1. Mr. President, the delegation of Honduras associates itself with the general feeling of this Assembly in expressing to you its sincere congratulations on your election, which is a tribute to your unquestionable personal qualities and to one of the outstanding figures in international public life. These good wishes are extended to your country, whose great historical achievements have made an inestimable contribution to human culture and to which the peoples of Latin America are closely bound by the traditional ties of the spirit.
2. My delegation also wishes to join in congratulating the new Members of the United Nations — the Maldive Islands, Singapore and the Gambia. In becoming participants in this Organization, they will contribute to and strengthen the principles of the United Nations which represent the genuine international philosophy of this century.
3. May I in this brief statement introduce a fleeting personal note. For more than eight years I have been absent from the deliberations of the United Nations, after it had been the brilliant centre of all my activities and hopes during many historic years. And now that this twentieth session of the General Assembly is beginning, I experience once again that stern and unflagging optimism which lies at the root of our attitude towards this supreme world Organization.
4. We continue to believe that this Organization is the ultimate synthesis of all the fears and all the aspirations of mankind. Here we are living in the presence of history and much will depend on the individual conduct of every Member State if the United Nations is to stand before the world as an effective, magnanimous and stern instrument at the service of suffering humanity. Since we have overcome the problem which so alarmingly obstructed the progress of the nineteenth session and since the dedication and capacity for work of my illustrious colleagues is proverbial, I have no hesitation in repeating my optimistic view that the results to be achieved during this regular session will be fruitful. For no matter how profound may be the crises we shall have to face, they will all have to be temporary and to yield to the capacity for survival which, together with constructive endeavour, is the noblest achievement of mankind.
5. If we cast a rapid glance over the world of today, we cannot but be astonished at the violent contrasts it offers us. It is a scene of light and darkness. On the one hand, we can assert that man has broken the chains that bound him to the earth. Today he has before him, within his very grasp, nothing less than unlimited and tempestuous space. Never before have we been able to repeat so appositely the words of the poet: "The stars are yours”. And yet the whole world, in every latitude and longitude, continues to suffer, from the cruel scourge of the most terrible and most rebellious of all the horsemen of the Apocalypse - war. Although people are more enlightened in their ideals and attitudes, now, as throughout history, armed conflicts, both national and international, spring from one basic cause — intolerance: religious intolerance, ideological intolerance, racial intolerance, in short, intolerance of the rights of others.
6. So long as the legal personality of the human being is conditioned by the colour of his skin, or his religious beliefs, there will always be the danger of armed conflicts. So long as States seek to subjugate others by force, violating their territory and destroying their traditions on the basis of anachronistic pretexts, there will always be war.
7. Thanks, however, to the vision and humanitarian feelings of brilliant statesmen, the United Nations was created and, as I said before, it continues to be the hope and spiritual refuge of modern man. If, twenty years ago, the Charter of San Francisco had not been signed, it is very probable that at this stage only the smoking vestiges of our civilization would remain. It has been shown time and time again that the path towards peace is steep, thorny and strewn with terrible obstacles, but it is worth while for men from all countries to persist in travelling along it bravely without premature feelings of defeat.
8. The twentieth session of the General Assembly has opened under the shadow of a struggle between two countries linked by long-standing historical traditions. As a result of these painful events, the majority of Member States have expressed their concern and their desire for a cessation of hostilities. My delegation associates itself with this desire and with the moves which are being made to achieve a permanent solution of the dispute between India and Pakistan, in accordance with the procedures indicated in international law and the principles of the United Nations Charter.
9. Inspired by sincere feelings of solidarity towards our mother country, and for the sake of the just cause defended by Spain, my delegation considers, most respectfully, that the United Kingdom, which has given so many examples of its genius in the history of peoples, should undertake bilateral conversations with Spain, another nation of genius, in order to find a solution to the problem of Gibraltar.
10. My country, aware of the importance of economic development, needs technical, assistance and close cooperation with the United Nations specialized agencies. As we are an integral part of the Organization of Central American States, which we have supported and to which we have contributed, in the establishment of a common market, we know that we are called upon to assume a position where respect and equity among States forming such an organization must be the rule that gives the necessary balance for permanent, united and indestructible development.
11. My delegation has viewed with sympathy the draft resolution submitted by the sister republic of Costa Rica (A/5963) aimed at the defence of human rights through measures that will ensure respect for human dignity and the protection which the law and political and social systems must provide for the different sectors of the community, regardless of their ideology, race or creed.
12. As a small country, Honduras, by its traditions and its convictions, has been an ardent champion of the rule of law in its international relations. We fully realize that our sovereignty as an independent State cannot subsist except on the basis of respect for international law. Once again, therefore, my delegation reiterates its strongest support for the world Organization and its regional bodies.
13. When our sister country of the American hemisphere, the Dominican Republic, fell victim to misfortune, hovered on the brink of complete anarchy and thus became a fertile field for those forces which are bent on the destruction of the inter-American system, Honduras, in strict fulfilment of its international obligations, did not hesitate for one moment in supporting unreservedly the peace-keeping operations undertaken by the Organization of American States. With the pride of a Hispano-American, I can state that the OAS, a regional organization of the United Nations, has once again given proof of its effectiveness and its firm determination to preserve the inter-American system and to strengthen it more and more each day.
14. I should be failing in an elementary duty if I did not express my personal admiration and the gratitude of my Government for the quiet and fruitful work carried on by the Secretary-General, U Thant, who, with inexhaustible patience and profound wisdom, has spared no efforts to ensure that tolerance and human dignity may prevail in every corner of the globe.
15. We also wish to convey our cordial greetings to the new and vigorous group of nations which have recently achieved independence. It is our fervent hope that, inspired by the conviction that order, justice and cultural and material progress are the basic pillars of society, they will be constant sources of pride to us veterans who have witnessed or participated in their ardent struggles v or the attainment of independence.
16. In the course of this twentieth session of the General Assembly the pages of the history of the United Nations have acquired solemnity with the presence of the Supreme Pontiff of the Catholic Church, His Holiness Pope Paul VI, who, as the outstanding representative of Christianity, has seen fit to lend his support to the cause of peace and human solidarity at this time when men all over the world need to have faith and hope. He made it clear that the work of the United Nations also embraces the human aspiration towards loftier aims, so that the dignity and coexistence of the different parts of the world become the permanent concern of all Member States.
17. His Holiness has brought us a message of light and hope and his words, spoken with the humility of the supreme priest of Christianity and representing the thought of more than 500 million Catholics, are significant for the modern world because they are identified with the principles of all the other religions in the search for the permanent path to peace and in a fervent appeal to the human conscience over and above the ephemeral struggles for power.
18. Now that the voice of the Pontiff has been heard in this aula magna, as he called it, the United Nations has grown to unexpected stature because all religious creeds have a great part to play in the universal work of this Organization.
19. We reaffirm our faith and our optimism in the lofty mission entrusted to the United Nations and we are justified in hoping that, following a path of high endeavour and with a shining sense of history, we may attend our rendezvous with destiny in a manner more in keeping with the dignity and prosperity of ail the peoples of the world and with a more palpable ascendancy of the eternal values of the spirit. For, side by side with the rationalization of social and political sciences and the obvious transformation of popular thinking and requirements, we are witnessing today the fantastic advances of applied science which can bring the dearest aspirations of mankind to swift and certain fruition.