One might wonder why such a small country as Liberia finds it necessary to take part in this general debate which concerns the destinies of mankind, especially after the speeches of the great Powers such as the United States of America, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the United Kingdom and so on. Liberia is a small nation with no great armies, navies or air forces and would have little to contribute to the fate of the world if that fate rested upon the might of armed forces. Our very existence as a State springs not from our might or the force of power to liberate ourselves from grinding oppression and cruelty but rather from the remorse of conscience of those States which have exploited the weaknesses of our race.
2. It therefore can never be a reproach to us that a portion of our race was exploited to maintain the fruits of luxury of the western countries, as history has shown that man in his greed for the comforts and conveniences of this world was never hesitant in exploiting his weaker brother, regardless of what race or of what creed. The reproach, therefore, must always be levelled at the exploiter, for in exploiting his less fortunate brother he has violated all the principles upon which the dignity of man rests.
3. We, the Liberian people, have maintained our independence not through any physical force, as we have already pointed out. We have neither armies nor navies to maintain and protect our independence, but have chiefly relied upon the moral conscience of our two great colonial neighbours, on their honesty and moral integrity to respect the sanctity of their obligations which were couched in the various treaties signed between us. We regret to say, however, that these obligations have not always been scrupulously respected.
4. It is therefore from this standpoint of the sanctity of treaties and the moral obligations of nations that we have resolved to participate in this general debate. It goes without saying that the existence of all small nations must rely upon the moral integrity of the great Powers to respect the sanctity of treaties.
5. We cannot therefore but view with alarm the disagreement among the great Powers. We have had our hopes for the last three years dashed asunder by the refusal of the great Powers to agree on any formula for world peace.
6. As long as there is such a disagreement among the leading nations of the world the small nations, mindful of their own fate, are bound to reach decisions on world affairs not necessarily based upon a sense of right and justice but chiefly on grounds of their national interests and security of their sovereignty. It therefore does not matter what eloquence might be displayed by the great Powers in setting forth the rightness of their cause; this will have very little effect on those nations whose right to existence is in some way or form linked to one or the other of the conflicting Powers.
7. It implies, therefore, that the almost insoluble divergencies of views among the great Powers have shown that in the political phase the United Nations has become paralysed and static. As long as this situation prevails, and as long as the great Powers feel that they are not bound to respect the wishes of any majority on any issue and can thus ignore such wishes without penalty either by illegal means, that is, by total disregard for the will of the majority, or through legal means by the use of the veto under the Charter, such lofty ideals as saving coming generations from the scourge of another war or the reaffirmation of our faith in fundamental human rights, or the establishment of conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained, or the promotion of social standards, become mere phrases used to appease the conscience of mankind.
S. Under such conditions the small nations are bound to look elsewhere for their national security, and we find them either members of some regional pact or aligning themselves on the side of some great Power; for they can never be unmindful of the rape of Ethiopia, or the subjugation of Norway, Belgium and Denmark by hitlerite Germany. Small nations like mine must therefore ever be mindful of the old Aesop fable of the lion, the ass and the fox. The lion, the ass and the fox went on a hunting expedition and between them managed to kill a deer. As king of the beasts, the lion called upon the ass to divide the spoil. The ass relying upon justice and right based upon fair play, divided the game into three equal parts: one for the lion, one for the fox and one for himself. No sooner done than the ass was pounced upon by the lion and destroyed. The king of the beasts then called upon the fox to make the division. The fox being mindful of the fate of the ass, in dividing the spoil awarded the bulk to the lion, retaining an infinitesimal part for himself. The lion was much pleased and in addressing the fox said, “Sir, where did you learn such good manners?” The fox in reply said, “Sir, from my dead brother the ass.”
9. As long as might still continues to be on the side of the biggest battalion, as long as the high principles of the Charter still continue to remain a Utopian dream, no one should or could expect little nations like mine to sacrifice their national existence upon an artificial altar of right and justice. No power of speech, no coercion will induce them, the small nations, to follow such a blind and unrealistic course. They will cast their votes and lend their support where their national interest is best served and secured. This does not mean that the small nations have lost faith in the United Nations as the most effective instrument of international peace and security, but as long as such lofty ideals remain a Utopian dream, some other form of national security must be substituted.
