161. Among the resolutions adopted by the Economic and Social Council at its sixteenth session, held recently in Geneva, was resolution 482 A (XVI). In part II of that resolution, the Council recommends that the General Assembly should consider, at its eighth session, a draft text whereby Member States would declare themselves prepared to ask their peoples, “when sufficient progress has been made in internationally supervised worldwide disarmament, to devote a portion of the savings achieved through such disarmament to an international fund, within the framework of the United Nations, to assist development and reconstruction in under-developed countries”.
162. At the time the resolution was adopted, a justifiable feeling of optimism was reigning in Geneva and in the world at large, arising from the recent signing of the Korean armistice. Later developments, however, are tending to change the hopeful atmosphere which then prevailed and are giving grounds for apprehension that the brief relaxation of international tension which appeared to be setting in last July may be coming to an end. It would be a pity if this eighth session of the Assembly should have to complete its deliberations in the same atmosphere that has hung over the United Nations since 1950.
163. These developments are related to the new conditions which the Central People’s Government of the People’s Republic of China and the authorities of North Korea are putting to the United Nations and which threaten to delay once again the settlement of this question which is so fraught with dangers for world peace. It is the under-developed countries which would suffer most directly from such a postponement, for it would be a direct blow to the countries needing assistance from abroad, among which, first and foremost, are the peoples of Asia and Africa. The industrially developed States, seeing their security imperilled, feel that, in view of the magnitude of the threat, any precaution they may take is justified.
164. It has been clearly established in the reports of the Disarmament Commission that the prerequisite for the regulation, limitation and balanced reduction of all armed forces and all armaments lies in the relaxation of international tension. We know where the focal points of international tension are and we are well aware that the most immediate danger lies in Korea. If, then, we delay action for the simultaneous settlement of all the points at issue which form what the Secretary-General calls in his memorandum “the East-West conflict”, we shall be at the mercy of vague general formulas which, though they may appear adequate at first glance, will be open to perpetual differences of interpretation.
165. Moreover, as the great majority of the Member States noted in the recent debates at the end of the seventh session, one of the most constructive results of the Korean armistice and one that was most in keeping with the Charter was that it could not be inferred from the text of the agreement that either side was the victor or the vanquished.
166. The United Nations, which represents the sum total of the different political trends in the modem world, had only one aim in view: to impede the progress of violence as a means of attaining advantages. Notwithstanding this, the other side appears to be prompted by the determination to claim a victory, not only over those countries which contributed with their forces to the action in Korea, but also over the fifty-one Member States which qualified the attack on the Republic of Korea as an act of aggression and, what is worse, over the Charter itself. To accept conditions inspired by this claim would be tantamount to permitting an inadmissible revision of the Charter, for it would imply that the Charter could be set aside every time an aggressor demanded, as the price of peace, that the principles laid down in this collective treaty should be disregarded.
167. My delegation recognizes the vital needs that these circumstances have created for the more, highly industrialized countries. The inherent right of self-defence is sanctioned in one of the basic provisions of our Charter, Article 51. The dilemma with which this Assembly is faced is delicate and dangerous, for the means of defence would always be inadequate if, in addition to our present problems, new problems were to arise as a result of the interruption or impairment of the pacific measures which have been employed to prevent possible sources of discontent and violence from being used and exploited by international subversive agitation. First and foremost, among the potential sources of discontent is poverty, due to backward methods of production, and particularly the catastrophic disproportion between the rates of increase of population and of food production. This problem, of supreme importance for international peace and security, formed, as it were, the heart of the discussions of the fifteenth session of the Economic and Social Council, when the world economic situation was under review. At its next session, that vital organ of the United Nations dealt more concretely with the various aspects of the problem. Its honest and painstaking work resulted in the adoption of resolution 482 (XVI), to which I have already referred, concerning the economic development of under-developed countries, resolution 483 (XVI), on full employment, resolution 486 (XVI), concerning international tax problems, and resolution 496 (XVI), outlining a concerted programme of practical action in the social field for the United Nations and the specialized agencies.
168. In resolution 482 A (XVI), the Council stresses the need for the establishment of a special fund to assist development and reconstruction in underdeveloped countries. Technical assistance could produce no effective results if nations which train experts to organize their development were to lack the funds necessary to carry out their plans.
169. It will be equally difficult for these areas to prosper if they are not assured of an active role in the operation of the machinery of world economy. The resolutions on full employment and on international tax problems were adopted with this end in view.
170. In the last paragraph of resolution 483 D (XVI) on full employment, the Council “Calls upon all governments, with a view to increasing trade, employment and standards of living, to take all practicable steps to reduce obstacles to the development of normal and mutually beneficial trade between countries, availing themselves, inter alia, of any opportunities which may arise as a consequence of improved balance of payments or monetary reserve positions, the maturing of newly- developed industries or an easing of international tensions”.
171. With regard to international tax problems, it is true that the Economic and Social Council could not arrive at any definite recommendation concerning the disadvantages of double taxation. On this matter it confined itself to asking the Fiscal Commission in its resolution 486 B (XVI), to continue its studies, and to recommending that “. . . the highly developed countries, acting unilaterally or when concluding tax. agreements, should give special consideration to the feasibility of taking action to ensure that such income is taxable only or primarily in the country in which the income was produced”.
172. The delegations of the under-developed countries were all in agreement in pointing out that low taxes would not stimulate the investment of foreign capital if the capital-exporting countries imposed a tax on such capital that was equivalent to the difference between what would have been paid on the income it would have produced in those countries and what was paid in the country where it was invested.
173. Rarely, perhaps, has it been so necessary for the United Nations to focus its utmost attention upon these problems as at the present time, when the fomenters of international tension never fail to exploit grounds of dissatisfaction in order to foster sentiments hostile to the majority of the Members of the United Nations and particularly to the industrially developed Western Powers.
174. Side by side with these problems of an economic and social character, there are others which can bring about a difficult situation if the process of evolution which began at San Francisco is interrupted. I refer to the destiny of the Non-Self-Governing and Trust Territories.
175. The traditional attitude of Venezuela to this question is well known. My Government considers that Chapter XI of the Charter, concerning the satisfaction of the legitimate aspirations of the peoples of these territories, should be implemented without undue haste or intransigence. On the contrary, we consider that gradual evolution is the best way of ensuring that full self-government, instead of creating new needs or new problems for the territories, will lead to the greater well-being of all the inhabitants.
176. My delegation is also particularly interested in the proposals put forward by the Netherlands and Egypt which, together with the earlier proposal by Argentina, form a basis on which to begin the preparatory or preliminary work required for a rational and constructive revision of the Charter when the time comes. While the system by which the United Nations is governed cannot be considered in the main imperfect, it nevertheless contains provisions which could well be revised. The observations made by many delegations at San Francisco have since been reinforced by those of jurists and thinkers who favour reform. My delegation considers that if the preparatory work which has been recommended is put in hand forthwith, the experience we have gained since the establishment i of the Organization will enable us to assemble sufficient material to draw up an instrument which will embody one of the most sacred principles of international law — the juridical equality of States, a principle which, although proclaimed in the Charter, has been distorted by the rule of unanimity.
177. In congratulating the President on her election to her high office, my delegation cherishes the well-founded hope that under her direction the Assembly will not neglect these vital and important problems during its eighth session.