85. As we commence this session of the General Assembly of the United Nations, despite our pious hopes, we have seen no relaxation of world tension. Much as we are gratified over the armistice in Korea, the political horizon still casts a shadow of pending gloom and destruction. To paraphrase the poet, “humanity with all its fears, with all its hopes for future years, still hangs breathlessly on thy fate”. What shall be that fate? Shall it be peace with plenty? Shall it be peace according to the Charter, devoid: of all fear, of all oppression, of all poverty and of all disease; where the rights and liberties of each individual and the safety of each nation are guaranteed and respected by small nations and the great Powers alike? Or shall we be the victims of our own folly and greed, which with our rapid burrowing into the secrets of nature have assured our own total destruction?
86. Our only hope can be the success of the United Nations. Through the ages, we — as the savage, the barbarian or the modern, cultured gentleman — have developed no other remedy for settling our differences and grievances than congregating around a conference table, whether that table has stood outdoors in the shade of an oak or a palm, in the splendid palaces of the learned and' cultured, or in the bare hut of the simple peasant. God has endowed man with a mind, with a tongue and with the power of reasoning. It is these assets — if he cares to use them — that distinguish man from the beasts of the jungle where the right of survival depends upon the strength of the great.
87. To many it must appear that, as man advances in science and learning, he declines at the same pace in his moral conception of right, justice and the simple principles of honesty and fair play towards his fellow man; there seems to be no equal balance in the scale between his material wants and necessities and his moral rectitude, because his desires for the riches of the world are stimulated according to his cravings, which, through science, have brought him all the luxuries and conveniences of life. Basking in a state of contentment, man is unmindful of his duty towards his fellow man, which, by the moral code, is to “do unto others as you would have them do unto you”.
88. Through this Organization, we have been endeavouring, with some remarkable degree of success, to bring to the less fortunate of our fellow-beings the blessings of the prosperous world — by food through the FAO [Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations], health through the WHO [World Health Organization], education and science through UNESCO [United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization]. But, we wonder, to what avail all this if our struggles through the years to improve and help the less fortunate are to be wiped away overnight by our failures in the political and diplomatic fields to redress our wrongs and to settle our differences? It would be tantamount to fattening the ox before its execution in the arena.
89. Wars have accomplished nothing. To the victors they have brought vain glory, pride and loot, gathered from triumphs that have eventually ended in man’s own destruction. Luxury and comfort beget decadence, decadence generally leads to depravity and softness, and the victor of battle becomes the victim of his own lust. To the vanquished, defeat brings bitterness and kindles the flame of vengeance.
90. As long as man seeks to prey upon man; as long as the individual attempts to exploit the weaknesses and ignorance of his neighbour; as long as the blessings of the universe are not apportioned upon the principle of share and share alike but upon the lion’s policy of strength; as long as the precept of freedom is interpreted in defiance of the moral code that man, made in the image of his Maker, is fully entitled to a share in the yield of the earth; as long as justice is meted out on the basis of skin pigmentation, physical structure or geographical situation, all our gestures of assistance will make no difference, and we shall be bound to have clashes among individual's, nations, races.
91. Today we live in two distinct worlds: the communistic world, with its many democratic republics, and the Western world, with its broad democracies. What would impress one coming from a world foreign to our own is that the chief aims of both these worlds appear to be identical, the ostensible aims being the safeguarding of the rights and privileges of the individual. This identity is illustrated by the terms used by the two types of governments when they style themselves “peoples’ democratic governments” in the East, on the one hand, and “Western democracies” on the other. What is the reason, what is the purpose, when both sides use the selfsame word, “democracy”, and then charge each other with fraud and deceit for using such a term; when each accuses the other of suppression and exploitation of the individual — acts which this symbol, “democracy”, certainly precludes? The reason must be the one which has been well learned through the ages: that no government, no people, no race will continue to live which lives on suppression or the denial of the rights of life, liberty and property to the individual. No State can long thrive that thrives upon the misery and poverty of the weak.
92. The world is troubled not by the doctrines we expound, but rather by the way we apply those doctrines, whether they be communistic or democratic. The proof of the pudding, after all, is in the eating. As the poet, Burns, said: “Oh that God the gift would give us, to see ourselves as others see us.” It is therefore interesting and amusing to those not directly involved, and on the other hand perhaps alarming to those who are in the forefront of the struggle of East versus West, that each side finds among its own citizens advocates and followers of the doctrines of its opponent. These dissents are generally not based upon any settled principle, either communistic in origin or democratic in form; they are simply precipitated by the aspirations of the individual for the rights and privileges which are due to him by his Maker, and which he feels are being denied him by somebody.
