombs, poisonous substances and bacterial weapons. Even the use of such barbarous methods, however, has failed to give the invaders the desired results. All their calculations have proved mistaken and have come to nought. That is why they are slandering the heroic Korean people and bending all their efforts against them.
64. In face of the angry protests of the peace-loving peoples who have condemned the criminal intervention of the United States and its partners in Korea, and with the prospect of the defeat of the invading forces in sight, the ruling circles of the United States were compelled in July 1951 to enter upon negotiations in Korea. These negotiations have now been proceeding for more than a year. By their fifth month, all questions had been resolved in substance, with the exception of one, the question of prisoners of war. The discussion of this last issue has how been going on for ten months, and, as we know, the negotiations have now been broken Off indefinitely through the fault of the United States representatives. The United States Government did not at the time publish in the Press the latest proposals on the prisoner-of-war issue submitted by Kim Il Sung and Peng Teh Huai on 8 October 1952, in ah attempt to keep them from world public opinion. These proposals were made public only after they had been exposed in the statement by Mr. Vyshinsky, the head of the USSR delegation; I shall therefore not repeat them. One thing is clear, that the United States ruling circles are refusing, without any justification whatever, to accept the just proposals made by the Korean representatives and are deliberately protracting these negotiations. Under cover of the negotiations, they are endeavouring to conceal from world public opinion their policy of protracting the war in Korea and extending their aggression in Asia. The prolongation of the war in Korea benefits the Wall Street monopolists, since they are thereby increasing war production and making enormous profits, as the Canadian representative is well aware.
65. At the [380th] meeting on 16 October 1952, Mr. Webb, the New Zealand representative, declared that the troops of the countries taking part in the war of aggression against the Korean people would remain in Korea until they had achieved their objective, That objective, he said, was to restore order in Korea. The war in Korea makes it plain that for the invaders this “order” means the mass murder of civilians, the inhuman bombing of peaceful towns and villages and the restoration of the Syngman Rhee police regime, which even the American newspapers describe as not being in the least free or democratic. The “order” to which the New Zealand representative referred is the order of the whip and the noose. The United Nations clearly cannot and must not support such an “order”; on the contrary, it must put an end to it and to the United States aggression which is imposing it.
66. The Byelorussian people ardently desire the cessation of the war in Korea. The Byelorussian delegation, therefore, wholeheartedly supports the proposal [A/ 2229] made by Mr. Skrzeszewski, the Chairman of the Polish delegation, that the General Assembly, at its seventh session, should recommend to the parties engaged in the war in Korea, first, the immediate cessation of hostilities on land, at sea and in the air; secondly, the return of all prisoners of war to their homeland, in accordance with international standards; thirdly, the withdrawal from Korea of foreign troops, including the Chinese volunteer units, within a period of two to three months, and the peaceful settlement of the Korean question.
67. We also wholeheartedly support the USSR delegation's proposal [A/C.1/729/Rev.1/Corr.1] for the establishment of a commission for the peaceful settlement of the Korean question, to consist of the United States, the United Kingdom, France, the Soviet Union, the People’s Republic of China, India, Burma, Switzerland, Czechoslovakia, the People’s Democratic Republic of Korea, and South Korea. The Commission should “take immediate steps for the settlement of the Korean question on the basis of the unification of Korea, to be effected by the Koreans themselves, under the supervision of the commission, such steps to include extending all possible assistance in the repatriation of all prisoners of war by both sides”.
68. The adoption of these proposals would put an end to the war in Korea, which has created such dangerous international tension. These proposals cannot be rejected by States which are really seeking to settle the most vital international issues by peaceful means. The continuance of the war in Korea will still further increase the tension in the Far East and throughout the world. The General Assembly must, prevent any further extension of the war in Korea and must help to bring about an immediate cease-fire in Korea and the conclusion of an armistice and peace.
69. This session has met at a time when the preparations for a new war and the armaments race conducted by the United States ruling circles are now on an unprecedented scale. Only one fact need be cited. According to the National Guardian of 5 March 1952, the average contribution of each American to the Government’s military expenditure in 1952-1953 will be $412 as compared with $8.75 before the Second World War. An idea of the enormous United States military expenditure may also be obtained from the statement by Mr. Lovett, the United States Secretary of Defense which was published in the New York Journal-American of 28 March 1952. Mr. Lovett declared that a situation might arise where the United States would spend $167 million daily for military purposes until 1954. These figures show that the United States is spending approximately three-quarter of its budget on arms and armed forces.
