In a speech marked by nobility of thought and of feeling, Mr. Anthony Eden has told us of the disappointment he experienced on first coming into contact with the Organization, of which he was one of the principal founders. Like Mr. Eden, we do not wish to allow ourselves to be discouraged. Institutions which are still growing have their awkward age, like children. What matters is that, by means of proper education, they should pass through that stage unharmed.
139. The general debate is a sort of self-examination in which we must with complete frankness recognize the defects that exist, the failures we have suffered and our share of the responsibility for them. After that, we shall find it easier to define the frame of mind in which we shall henceforward tackle both familiar and novel problems.
140. My remarks are concerned in the first place with the instrument at our disposal. It would certainly require certain reforms. The misuse of the veto has prevented the proper operation of the Security Council. The refusal to admit certain democratic countries, such as Italy, is not only an injustice but a violation of the principle of the universality of the United Nations, whose authority is diminished thereby, as it is by the fact that it does not possess a permanent armed force capable of providing a minimum sanction to back its decisions. Other, less serious, imperfections could easily be remedied.
141. The increasingly poisoned atmosphere in which we work is, however, much more disturbing. Criticisms, which on occasion are full of hatred, are more in evidence than the spirit of co-operation; we are beset by a mutual distrust which paralyses action and distorts intentions. There is not, or at least there does not seem to be, any disagreement among us regarding the essential objective we have in common: the protection of peace. Despite that, we are all anxious regarding the peace which we are unanimous in desiring. We fear that war may break out like an electric discharge between two opposite poles. We shall prevent it only if we succeed in reducing the total tension.
142. Are we sufficiently concerned with avoiding whatever might increase it dangerously? Are we at all times fully aware of the responsibility we incur when, by words spoken from this rostrum, we inflame feelings to add to the propaganda which divides us rather than to bring us closer together by persuasion? We are concerned too much with tactics and procedure, as if we wished to shut our eyes to the real problems which beset us but which we are sometimes afraid to tackle directly.
143. Mistrust distorts everything, blocks every avenue. Of what use are speeches if we are convinced that the person we are addressing does not wish to listen to us or understand us? Too often speeches give the impression of being brilliant monologues whereas what we need is frank discussion which would throw light on the points of view of both sides, for the purpose of bringing them closer together. Because we fear traps everywhere, we attempted to take refuge in more or less hypocritical subtleties.
144. All of this takes us further and further from our goal which is to ease the tension and so consolidate peace. We must tackle the causes of this baneful mistrust.
145. For this mistrust your policy, Mr. Vyshinsky, is largely responsible. In the first place the mystery with which you surround yourselves breeds uneasiness and doubt: mystery regarding your objectives, mystery regarding the resources you employ, mystery regarding the connexions you maintain and the assistance you grant, mystery as regards public and private life alike; everything is mystery, a State secret. Our diplomats are confined to their hotels; kept under supervision like undesirables, prevented from performing their natural duty of informing us on the state of mind and on the economic situation, a function which elsewhere they carry out honourably and fairly. Our compatriots who live in your countries, some of whom have lived there for many years, who have family ties and have rendered great service there suddenly become suspect under a suspicious and intolerant régime. You are setting a record in spy trials.
146. This fiercely guarded mystery breeds natural, insufferable mistrust on our part, and officially organized tours cannot reassure us. Are you ready to lift the veil, to come forth from behind that screen of mystery and to stop cutting yourselves off from the rest of the world? A régime which is sure of itself and has no evil intentions stands to lose nothing through open confrontation with other régimes.
147. The same applies to armaments. The chief merit of our recent three-Power initiative is that it seeks to put an end to the mystery which shrouds the state of armaments and the size of the armed forces. You know perfectly well, Mr. Vyshinsky — and I apologize for addressing you personally that the object is not to count boots and mess tins, but rather to obtain the exact number of the frightful engines of destruction of all kinds which are threatening the existence of humanity. Here again, the removal of the mystery would be an essential element of security and trust, the starting point for the regulation of the manufacture and stocks of arms, and a progressive limitation on the dangers threatening peace. That is the unmistakable intention. Accordingly, it is hardly fitting for anybody who sincerely wants peace to answer our proposals by a quip or a jest. What we desire is to be able at last to make a resolute beginning with effective and positive measures.
148. This plan has already had an effect and a certain efficacy, for it prompted the head of the delegation of the Soviet Union to make a special supplementary speech. We are happy to note the importance which he attaches to our initiative. For myself, I prefer to await developments in committee. In any case, it would be sound procedure if everybody awaited the appearance of the final and complete text of our motion before discussing it in detail.