93. We deceive ourselves into believing ourselves infallibly right and our opponents unfailingly wrong. It is this deception, nurtured to soothe our guilty conduct, that breeds the suspicion and distrust that we have for each other. So intense and alive has become this feeling of mistrust, that our entire outlook on world problems is based on what we see through the narrow end of a telescope of apprehension and fear — and it is this outlook which has made it impossible for us in this Assembly to assess honestly one another’s proposals for the settlement of disputes, despite the genuineness and sincerity of such proposals. We have come to believe that behind the hand of friendship must necessarily lurk the danger of destruction.
94. There may be grounds for suspicion. True is the proverb that, “once bitten, twice shy”, and we are constantly verifying that adage by quoting the notorious Munich Agreement. Humanity would be lost if God condemned the whole human race simply because one individual was found to be wrong. If we persist in trying to settle our differences on the basis of the Munich Agreement, we shall accomplish nothing, and our fear and distrust will eventually involve us in another catastrophe, which may end our civilization. The purpose for which this Organization was founded would therefore have been defeated, and the United Nations would become simply a rostrum for world propaganda, exploited by each side for its own use and convenience.
95. Men through the ages have formed themselves into clans, tribes, and eventually nations, for the better protection of themselves. With the advance of culture, nations, like individuals, have bound themselves together, by treaties or tacit understandings, into alliances, groups and blocs. The excuse given for such arrangements has been that of self-protection, which precept has become famous in history as the policy of the balance of power. It was hoped by such geographical grouping or racial combining or the merging of self-interests that nations would be deterred from attacking each other. But this form of alliance has not been able to check wars; it has rather accelerated the conflicts among nations. We witnessed the failure of the regional groups in the Great War of 1914-18 between the Triple Alliance and the Entente Cordiale. We saw similar unhappy examples in the Second World War between the Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis and the Allies. It must be because of our disappointment in such pacts that we were finally led to form this Organization, known as the United Nations, which would in itself make these alliances useless and unnecessary.
96. Despite our tragic experiences in the past, our prejudices and misgivings about each other have been so tenacious that we have not been able to shed them, and have thus brought with us into this Organization all the old complaints and illnesses of our world of yesterday. The United Nations has shattered itself into fragments which have become labelled: the Communist bloc, or Iron Curtain countries; the Western bloc, or NATO [North Atlantic Treaty Organization] countries; the Latin-American bloc; the Middle-Eastern bloc; and the Asian-African bloc. With the coming of years, conflicting interests and the admission of new Members with different ideologies, we are apt to see many more groups of this kind.
97. This brings to memory a joke that was circulated in Germany during the Hitler regime. It was stated that the notorious Dr. Ley, the German Minister of Labour, visited the port of Hamburg for the purpose of addressing the workers of the great shipyard of Blom and Voss. In his address, he inquired how many workers present belonged to the Communist Party. He was told 40 per cent. He then asked how many workers belonged to the Socialist Party. He was told 30 per cent. He then asked how many belonged to the Christian Democratic Party. He was told another 30 per cent. From this reckoning. Dr. Ley figured that none of the labourers belonged to his own party. With some degree of hesitation he finally asked how many workers belonged to the Nazi Party. He received a shock at the reply that they were all Nazis. This appears to be the state in the United Nations today. The fragments or splinter groups, though part of the whole, have not tended to strengthen this Organization. It has therefore become clear to all the world that when a major decision is to be taken by the United Nations, concerted action will not follow, as each group views the situation in the light of its own interests and gives its support according to its own conception of right and wrong.
98. The doctrine of the master race, enunciated by Hitler, and the cry for Lebensraum used by the Nazis in their world propaganda, brought into focus the present-day clash of colour and the awakening of the national aspirations of the peoples of Asia and Africa. The theories and policies of the Nazi regime seem to have worked in reverse; notably in Asia, where the shackles of bondage and the stigma of colour have been forced to give way to the surge of nationalism which is today a reality in the new States of the East.
99. It was bound to follow that such outbursts of national aspirations could not be confined to a particular race or to a particular zone or hemisphere — that the rhythm would eventually be picked up in those parts of the world and among those races of mankind that were still subjected to oppression and intimidation. This rising tide of demand for self-determination and independence, spreading from the East, now beats upon the shores and seeps its way into the innermost part of that continent once known as Darkest Africa. It cannot be arrested. It might be temporarily checked, but it will eventually drive all obstacles from its way.
100. We, as Liberians, whose existence was brought into being through grinding oppression, cannot be indifferent to and uninterested in the cry of our brethren in Africa — whether this be from the East or West, North or South, or any portion of the universe. We have known the pains of oppression and the stigma of colour, and we owe it to our national self-respect, to our race, to our continent, to our fellow Africans and to mankind itself to lend an ear to the plaintive cries for freedom and to give all the support we can to the aspirations of those people whose only wish is to be free men and masters of their own destinies. No coercion or intimidation, no promises or cajolery will deter us in this cause.