44. Whereas recent sessions of the United Nations General Assembly have been held in an atmosphere of agitation, division and dispute, this eighth session starts work in an atmosphere of detente and conciliation. The Korean armistice has at last been signed. After three years of terrible carnage and suffering, the trial by force of arms has ended in that part of the world, and the leaders of the great Powers have indicated their intention of meeting in order to reach an understanding and, let us hope, to co-operate.
45. The armistice must not be regarded as a victory for one side or the other, but as a victory for the Purposes and Principles of the Charter. Egypt rejoices greatly in that victory and applauds every effort made to achieve the armistice. It shares the hope that international relations may soon be restored on the bases of mutual friendship, understanding and co-operation. It believes that agreement among the permanent members of the Security Council, co-operation among the Members of the United Nations, good faith in carrying out the resolutions of its various organs, respect for the rights of nations great and small, and the rule of law and justice, are the essential elements for a lasting peace and the stable maintenance of the individual or collective security of States.
46. The armistice is only one step towards the peaceful settlement of the Korean conflict. It marks the first success of the United Nations after a series of setbacks. For, in recent years, our Organization has been unable to fulfil its proper mission. The cold war was declared almost immediately. after the end of the Second World War. Peace treaties with Germany and Austria have still not been signed. Disagreement among the permanent members of the Security Council has replaced the cordial and sincere co-operation which ensured their victory over the former forces of aggression. Most of the Members of the United Nations are divided between these two blocs.
47. This state of affairs has had the most unfortunate effects. As a result of the controversy and differences among its permanent members, the Security Council has failed repeatedly to ensure the pacific settlement of international disputes in accordance with Chapter VI of the Charter, and it has also failed, in a large number of disputes, to take the necessary measures to maintain or restore international peace and security, in compliance with Chapter VII.
48. Moreover, in the absence of mutual confidence, the great Powers are still far from agreement either on the principles that would make possible the regulation and balanced reduction of conventional armaments or on the prohibition of the use of weapons of mass destruction. Consequently, their armaments race, far from relaxing, gains speed from day to day, and so helps to aggravate political tension and the world economic crisis.
49. To all this must be added the disagreement on the interpretation of Article 4 of the Charter concerning the admission of new Members, the result being that over the last six years a large number of States have been prevented from joining our Organization, whose strength resides in its universality.
50. Finally, is it necessary to dwell on the need to respect and support the national aspirations of peoples oppressed and enslaved by the policy of imperialism, which has just taken a new lease of life? Is it necessary to, show that the only effect of that policy is to create'" for the world in general and for the United Nations in particular disputes no less serious than those created by disagreement among the permanent .members of the Security Council?
51. In this atmosphere of dissension and discord, Egypt has continued to put its trust in the Principles of the Charter, which it signed and ratified in good faith. It firmly believes in the value of international co-operation based on the principles of law and justice and respect for the rights and liberty of peoples. In its zeal for the maintenance of international peace and security, it steadily upholds the principle of the equality of peoples and their right of self-determination. It seeks to co-operate with all members of the General Assembly with a view to solving all international problems, whether economic, social, intellectual or humanitarian. It has faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and value of the human person. It seeks to promote the development of democratic political institutions.
52. What I have just said is not a mere declaration of principles on our part; this is amply proved by Egypt’s deeds under the healthy, honest and regenerative regime which the Egyptian people installed on 23 July 1952.
53. That was the object which my Government had in view when, in a note dated November 1952, it informed the United Kingdom of its desire to settle the dispute concerning the Sudan. That' note did but reflect the desires and aspirations of all the Sudanese political parties, expressed in agreements reached between the Egyptian Government and the Sudanese political parties. Subsequently there were negotiations between the representatives of Egypt and the United Kingdom. The negotiations were long and laborious. But let me point out that, at every stage in them, Egypt was only defending' the aspirations and interests of the Sudanese as expressed by all their political parties. At no time did Egypt depart from that policy, and I am happy to inform you that on 12 February 1953 agreement was reached between Egypt and the United Kingdom over the Sudan. Under that agreement, the Sudan will have its own government, its own parliament and its own political institutions. Three commissions, international in character, were formed to supervise and carry out the various clauses of - the agreement: the first, to supervise the powers of the Governor-General; the second, to conduct and supervise elections; and the third, to complete the transference of the administration to the Sudanese.