149, You are accusing us of desiring and preparing for war. That is a monstrous and senseless accusation. For myself, I am quite willing to believe that you do not desire war. I am trying to be fairer to you than you are to us. War like all things evil, is prepared in secret. Let us raise the curtain of secrecy frankly and in unison: that would be the first decisive step towards peace. Uncertainty is as serious as threats. Our peoples are agreeing to heroic sacrifices in order to remove this terrible feeling of insecurity. I am sure the same is true of your peoples who worry about their future and who are kept in that state of anxiety by a propaganda that is an official monopoly. We must come to an agreement to reassure the peoples — all the peoples. Speeches are no longer enough; they are entirely discredited. We are met together here to take joint action and to agree upon what joint action should be taken.
150. I know, of course, the argument that our régimes are opposed to and irreconcilable with each other. But they can exist side by side without making war upon each other; they can even agree on common tasks, as the victory in 1945 so clearly showed. Why should such co-operation be impossible in efforts for peace?
151. It is true that such co-operation also, or more especially, needs a suitable atmosphere. As a first step, there must be an end to that aggressive hostility to our institutions, to the vicious defamation of individuals, to the methods of violence and sabotage which your supporters and followers practise in our countries. The Comintern was abolished at a time of relaxed tension. When will the Cominform and its methods be abandoned?
152. Can we conceivably stretch out our hands confidently to those who, day after day, unremittingly shower insults and threats upon us? We are prepared to co-operate with you in seeking a truce, and understanding, a gradual easing of the tension, in a dignified manner, by a kind of non-aggression pact — I am speaking figuratively — by outlawing weapons which are poisoned with hate and libel, as a prelude to a modus vivendi genuinely respected by either side, both without our countries and in our international relations.
153. Are you ready to proceed on these lines and to give instructions accordingly? Everything will be in vain unless we begin by purifying the atmosphere in this way. Every such effort would be greeted with immense relief. Could we not start here and now.
154. What would be wanted are not necessarily spectacular moves or carefully constructed texts followed by slender results. The opportunity to put this new spirit into practice is offered to us every day in connexion with the concrete problems which we have to deal with and solve together.
155. Firstly, there are the technical problems for which we desire the co-operation of all but from which, we regret to note, you hold aloof, if you are not openly hostile. On the generous initiative of President Truman, an expanded programme of assistance to under-developed countries has been adopted by the Economic and Social Council. Its implementation will constitute one of the most productive activities of the United Nations and the specialized agencies. It covers all fields: administration, finance, industry, trade, agriculture, public health, labour, education, scientific research. It is consequently, an undertaking of solidarity which should raise us above our political antagonisms. France, despite its heavy liabilities in the territories for which it is responsible single-handed, despite the expenditure to which it is committed, for many years to come, to repair war damage, is making a substantial financial contribution to this technical assistance and also lends the co-operation of its experience and experts.
156, In the field of child care, much highly gratifying work has been initiated, but in view of the vast needs, they demand greatly increased efforts and resources. Surely, you ought to join us in these efforts,
157, Again, the refugee problem is one of the most distressing, both because of tire human values involved and because of its political repercussions. A solution is urgently needed. France has been a land of asylum for centuries and has received waves of refugees of various origins without any discrimination. We in France are familiar with their unhappy lot. Our country’s experience and traditional liberalism support every act of goodwill and of generosity on behalf of this very complex cause. This problem appears in different forms according to areas, ethnic differences and all other kinds of circumstances. As has already been rightly pointed out from this platform, no uniform solution is possible. One solution is repatriation, another is resettlement on the spot, another is immigration; sometimes it is a question of aid, sometimes a question of manpower. It therefore seems to us that action will inevitably have to take more than one form. France will co-operate in all of them, in the Council of Europe as in the international specialized agencies, in Palestine as everywhere else where, for any reason, national resources are insufficient to solve demographic difficulties. We are bidden to do so not only by a humane duty but also by the interests of peace, for any collective misery produces disturbances and conflicts.
158, The unanimous collaboration, which we hope to find in dealing with economic and social problems, would be even more necessary in the case of political problems. The United Nations has accepted responsibility for dealing with affairs in Korea, though, of course, without any thought of domination. Let us also recall that the conflict occurred shortly after the withdrawal of American troops. We are ready at all times to conclude peace without any advantage to any of us, on the one condition that the Korean people should be free to determine their own future. If this conflict were settled, it would be possible to approach the settlement of other Far Eastern problems with advantage. That part of the world has for so long suffered such grievous divisions that the difficulties which hamper its recovery and free development and which endanger the lives of hundreds of millions of human beings cannot be overcome piecemeal. They are interdependent by reason of their origin and by reason of the solutions which they call for.
