The annual session of the General Assembly affords an occasion for representatives of Member States to reaffirm their faith in the spirit and principles of the Charter, to review the work of the United Nations as a whole and to express the views and hopes of the peoples they represent.
5. In reviewing our Organization's work during the past year, my delegation is impressed by the progress which has been achieved in some fields of United Nations activity, We are especially impressed by the emphasis given by the Secretary-General in its annual report [A/2141 and Add.1] to the needs of the underdeveloped countries, and by his suggestions for a programme calculated to increase the flow of capital for the economic development of those areas. Such a programme of technical and economic assistance constitutes an effective means for meeting the rising demand for greater equality of opportunity and higher standards of living. It further provides a channel through which national aspirations may find expression in terms of economic advancement and international co-operation.
6. My Government and people are particularly gratified by the adoption, during the last session Of the General Assembly, of the resolution [505 (VI)] on the item entitled: “Threats to the political independence, and territorial integrity of China and to the peace of the Far East, resulting from Soviet violations of the Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship and Alliance of 14 August 1945 and from Soviet violations of the Chapter of the United Nations”.
7. It will be recalled that this important item was brought to the attention of the General Assembly, by my Government during the fourth session of the General Assembly, in 1949. On that occasion, and on subsequent occasions, my delegation supplied detailed accounts of how the Soviet Union had committed aggression against the Republic of China, first by preventing the Chinese Government from re-establishing its effective control over the key area of Manchuria, and then by providing its puppets, the Chinese Communists with military and political aid to overran that vital area.
8. Since November 1950, Manchuria has been used again, this time as a base to operate against the United Nations forces in Korea. In 1949, my delegation called the attention of the General Assembly to the fact that the Soviet Union was threatening the peace of the Far East. Today, as foreseen by us, many countries in that part of the world may be consumed in the flames of world communism. There is a shooting war in Korea. There is a shooting war in Malaya. There is a shooting war in Indo-China. In other parts of Southeast Asia, the communists, acting upon orders from the Kremlin, have instigated periodic outbursts of violence with a view to undermining the established authorities.
9. As has been pointed out by many distinguished representatives who have addressed the plenary meetings and the First Committee, the question of Korea transcends all other questions in importance at this session of the General Assembly. I have had occasion to state before the First Committee the general position of my delegation on this question. I shall, at this time, merely confine myself to a brief discussion of the question in relation to the general background of developments in the Far East during the post-war period,
10. The strategic position of Korea is such that it had been for decades the bone of contention between Russia and Japan. Korea is a springboard to Japan and to the islands of the Pacific. It is understandable why the Soviet Union should have wanted to bring the whole of Korea under its domination. In this respect, communist Russia is in no way different from czarist Russia. In the eyes of the Soviet Union, I am sure, an independent, democratic Korea cannot but constitute an obstruction to its drive for world conquest.
11. In crossing the 38th parallel on 25 June 1950, the communists apparently counted on a quick victory, and when such hopes were blasted by the prompt resistance offered by the United Nations forces, the Chinese Communists threw in their massive manpower in an attempt to drive the United Nations forces into the sea. When their best efforts failed, the Soviet Union immediately sought temporary relief for the satellite forces by proposing the opening of truce talks,
12. The truce talks, first at Kaesong, and then at Panmunjom, have been dragging on now for fifteen months. By this time it should be crystal clear that Stalin and his communist stooges do not really want a truce. The Chinese Communists, by means of every form of propaganda, have systematically fed the people on the mainland with false stories of victories in Korea. They have told the people time and again, over the Peiping radio, of the surrender of the United Nations armies, of the magnanimity of the so-called People’s Government in having agreed to the truce talks. Are the Chinese Communists going to return to their homes empty-handed after such huge casualties? Worse still, are they to return without their prisoners of war who have resisted forcible repatriation? It is only when broad facts are taken into consideration that we can begin to understand the communist position in Korea, their attitude towards the prisoners of war and their, hopes of some gains after all their sacrifices.