70. The atomic armaments race in the United States has not ceased for a single day since the end of the Second World War. The United States ruling circles are persisting in their policy of thwarting the prohibition of atomic weapons and are endeavouring to increase their stocks of atomic bombs and to create new types of atomic weapons. Under pressure from the United States representatives, the majority of the United Nations Security Council has repeatedly rejected the proposal for the prohibition of atomic weapons. For the last six years, the United States representatives in the Security Council, the Disarmament Commission and the General Assembly have decisively opposed the USSR Government’s proposal for the prohibition of atomic weapons and the establishment of strict international control to ensure observance of such prohibition. The United States is doing this because it intends to make use of the atomic bomb in the war which it is preparing. To this end, it is giving every possible encouragement to research work directed towards the creation of new types of atomic weapons in an endeavour to make them as cheap is possible. There is an eloquent statement to this effect on page 35 of the New York Times Magazine, the Sunday supplement to The New York Times of 9 November 1952, which contains a statement by Mr. Fred Hoyle, a prominent English scientist from Cambridge University. Mr. Hoyle declared: “Within a couple of years it will cost only $2.80 a head to kill people with atomic weapons instead of the several thousand dollars a head it costs to kill people in war today.” In this Way Mr. Hoyle has graphically indicated the essence of the atomic policy pursued by the ruling circles of the United States and the United Kingdom, which are anxious to find the cheapest way of killing people.
71. These are the monstruous plans of the present pretenders to world domination, against whom an angry, protest is being raised by all progressive men and women, whose interests and aspirations are expressed in the peace-loving foreign policy of the USSR,
72. As is known, the Soviet Union has fought tirelessly, and is continuing to fight, for the prohibition of the atomic weapon, the weapon for the mass destruction of human beings. The USSR has put forward a concrete programme for the prohibition of the atomic bomb and the establishment of strict international control to ensure such prohibition. The aim of the USSR Government’s programme is to prevent the use of atomic energy for purposes of destruction and mass murder. The Soviet Union wants atomic energy to be used for peaceful purposes, for the continued progress and prosperity of all mankind.
73. The United States Government, on the other hand, is against the prohibition of atomic weapons and is therefore opposing the will of the overwhelming majority of the people of the world, in the interests of the big American firms which have taken over the production of atomic weapons and are making enormous profits on it. Thus we see that the monopolistic trusts and syndicates which are in control of atomic production in the United States are instigating the atomic armaments race, directing the United States generals to commit mass murder and destroy peaceful populations, dictating to the United States ruling circles their policy of atomic blackmail, military provocation and aggression, fanning the prevailing war psychosis and demanding that the atomic bomb should be used against peace-loving peoples. The United States ruling circles are endeavouring to transform the United Nations into a tool of their aggressive policies, instead of an instrument for peace, which under the Charter it should be.
74. The Soviet Union takes an entirely different view of the United Nations. Mr. Malenkov, Deputy Premier of the USSR, said on 5 October 1952: “The USSR Government attaches great importance to the United Nations, believing that it can be an important means for maintaining peace. At the present time, however, the United States is turning the United Nations, which, under the Charter should be an organ of international co-operation, into an organ of its dictatorial war-mongering policy, and is using the Organization to cover up its acts of aggression. Nevertheless, in spite of the great difficulties caused by the voting machine which the United States has instituted in the United Nations, the Soviet Union defends its policy of peace before the United Nations, and strives to ensure the adoption of realistic proposals corresponding to the needs of the present international situation and aimed at curbing the forces of aggression, preventing a new war and bringing about a cessation of hostilities where they already exist.”
75. The position taken by the Soviet Union in the Disarmament Commission, in particular, is a striking illustration of Mr. Malenkov’s statement. The proposals submitted by the USSR delegation [DC/4/Rev.1 and DC/13/Rev.1], providing for the unconditional prohibition of atomic weapons and the reduction of armaments and armed forces, are designed solely to relax international tension and to strengthen peace throughout the world. It is common knowledge that the Disarmament Commission failed to accomplish the tasks assigned to It by the sixth session of the General Assembly [resolution 502 (VI)]. If the United States, the United Kingdom and France had accepted the USSR proposals, the armaments race, which has brought about a dangerous tension in international affairs, would have been brought to an end. The discussions which took place in the Disarmament Commission showed that the USSR proposals for peace would not meet the purposes of the representatives of the United States, the United Kingdom and France. The representatives of the countries of the North Atlantic bloc, with, the United States representative at their head, drowned the question of the prohibition of atomic weapons and the reduction of armaments and armed forces in empty hypocritical verbiage about the “usefulness of disarmament” and the collection of information about armaments.