10. In other spheres, however, such as in the economic and cultural fields, great progress has been made by the United Nations. Technical assistance is being brought to many under-developed countries for the promotion of science, education, health and agriculture. My country is one of the recipients under the technical assistance programme. Already a technical assistance mission from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is working in Liberia. Experts from the World Health Organization have begun to arrive to assist us in the fight against malaria and other tropical diseases. Supplementary agreements have just been signed with the International Labour Organisation for the sending of experts to assist us with our labour problems. A United Nations Information Centre for West Africa has been established in Liberia and we are happy to say that it has already made much progress in enlightening the peoples of that region of the world about the activities of the United Nations. There are many other countries like mine which are receiving this kind of practical assistance. This is the kind of progress which has spelled progress for the United Nations in a disturbed world.
11. This magnificent work of the United Nations, fulfilling as it does the needs of less advanced, undeveloped and under-developed countries, would now seem to be threatened by the lack of agreement among the major Powers — a disagreement which, if continued, is bound to end in another world catastrophe. If mankind is again plunged into a third blood bath, the responsibility will clearly rest at the door of those who under the guise of national, political and strategic interests have rendered agreement, peace and social progress impracticable.
12. We have heard a lot about world peace, a peace that must embrace all nations and races without distinction. The Liberian delegation must therefore here endorse whole-heartedly the declaration made by one of the representatives speaking from this rostrum that one of the fundamental conditions of real peace, one of the indisputable prerequisites for making the United Nations truly universal, is respect for the political aspirations of countries which have been in the school of so-called “tutelage” for decades, if not for centuries.
13. In this connection, my delegation hopes that the benevolent attitude evinced with respect to dependent peoples in Asia, whether spontaneous or not will also be extended to the dependent peoples of the African continent, and that the administering Powers will not hold the view that owing to the backwardness of Africans in dependent territories the same investigation carried out by commissions in the Middle and Far East in ascertaining the preparedness of these peoples for self-government should not apply to Africans.
14. My delegation, however, notes with some degree of satisfaction that certain of the colonial Powers have introduced reforms in territories under their administration with a view to finally educating the inhabitants of such territories for self-government. However, this does not apply to all the colonial Powers. We find that some colonial Powers, instead of improving the backwardness of African peoples, have found it more to their advantage to keep them in a perpetual state of ignorance and backwardness, thereby hoping to exploit them more easily. My delegation speaking for, and in the name of, the Government and people of Liberia, earnestly hopes that in the not-too-distant future either through the United Nations or otherwise the liberation of the continents of Africa and Asia will become more than a mere dream, in fact a reality.
15. In the annals of history, it would appear that the continent of Africa has been regarded merely as a source of raw material and cheap labour, fit only for the extraction of super profits to enrich one or two countries. We are of the considered opinion that this economic and social inequality should now be considered an anachronism, and that the vast wealth of the African continent should be used. not for the enrichment of certain countries, but for the benefit of the world in general and the African in particular.
16. It is to be admitted and is generally put forward from "this very rostrum, that in some cases subjugated people have to some extent benefited by the rule of the conquerors, but it must also be admitted that in nearly every instance the conqueror has never failed to demand and receive his pound of flesh. To continue to use such arguments, such as the benefits of Western culture and civilization as a means to justify continuous occupation, subjugation and, exploitation, as if without such foreign rule the conquered people could not have continued to exist as a nation and social unit, is not only misleading but absolutely false, and cannot be borne out by the facts of history. Before the coming of the Europeans, there were, and in some cases still are, great empires in Asia and Africa whose scholars and scientists have contributed much to the so-called Western culture and civilization. As one writer has said, “Few things are more galling than to be told by those whose favours we have to accept that without these favours we would hardly be alive.”
17. In conclusion, we should like to record our appreciation to the French Government and people for the very cordial and warm reception extended to the various delegations attending this General Assembly in Paris and we should like to believe and hope that the motto of the French. Revolution, “Liberty, Equality and Fraternity” was not conceived with a view to being applicable to any particular nation or race or any particular people or creed, but rather to the world in general and mankind in particular.