54. After a short transitional period, which must not exceed three years, the Sudan will have to elect a constituent assembly to determine the country’s future. The election will be international in character and is to be held in an atmosphere of neutrality and complete impartiality. The Sudan is to be administered by the Sudanese. The armed forces of Egypt and the United Kingdom are to evacuate the Sudan before the election of the assembly. Once elected, the constituent assembly will take up the task of drafting a new constitution and of choosing between two alternatives: either to link the Sudan to Egypt, in a form still to be decided, or to proclaim the independence of the Sudan.
55. I take this opportunity to congratulate our brethren, the Sudanese, and I am only expressing the desire of the whole Egyptian people when I send our brothers in the South our sincere wishes for their future development in all fields: political, social and / economic. Egypt is determined to carry out the Sudan agreement in good faith; it firmly intends to see that it is respected both in the letter and the spirit. My delegation has no need to say that any breach of any of the provisions of that agreement, or any interference with the application in toto of its clauses would have the most serious consequences.
56. It is in this same spirit of conciliation that Egypt has begun talks to solve the Anglo-Egyptian dispute concerning the question of the Suez Canal. The presence of British forces of occupation is opposed by the unanimous will of the Egyptian people. This occupation of territory belonging to a Member State of the United Nations remains completely unjustified, and the United Kingdom itself is hard put to it to find a legitimate basis for the presence of its 80,000 soldiers in the Canal zone. The Egyptian people are determined to free themselves completely and to put an end to the illegal occupation of their territory. We must point out that any delay in the settlement of this dispute, which has created a constant state of tension, may at any time give rise to very serious incidents such as might threaten international peace and security in a particularly susceptible part of the world.
57. In 1950, Egypt and the other Arab League States concluded a treaty of joint defence and economic co-operation which has just been put into effect. The Permanent Military Commission, the Joint Defence Council and the Economic Council, which are standing bodies of the regional system, have already begun work. The Arab States, which seek only peace, have set up this system within the framework of the Charter, for the purpose of ensuring their collective defence and economic co-operation.
58. Egypt, which has suffered so much from imperialism, means to defend the cause of freedom wherever it needs to be defended. It is convinced that in doing so it is defending the Purposes and Principles of the Charter. Imperialism, which we thought dead and buried, has just raised its head and is again threatening international peace and security. The liberty of peoples and their right to self-determination were the principal objectives of the Allies and of the United Nations in the First and Second World Wars. They have been enshrined in the Charter of our Organization. I feel I must emphasize that the peoples should not, that they cannot, forever be misled or continue to be subjected, for all subjection is a destructive anacronism incompatible with any society worthy of this century. In other words, independence movements should be supported and assisted and not decapitated or throttled.
59. Since its sixth session, the General Assembly has been concerned with the questions of Tunisia and Morocco, two sovereign States, which have been reduced, under a protectorate, to a status of complete subjection. Faced by the decisions of this Assembly to place these questions on its agenda, the only argument that France could find in support of its unintelligible position was to refuse to participate in the debate on those questions. This attitude of France is incompatible both with the role of the General Assembly and with the international mission of France.
60. But the absence from the debate of the French delegation did not prevent the General Assembly from seeking, by one means or another, a formula whereby it could show that that serious situation required serious attention, while allowing France to emerge from the impasse with dignity. On 17 and 19 December 1952, the General Assembly adopted two resolutions relating to Tunisia [resolution 611 (VII)] and Morocco [resolution 612 (VII)]. In those resolutions, it expressed its confidence that the Government of France would endeavour to further the effective development of the free institutions of the Tunisian and Moroccan peoples, in conformity with the Purposes and Principles of the Charter. It then expressed the hope that the negotiations would be continued on an urgent basis and that the parties would refrain from any acts or measures likely to aggravate the existing tension.
61. France thus had every chance to prevent an already alarming situation from deteriorating still further. What was its response to the conviction and hope expressed by the Assembly? Not only did it completely disregard the resolutions, but it took a series of violent steps to repress and stifle the voices of those who were attempting to act on those resolutions, both in Tunisia and in Morocco. Its action culminated in the deposition and exile of the Sultan of Morocco.