13. It is commonly assumed that the issue of the prisoners of war is the only issue which prevents the immediate conclusion of an armistice in Korea. The record of the negotiations at Panmunjom appears to bear out this common assumption. But behind this issue, important as it is in itself, lies another question: will the terms of the truce solidify and strengthen the ranks of world communism? The communists are seeking political gains both at Panmunjom and here in the United Nations while the free world — while the majority of the members of this General Assembly — call for truce and look for peace,
14. My delegation stands firmly against the forced repatriation of prisoners of war. I am glad to note that the vast majority of the delegations here take the same stand.
15. Some delegations have recently sought to solve the problem through some scheme of transfer of those prisoners unwilling to be repatriated to so-called neutral countries, thereby avoiding both repatriation and retention. I appreciate the humanitarian motive behind these proposals. But unless adequate safeguards are provided, a temporary transfer to so-called neutral countries may in effect mean only a delay in forced repatriation. We have seen how the communists tried to apply pressure on the prisoners, even in the camps of the Unified Command in Korea, It is safe to assume that the communists will try to apply direct and indirect pressure on the prisoners of war once they are transferred to so-called neutral countries. We therefore deem it necessary that adequate safeguards should be written into these proposals if they are to serve any useful purpose in the solution of the problem.
16. In the Secretary-General’s introduction to his annual report, it is pointed out that the rise of nationalism in the under-developed nations constitutes a problem of no less significance than the East-West conflict. This deserves the attention of all of us. It is a problem whose importance my delegation wishes to stress.
17. My people have undergone many years of unremitting struggle for freedom and independence. For over a century prior to the abrogation of the unequal treaties imposed upon China during the nineteenth century, we too had been victims of colonial exploitation. We are therefore profoundly sympathetic with the national aspirations of other peoples, and are perhaps in a better position to understand the many problems and obstacles which beset a people in their striving towards the achievement of full nationhood. It is a matter of record that in the principal organs of the United Nations, and in other international organizations, my Government has consistently lent its support to decisions and actions calculated to aid colonial or non-self-governing peoples towards the achievement of self-government and independence. And we shall continue to do so.
18. All freedom-loving peoples must feel a deep sense of gratification in the achievement of freedom and independence in a number of colonial and non-self-governing areas during the post-war period. This achievement is a tribute both to the heroic struggles of the peoples themselves and to the enlightened statesmanship of the colonial powers.
19. Unfortunately, in the violent and widespread chaos which so often accompanies the outbursts of nationalistic aspirations, the communists have too often found an opportunity to make use of nationalism to pursue their own nefarious designs. Communists are the last persons to respect national independence. And yet they have not infrequently succeeded in assuming the lofty pose of champions of democracy and freedom. They have so succeeded because, through infiltration and intrigue, they are able to confuse the issues of nationalism and communism, and thus turn what would be a movement of genuine, constructive nationalism to the service of destructive communism,
20. While the chapter of nineteenth-century colonialism is drawing to a close, there has arisen a new form of colonialism which may perhaps be more accurately described as “satellitism”. The. process of “satellization” has taken place in many lands. We find the same sordid story repeated in every country conquered from without, or captured from within, by communists. Whether the final product is cynically labelled a “peoples’ government”, as on the enslaved mainland of China, or a “democratic republic”, as in North Korea, or a “soviet socialist republic”, as in Eastern Europe, the sad result is the same. The helpless victim is forced to become a part of the communist empire centred in, and under the dictation of, Moscow.
21. The General Assembly, I am sure, needs no reminder from me that the United Nations is dedicated to the inspiring objective — and I quote from the Charter — “to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind”. The United Nations will have failed in its solemn responsibility to all humanity if the scourge of war is allowed to engulf mankind for a third time. In the ruthless process of “satellization”, the world is confronted with a situation which, if not met in time, is bound to plunge mankind into another orgy of global war.
22. In Korea today, aggression is being committed by two satellites of the Soviet Union. Their resources and manpower are being used by the Kremlin to challenge the authority of the United Nations. “Satellization” is in effect a new kind of war — an insidious war — in which indirect aggression by a foreign Power is disguised as an indigenous movement for self-liberation, Politically and ideologically, the communist puppets in Peiping represent a foreign power. They are as completely Soviet puppets as the communist regime in North Korea.