76. The peoples of the world realize that the ruling circles of the United States have chosen not the path of peace, but the path of aggression which leads to a new world war.
77. The delegation of the Byelorussian SSR supports e Polish delegation’s proposal that the General Assembly should recommend to the, Governments of the United States, the USSR, the United Kingdom, France and China — in other words, the permanent members of the Security Council — to reduce their armed forces and auxiliary troops by one-third within one year and to submit full information on their armaments.
78. The General Assembly must also recommend to the Security Council that it convene as soon as possible an international conference to effect a reduction of armed forces by all States. The General Assembly must call for the immediate adoption of a resolution prescribing the unconditional prohibition of atomic weapons and other means of mass destruction and the establishment of strict international control to ensure observance of this resolution by all States.
79. Only by adopting these proposals can we settle this most important question once and for all.
80. The criminal policy of splitting Germany and reviving militarism and fascism in Western Germany constitutes a serious threat to international peace and security. The Western Powers are thwarting the fulfilment of the Potsdam Agreements on the demilitarization and denazification of Germany. As a result of the Bonn “general agreement” and the Paris agreement concerning the “European Defence Community”, Western Germany has been included in the aggressive North Atlantic bloc, in which an essential part is to be played by the army of Western Germany, which longs to take its revenge, According to Press reports, Mr. Blank, an official representative of the Bonn Government, told foreign Press correspondents on 13 June 1952 that it was proposed to expand the Western German army to a total of 500,000 men, including 100,000 former regular officers and non-commissioned officers of the nazi Wehrmacht. The revival of the army is accompanied by the rapid restoration of the industrial potential of Western Germany for military purposes. The I. G. Farbenindustrie, the world-famous chemical trust, which played a prominent part in starting the Second World War, has been completely restored and is factories have reached a greater rate of production than in the year preceding the Second World War. The factories of the war-criminals Krupp and Thyssen are also working at full capacity.
81. All this testifies to the fact that a new focus of aggression is being created in the centre of Europe. The tears have not yet dried, the wounds are not yet. healed and the ruins of the cities still remain as reminders of the monstruous bombings of the Second World War, but already the American and German imperialists are again seeking to plunge us into a new and even more horrible catastrophe,
82. The peoples of the world, and the Byelorussian people among them, well remember the countless miseries and sufferings caused by the German imperialist aggression. They angrily protest against the criminal policy of encouraging the German militarists. They demand the speediest possible conclusion of a comprehensive peace treaty, which is the only means of reuniting Germany. This is a matter of vital interest to the peoples of the world, including the Byelorussian people, who suffered all the consequences of the treacherous nazi invasion. That is why the Byelorussian people are firmly resolved to ensure the establishment of a united, peace-loving and democratic Germany, which, instead of helping to prepare another universal slaughter, would help to strengthen friendly relations among nations and the cause of peace throughout the world.
83. The speech which Mr. Eden made yesterday showed that the ruling circles of the United Kingdom are wholeheartedly following the United States ruling circles on the German question, grossly violating the Yalta and Potsdam agreements and sabotaging achievement of the important task of establishing a single, independent, democratic Germany.
84. The lawful representatives of the People's Republic of China are still absent from the United Nations because of the opposition of the ruling circles of the United States, although the need to relieve international tension and to increase the authority of the United Nations makes their presence here imperative. As a result of the victory of the Chinese people’s revolution, the group of venal Kuomintang rulers led by Chiang Kai-shek was expelled from China. Although the Kuomintang group now no longer represents, anyone and does not enjoy the support of the Chinese people; the Anglo-American bloc is continuing quite illegally to recognize the right of this group to represent China in the United Nations, whereas this right belong exclusively to the lawful representative of the Chinese people — the Central People’s Government of the People’s Republic of China.
85. The next question on which I wish to dwell is that of trade relations between East and West. We all know that, under Article 55 of the Charter, the United Nations is called upon to promote “higher standards of living, full employment, and conditions of economic and social progress and development’’.
86. Representatives at this session must realize that under present conditions the development of trade between the countries of East and West is a matter of particular importance. The Western States, however, under pressure from the United States Government, which is guided by political rather than by economic considerations, are deprived of the possibility of following this path. The countries of Western Europe are continuing to cut down their trade with the countries of Eastern Europe. Thus, according to the United Nations Economic Bulletin for Europe for the second quarter of 1951, British exports to the USSR totalled $32 million in 1950, but only $13 million in the first six months of 1951; French exports amounted to $3 million and $1 million respectively; the exports of Belgium and Luxembourg totalled $29 million in 1949 and $19 million in 1950; Danish exports totalled $9 million in 1949, $1 million in 1950, and nothing at all in the first six months of 1951. These figures speak for themselves.