62. In the circumstances it is, in our opinion, imperative for the General Assembly to revise its previous resolutions, and this time to recommend measures more likely to remove the tension existing in Tunisia and Morocco.
63. May we entertain the hope that France will abandon this attitude that is at variance with the Charter and will display a liberal spirit by according the national aspirations of the peoples of Tunisia and Morocco the consideration they deserve?
64. The representative of France referred this morning [445th meeting] to two principles that he said were inseparable and constituted the golden rule of French policy in Africa. Those principles were interdependence and democracy, in that order. In connexion with the fact that France had invited the peoples of Europe to sacrifice part of their sovereignty in the interests of the economic, military and political integration of their continent, the representative of France asked the following question: how was it possible, without inconsistency, to ask the continent of Africa to accept division at a time when the continent of Europe was federating and uniting?
65. It is not my intention to enter into a discussion of these particular points today: they will be debated in their proper time and place and will, let us hope, give rise to opposition. I shall confine myself at the present stage to a few remarks. France is perfectly free to base its African policy on whatever principles it likes, but our General Assembly is equally entitled to discuss the consequences and repercussions of that policy when it produces a situation such as that at present existing in Tunisia and Morocco and runs counter to the teaching and spirit of the Charter of the United Nations.
66. Consequently, without intending or assuming to correct French policy in Africa, I should like to point out that if these principles are adopted as the basis of a policy, they should at least be applied in the reverse order: democracy and interdependence, not interdependence and democracy. That is the whole thing in a nutshell. If a relationship of interdependence is to be established, it must be freely agreed to, and that agreement must be the democratic expression of a nation’s will. To ask a people to give up part of its sovereignty presupposes that it is already enjoying the full, unrestricted and undivided exercise of that sovereignty.
67. The questions concerning Palestine, even those which have already been examined and on which resolutions have been adopted by this Assembly, still remain in abeyance. The sorry plight of the Arab refugees from Palestine holds serious dangers, both social and political, for all the countries of the Middle East. To continue to abandon one million human beings to the unhappy fate that lies in store for all those who suddenly become stateless, and thus to create a favourable environment for subversive activities, is simply to aggravate an already very alarming situation.
68. Article 109 of the Charter makes provision for the inclusion in the agenda of the tenth session of the General Assembly of an item on the convening of a general conference for the purpose of reviewing the Charter. This item will be included automatically. The Egyptian delegation felt that it was making a constructive contribution by requesting this eighth session of the General Assembly [A/2466] to place on its agenda a proposal for setting up a technical committee, consisting of representatives of a sufficient number of Member States to be elected by the General Assembly, to co-ordinate the preparatory work of the conference on revision of the Charter. The main task of this technical committee would be to ascertain the views of the various Member States, and to analyse, classify and assemble them without going into the political aspects of the problem of reviewing the Charter or adopting any definite position on the subject. Thus the Egyptian proposal merely aims at setting up the necessary prepartory machinery for convening the general conference.
69. At its last session, held at Geneva, the Economic and Social Council took certain decisions to deal with the economic difficulties likely to arise out of the armistice in Korea and the discontinuation of armaments programmes. Political, economic and social factors are obviously so closely interwoven that a political decision of any nature, even one relating to the peace or the armistice, automatically affects the economic and social situation.
70. This brings us to consider what the United Nations, under the Charter, has done in these fields. The principles of economic co-operation have resulted in the establishment of our two financial and monetary organs, and of certain practical programmes, such as the Expanded Programme of Technical Assistance.
71. There is no denying, unfortunately, that these ventures are simply a tentative beginning, in view of the lack of sufficient financial resources to deal with the great economic and social problems confronting mankind. We must remember, however, that political relationships have at times given rise to economic cooperation which has passed beyond the stage of mutual profit and assumed the form of generous assistance and unilateral gifts. Yet everyone is aware that this great transfer of capital has not been sufficient in itself to enable certain advanced economies to achieve stability or to solve the international problem of the balance of payments deficit.
72. Referring to the big economic problems of the present time, the Secretary-General, in his last report, and also the representatives of the States members of the Economic and Social Council, alike expressed the view that the economic development of under-developed countries was the only effective way of enabling the international economy to move towards equilibrium and to increase in prosperity.