23. I submit that the United Nations must not permit the communist process of “satellization” to replace the colonialism of the past. My delegation contends that this process, as manifested in northern Indo-China, in North Korea, and on the mainland of China, very properly falls within the acts of aggression or other breaches of the peace as defined by the Charter. Let me draw the attention of the Assembly to the organic relationship between communism and the breach of peace. In 1948, Douglas Hyde who for eight years was employed as an executive on the British Communist paper, The Daily Worker, and for five years as its news editor, asserted that the communist struggle was nothing less than war. I quote from his Communism from the Inside: “Communist theory tells the communist that the goal of socialism will be achieved only by revolution, that all progress proceeds from class struggle. For the communist, that struggle is war. And, as in war ... any course of action is permissible. One employs guile and subterfuge; one seeks to penetrate the enemy’s camp by stealth — outwit him, deceive him, and, if necessary, ultimately destroy him.” It was by such methods that the communists seized power in Russia and in the Eastern European countries now behind the “iron curtain”. The same unscrupulous methods were applied to impose communist control on the mainland of China, in North Korea and in northern Indo-China,
24, Communism, by its very nature, is aggressive abroad and oppressive at home. Wherever the Soviet Union succeeds in extending its influence and control, the people are plunged into the depths of degradation and slavery, A Sovietized regime maintains its power only by perpetuating a ruthless reign of terror in which no one is safe — not even the communists themselves who are in the habit of exterminating and purging one another. Wherever communists manage to effect infiltration, their fifth-columnists are at work seeking to create crises and then to exploit them in order to seize political power by violence and intrigue. A country that falls victim to communist aggression is at once converted into an advance base for further aggression. Nations adjacent to the Soviet Union have either fallen behind the “iron curtain” or are in imminent danger of doing so. The same fate awaits those who might be farther removed. In the end, none will be spared.
25, During the sixth session of the General Assembly, my delegation presented in some detail the deplorable, conditions vender which the people on the mainland of China were living, Since then, numerous reports have been published containing shocking accounts of the reign of terror and slave-labour conditions which continue to exist. The reign of terror is an integral part of the process of “satellization” which I have just described.
26. On 23 October 1952, the Free Trade Union Committee of the American Federation of Labor, basing its findings on authentic documents released by the Chinese Communists themselves, reported that no less than 14 million persons had been executed or otherwise put to death during the past five years by the communist puppet regime in Peiping. The findings of the American Federation of Labor are supported by incontestable evidence. The evidence is not difficult to find, because the slave-labour programme is an official declared policy of the communist regime, which takes pride in publicizing the ruthless efficiency with which that programme is being put into effect. On 1 July 1949, on the occasion of the twenty-eighth anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party, Mao Tse-tung stated : “The enemies of the people — the landlords, the bureaucratic capitalists, and the reactionaries — must be brought in line and be compelled to do labour service; and if they refuse to work, coercion will be used till they totally comply with the orders of the people.” This policy is repeated in every communist document related to the subject and is voiced by every prominent communist leader.
27. The victims of the Peiping regime include small businessmen and merchants whose peaceful and legitimate pursuits the communists cannot tolerate. They include farmers and labourers whom the communists seek to press into the service of communist dictatorship. They include prisoners of war who fought as soldiers of the United Nations to repel aggression in Korea. They include missionaries from many lands whose only concern in China is to spread the Christian gospel among the Chinese people. The figure of 14 million to which I have just referred includes only those who actually have been executed, buried alive, or otherwise slaughtered. It does not include the millions who are forced to toil Under conditions which are little more than living death. This is certainty a gruesome programme of genocide, the intensity and magnitude of which surpass even the mass murders and tortures perpetrated by the cruel Nazis.
28. My delegation was highly gratified by the action taken by the United Nations in setting up an Ad Hoc Committee on Forced Labour. We shall give the Committee our fullest support and shall provide it with all the information at our disposal, which is considerable.
29. The communist reign of terror on the mainland of China spares nothing. It does not confine itself to the individual. It aims at nothing less than the total destruction of the whole fabric of the Chinese social structure. It is in his family life that a Chinese acquires his ethical criterion and working philosophy. Communism assails family life in two ways. The first is by physical dispersion. It is the communist policy to scatter the members of a family by assigning them to positions in localities far apart from each other. Secondly, family life is destroyed by the substitution of Communist Party loyalty for the affection and respect which normally exist among immediate family members.