87. The notorious Marshall plan and the bilateral agreements signed in accordance with Its terms have given the United States the "right" to forbid the countries of Western Europe to export raw materials and industrial goods to the USSR and the peoples' democracies, Belgium, for example, with warehouses bulging with textile goods, was forbidden to sell manufactured clothing to Bulgaria, on the ground that it was made from cotton received under the Marshall plan. In September 1951, the United States, proceeding towards a further deterioration of relations with the USSR, passed the Battle Bill, placing an embargo on trade with the USSR and the peoples' democracies and breaking the trade agreement of 4 August 1937 between the Soviet Union and the United States. The United States Government is also bringing brutal pressure to bear on other countries in an attempt to make them cease trading with the USSR and the peoples' democracies.
88. It is natural, therefore, that business circles and a number of political leaders, in several countries of Western Europe, who do not wish to see their countries finally enslaved by American capital, are calling ever more insistently for an expansion of trade between Western and Eastern Europe. The fact that in 1951 and 1952 a number of trade agreements were concluded between Eastern and Western European countries is an indication of the vitality of trade relations between those countries and demonstrates that there is a vital need for expansion of trade between them. If such trade were developed further, the countries of Western Europe would be able to overcome many of their difficulties both with regard to supplies for their populations and with regard to markets for their goods. It would bring about a better utilization of the economic resources of all countries and would help to increase employment and raise the standard of living of broad masses of the population.
89. The development of international trade on a broad scale will be an important factor in relieving international tension and m promoting fruitful co-operation among States. We must welcome these trends and help to broaden and strengthen them.
90. From its earliest days, the USSR has steadfastly and consistently pursued a policy of peace, has unfailingly defended, the cause of peace and has practised a policy of co-operation with all countries.
91. An indication of the USSR Government's peaceful endeavours is the vast Stalin plan, which aims at transforming nature and ensuring rich and regular harvests, and which provides for shelter-belt planting in the steppe and wooded-steppe regions. This is also the purpose of the orders enacted in 19S0, providing for the transition to a new system of irrigation designed to make the fullest possible use of irrigated lands and agricultural technology, for the construction of hydro-electric stations in the Kuybyshev, Stalingrad and Kakhovka areas, and for the building of the main Turkmen canal and the South Ukraine and North Crimea canals.
92. A vast transformation has also taken place in the Byelorussian SSR. In recent years, 4 million square metres [43,056,000 square feet] of housing units have been built in Byelorussia, plants and factories destroyed by the German occupation troops have been restored and put into operation, 436,000 peasant houses have been built and more than 2 million persons who formerly lived in huts have been settled in them. The Byelorussian people are draining marshes; especially those in the Polesye plateau, which covers approximately one-quarter of the whole territory of Byelorussia, All our people are engaged on peaceful constructive work. The Byelorussian people, who suffered all the horrors of the Second World War, unanimously approve the peace-loving foreign policy of the USSR Government, which is striving tirelessly for peace and in defence of peace.
93. The Byelorussian, people unanimously signed the World Peace Council's appeal for the conclusion of a peace pact among the five great Powers. The peoples of all countries want the five great Powers, which are responsible for peace throughout the world, to open negotiations and reach agreement as soon as possible. The General Assembly must call on the five great Powers to conclude a peace pact and combine their efforts for the achievement of this great aim. The Byelorussian delegation warmly supports the Polish delegation’s proposal for the conclusion of a peace pact among the five great Powers directed towards the strengthening of peace among the nations. We are witnesses to the fact that a vast movement in defence of peace has rapidly seized the whole population of the globe and rallied hundreds of millions of people in all countries under the banner of the struggle for peace throughout the world. These anti-war sentiments of the peoples of the world were expressed at the last session of the World Peace Council, which addressed an appeal to the United Nations, urging the General Assembly at its seventh session to adopt concrete proposals for the maintenance of peace and the restoration of international confidence. It is our duty to listen to the voice of hundreds of millions of people demanding that peace be maintained.
94. The Byelorussian delegation supports the proposals made by the Chairman of the Polish delegation at this session of the General Assembly, and calls upon the representatives gathered at the seventh session of the General Assembly to adopt these proposals. They are designed solely to relieve international tension and to strengthen peace throughout the world. By adopting these proposals, the General Assembly will perform its duty of achieving and maintaining international peace and security.