159, Austria is another case offering scope for our common goodwill. The country is hoping for a peaceful settlement which would release it from its present crushing encumbrances. In the course of several years the four allied delegations have met two hundred and sixty times to work out a draft treaty of less than one hundred clauses — a record in dilatoriness. Why should signature be postponed indefinitely for reasons wholly irrelevant to the context of the treaty?
160, Even less progress has been made in the case of Germany. It has not hitherto proved possible to initiate negotiations for a peace treaty, and Germany is still under the occupation régime. The régime in the Soviet Zone is vastly different from the régime in the Western Zone. In the west, the population has been able to choose free democratic institutions, whereas in the east a people’s democratic republic on the pattern of all those in the Eastern bine is functioning. How will it be possible to merge the two sectors? On what basis is a peaceful Germany to be re-unified? That is the problem before us. We all appear to be in agreement on the principle of free elections in the occupied territories as a whole. The way in which they can be carried out remains to be defined. For our part, we consider it necessary that international impartial observers, appointed by you, should conduct a preliminary investigation in both sectors so that the subsequent elections would be protected by all the necessary safeguards. We did not expect our proposal to meet with an opposition that is as vehement as it is unwarranted.
161, Our objectives in Germany cannot offend anybody. In the centre of Europe, where so many conflicts have arisen, as we all know to our cost, it is our desire to ensure the functioning of free democratic institutions and to associate Germany with a collective policy of peace, of a peace and peaceful co-operation covered by mutual guarantees. In order to achieve this aim, it is neither possible nor is it necessary to go back six years and to efface an evolution which has taken place freely in West Germany during that period. A unified Germany must be able to choose freely; the lessons of the recent past and the country’s wish to take its place among the free nations show it the way.
162, The German problem is the problem of Europe. One cannot be settled without the other. We assert and repeat that only if it is united and organized in freedom, can Europe be safeguarded against both war and want. The divisions which, in the past, have separated European countries and set them against each other have been the cause of their misfortune. That is why France has proposed the creation of a European community. This community will first of all be achieved in the field of coal and steel production. We hoped that the peaceful nature of this initiative could not be questioned by anyone and that it would be viewed as an attempt to make Europe stronger and more independent, both economically and politically, We thought that this desire to improve production and to increase the welfare of our peoples would be welcomed by all. Indeed, in order to achieve this result, we have deliberately assumed risks and surrendered sovereign rights.
163, Yet, once again we are being reproached with harbouring warlike intentions and with preparing for war, whereas our purpose is to strengthen peace. A synchronized campaign has been launched against this plan, which is a purely internal affair; this suggests to us a deliberate wish to prevent Europe from improving its position and from organizing itself on any model other than the Eastern model.
164. Our answer is that we intend to remain masters of our own choice. As I have said, we respect the choice made by others for their own purposes. Peace means freedom of choice and the reciprocal respect of such freedom. Is that too much to ask?
165. How we should like to convince you! I am loth to believe that you do not wish to be convinced. Only too often, unfortunately, you give us the. opposite impression. Did you remain unmoved by the touching appeal made in the course of the last few days by our Danish colleague [243rd meeting]? Do you really imagine us to be so full of ill will and cynical deceit, and do you really think that so many countries, proud of their independence, martyrs in their love of freedom and signally free of any desire for domination, would be our accomplices?
166. The mere fact of being ready to listen to us, of agreeing to conversations between those who are responsible for the peace of the world and to exchange frank and honest explanations, that fact alone would achieve the more congenial atmosphere which we all desire, which we all seek and by which we should begin.
167. Acceding to the wish expressed by many of you to hold our sixth session in Europe, France invited you to be its guests in the hope that you would be able to find here a setting propitious to a closer understanding and to the establishment of trust. More than any other, our ancient country has witnessed the meeting and mingling of régimes, races and ideas. It ascribes a special virtue to personal contacts. We believe that this method of conversations as between man and man is especially appropriate in moments of crisis when there is a risk that misunderstandings and emotions may prevail.
168. On behalf of our country, a particularly well qualified spokesman has intimated the same idea to you, discreetly and with the emotion of a troubled heart, devoid of any calculating motives or polemical spirit. We are grateful to all of you who understood the message and, for the sake of peace, we hope that the idea will ripen.
169. I also thank the speakers who have spoken of France with feeling and confidence. We can achieve nothing without confidence, without confidence in each other, without that minimum degree of confidence which assumes and accepts a minimum of good faith in the other side.
170. I pray that during this session we may attain at least this result, triumph over deliberate deafness and, by frank and sincere words, reach the minds and hearts of all.