30. In the elementary schools, children are taught to report on the “thought” and daily life of their parents and are encouraged to bring accusations against them in public. In the secondary schools, emphasis is laid on the “evils” of capitalism and on the “sins” of “American imperialists” and their “lackeys”. All text-books have been rewritten with a view to glorifying the achievements of communism and of the invincibility of communist armies. In the universities, every trace of liberal education has been eradicated. The entire educational system is thus made subservient to communist ideology.
31. Can such tactics succeed? Have they ever succeeded? For 2,500 years, Chinese of every religious faith have accepted and lived a way of life in conformity with the teachings of Confucius. The virtues of filial piety of loyalty, of righteousness, and of tolerance have formed the basis of Chinese culture which, like Greek culture, is humanistic in tradition. Where the criterion of individual attainment has rested for centuries on self-cultivation and self-respect, communism now seeks to destroy the individual and reduce him to the level of a slave to an all-powerful State.
32. It has sometimes been said that the Chinese people, so heroic in their fight for freedom during the last war, Have somehow chosen communism in. preference to a free way of life, and, also, that the communist victory on the mainland signifies a new phase in a social revolution which has overtaken China. Nothing is farther from the truth, because nothing could be more alien to the Chinese tradition than communism.
33. In spite of the temporary military successes of the communists, my Government remains the rallying point of all anti-communist Chinese, including over 12 million overseas Chinese, whose support of my Government has been as spontaneous as it is unflinching. These overseas Chinese are scattered in all corners of the world — from Capetown to Juneau, from Havana to Singapore. In the case of Singapore, where the authorities have recognized the Peiping regime, the anti-communist sentiments of the local Chinese are such that they have made known to the authorities their strong objection to the possible establishment of a communist consulate there
34. May I cite a concrete case on the island of, Hong Kong. In 1950, no fewer than ninety-six labour unions with a total up-do-date membership of 98,610, had accepted communist leadership. But they have since rejected communism and communists and have declare their allegiance to Free China. Today there are at Hong Kong only fifty-nine communist unions, with an aggregate membership of 25,274. In other words, out of every five union members, nearly four have chosen to reject communism. This they did entirely on their own initiative. This preference for freedom has also manifested itself in the prisoner camps of Korea where, out of a total of 20,000 Chinese prisoners of war, only 6,400 have signified their willingness to be repatriated. And only the other day, Lo Jui-ching, the communist police chief in Peiping, admitted that, after three years of brutal liquidation and extermination, what he terms “counter-revolutionaries” are still “carrying on against the people’s government everywhere”.
35. The question may be raised: how can an organization like the United Nations, dedicated as it is to the maintenance of peace, concern itself with condemning a particular school of political thought? The answer to that question is that any school of political thought which calls for the systematic destruction of fundamental human rights is contrary to the spirit and principles of the Charter.
36. For communism is not national but international in character. It is not constructive but destructive in spirit. It enslaves mankind. It is not a mere political philosophy; its aims is world conquest. We have seen how it is translated into action in various parts of the world. We have come to understand, from the way communist infiltration operates, that communists do not believe in the settlement of disputes by peaceful means. With them, peace is an offensive political propaganda. Like fascism and nazism, communism is based on the use of violence for achieving its final aim of world domination. It is in essence a system of action definitely aimed at the violent overthrow of all other forms of. government. It is impossible for communism to divorce theory from action.
37. Herein lies its challenge to an organization like the United Nations, which is dedicated to peace. It is time that we divested ourselves of the illusion that communists desire a peaceful coexistence. Let me recall the example Of Korea. Paragraph 5 of Article 2 of the Charter provides: “All Members shall give the United Nations every assistance in any action it takes in accordance with the present Charter, and shall refrain from giving assistance to any State against which the United Nations is taking preventive or enforcement action.”
38. The General Assembly has the duty to ask, in the light of the enforcement action that we have taken in Korea, whether the Soviet Union has given the United Nations any assistance in the Korean war. Has the Soviet Union seen fit to refrain from giving assistance to North Korea and to the Chinese Communists in then wanton aggression in Korea
39. The truth is that the Soviet bloc in the United Nations has consistently refused to co-operate with the other Member States in the world-wide economic and social programme of the Organization, in all its attempts to arrest the tide of aggression and to bring the aims and purposes of the Charter nearer to realization.