73. Allow me to show how completely the underdeveloped economies have been left to their fate, while suffering the consequences of disruptive influences from abroad. I need not stress the disastrous effects of the Korean crisis on the under-developed countries’ frail economic structure. It is true that those countries were able to enlarge their reserves of foreign currency as a result of the increase in the volume of their exports in 1950 and 1951. But, following the sharp fall in the prices of their products, since the middle of 1951, the temporary boom has been succeeded by a serious slump that is affecting the balance of payments and the already excessively low standard of living.
74. My own country, more than many others, has suffered the disastrous economic consequences of the Korean crisis. It has had to struggle to achieve economic and social development in the unfavourable atmosphere created for it by the hostile trade policy of certain Powers. Fortunately for Egypt, the intrigues of those Powers, alarming as they were at the outset, failed utterly, owing to the vitality of the Egyptian economy, which recovered, thus eluding the pressures those Powers had tried to bring to bear upon it. Since its awakening in 1952 — a salutary one from every point of view — Egypt has not only coped with the difficulties in which it was involved by the Korean crisis and the political egotism of certain Powers, but has managed to reorganize its economy, stabilize its balance of payments and balance its budget, at the same time laying the foundations of large-scale reforms in the political, administrative, economic and social fields.
75. Agrarian reform is one of the most outstanding examples of the way in which our liberal and egalitarian philosophy has been successfully applied. This structural reform has not been confined to controlling agricultural property by creating a new class of landowners while safeguarding the legitimate interests of the former owners, but has also been directed towards establishing a system of tenant-farming under which the farmer is provided with the means of working the land and receives a fair share of the return from it, so that he and his family can live decently. The fixing of minimum wages for farm labour, the organization of farm unions and the establishment of farm production co-operatives are the principal elements together with the control of agricultural property, of this important reform, which represents a very considerable advance in the history of Egypt in particular, and of democracy in general.
76. To promote the rational development of the economy, my Government has established an independent organ with a comparatively large budget. Conscious of the important role of national and foreign capital in economic development, we have instituted a number of reforms in our legislation governing capital investment and the transfer of capital. Recent legislation exempts capital invested in industry from profits tax for seven years. Other laws deal with the need for foreign capital, by guaranteeing it the necessary security and protection and allowing for its future repayment on very generous terms.
77. Our social policy is no less progressive than our economic policy. We no longer consider human beings as a mere factor in production or consumption; we regard their welfare as the final objective of all our economic and social activity. That philosophy is demonstrated by the proportion of the Egyptian budget given over to public services, health and housing. The forthcoming establishment of the Social Council will, moreover enable us to co-ordinate still further our action in the social field and to make it more effective in dealing with our great social problems.
78. All these vital reforms, whether economic or social, are prompted by democratic concepts and egalitarian rationalism, the dual basis of our movement of 1952. The contrasts in Egypt under the old regime frequently gave rise to acute antagonisms; now, the country has recovered its strength, not only to carry out the most sweeping reforms in many different fields, out. to consolidate and improve its political system and democratic institutions. The commission which was set up in Egypt for the purpose of drafting a constitution to be submitted to a popular vote is working unremittingly. Its function is certainly not to transplant a few spurious principles to the banks of the Nile, but to establish a true democracy on a sound, realistic basis, a democracy which will no longer be confined to the organization of political institutions and the proclamation of individual freedoms, but will be extended to encompass economic, social and cultural rights and institutions.
79. Western democratic institutions transplanted hastily to the East have often been distorted and have even led to the exploitation of the people for the benefit of the privileged few. Our movement, conscious of the democratic heritage of the Egyptian people and imbued with a real sense of parliamentary democracy, is resolved to establish a sound democracy which will ensure complete individual freedom and equality before the law, and under which those rights can be exercised without anyone hampering them.
80. Before concluding, I should like to congratulate Mrs. Pandit, upon her election to the high office of President of the General Assembly. This duty is all the more pleasant because I am merely expressing the unanimous feeling of Egypt, which has the highest respect for Mrs. Pandit. I know that she does not like any reference to the fact that she is a woman. I am not referring to that fact as a recognition of the victory for women which her election symbolizes. Other speakers have recognized that, together with her other accomplishments. I refer to the fact because I wish to offer up a prayer. Madam, may the Almighty guide your merciful woman’s hand so that it may, like a magic wand, transform the insecure and divided world in which we live into a better world where peace, law and justice shall reign.