40. Let me refer to another example of non-co-operation on the part of the Soviet Union and its satellites. As we know, a number of peace-loving nations have failed in their application for membership in the United Nations. I have in mind especially Italy, Libya and Japan, States which are fully prepared to accept the obligations imposed by the Charter. Take the case of Japan. After a period of Allied occupation, accompanied by a programme of democratization, Japan is today in a position to join with other peace-loving nations as a stabilizing factor in the Far East. But it is denied admission.
41. It is not my purpose here to enter into a discussion of the general problem of United Nations membership. I wish to make it clear, however, that I do not subscribe to the proposition that any State that knocks at the door of the United Nations should be forthwith admitted. On the contrary, I think there are States which are definitely precluded from membership either because they are puppet creations of another Power, and therefore cannot properly be called independent, or because the nature of their government is such that they cannot be described as peace-loving. The States I have just mentioned, and a few like States, are in a different category. They are sovereign, independent and peace-loving, and they can be expected to Contribute much to the work of our Organization.
42. It is the firm conviction of my delegation that the United Nations must adopt a clear-cut policy toward communism and must state in unequivocal terms that communism is a threat to the peace and security of the World today. It is the solemn duty of the United Nations to uphold the principles of peace. The United Nations is the only world organization which can and must assert moral leadership in a world in which millions of people have already lost their freedom, and where millions more are living under the constant fear of losing their freedom.
43. My delegation is encouraged by the adoption of the “Uniting for peace” resolution [377 (V)} and the machinery created under that resolution to cope with emergency situations. It is our fervent hope that this machinery will be employed to give support to areas threatened by communist aggression. The United Nations should at least give moral encouragement to the peoples now behind the “iron curtain” who are praying, planning and, in some cases, struggling to regain freedom. All encouragement given these peoples is an undertaking in the cause of freedom. And, inasmuch as freedom and security are indivisible, a sharp distinction must be recognized between an act calculated to deprive peoples of their freedom and one which aims to restore it. Whether or not the United Nations is competent under the Charter to help captive peoples to regain their freedom is a question which I do not choose to discuss here, but certainly the United Nations is under no compulsion to question the right of enslaved peoples to struggle for the restoration of their own freedom from within, or for the liberation of their own country from without at their own sacrifice. It is our responsibility at this stage not only to preserve freedom but to indicate in no uncertain terms that the cause of freedom, even though temporarily eclipsed, will be upheld and defended.
44. The machinery of the United Nations should be strengthened and should at all times be ready to mobilize the tremendous moral authority it rightly commands to deal swiftly and definitely with situations which threaten the peace. It dare not quibble or procrastinate. When an act of aggression is committed, whether directly or indirectly, the United Nations must demonstrate that it is not lacking in courage and fortitude. The aggressor must not be permitted to use his ill-gotten gains as capital for political bargaining. He must not be permitted, above all, to undermine the solidarity of the free nations. The Korean case has taught us that it is only through the unity of the free nations that the United Nations can increase its capacity to act promptly in the face of aggression.
45. The general debate is a fitting occasion for stocktaking, The United Nations is founded upon the principle of collective security. In its first test, that of aggression in Korea, the United Nations, under the leadership of the United States and with the support of a substantial majority of Member States, has not failed,
46. Twenty-one years ago, the League of Nations was confronted with a similar act of aggression in Manchuria. The League failed to act on its declared principles. With what result? The Second World War became inevitable. Had the United Nations hesitated in that fateful last week of June 1950, it would have invited the same fate as that which befell the League of Nations.
47. I come from a part of the world which is farthest away from the headquarters of the United Nations, but nearest to the threat of communist aggression. I have sought today to bring to this Assembly a realization of the urgent need for resistance to aggression in my part of the world. The peoples of Asia are looking up to the United Nations for understanding and for support. Free men everywhere are watching the United Nations. Will the United Nations be able to deal with communism as a world menace? The United Nations has met its first test nobly. It is our fervent prayer that it will continue to meet every test with courage and fortitude. Let us face the menace of international communism with the solidarity, the fearlessness and the determination worthy of this Organization.