149. Mr. President, I wish first of all to congratulate you on your election to the Presidency of the General Assembly. May you successfully guide this session towards achievement of the aims of the United Nations Charter, aims which, today as yesterday, are the indispensable foundation for the peace and security which will enable mankind to look forward to. the future without fear. I salute in you not only an illustrious statesman, but also the representative of that Italy which is linked to my own country by so many physical and intellectual bonds, and which is so enduring and magnificent an example of civilization and achievement.
150. I also extend my welcome to the new Member. States which have just joined the United Nations: the Gambia, the Maldive Islands and Singapore.
151. This session of the General Assembly, held on the twentieth anniversary of the signing of the Charter, represents a kind of rebirth. The fortunate solution which has been found to prevent a repetition of what happened last year leads us to hope confidently that the activities of the Organization will now go forward without interruption.
152. For twenty years, the United Nations has been the strongest bulwark of peace and international security. There have been, it is true, localized armed conflicts, but the general peace has been maintained. World public opinion, informed and critical, follows international problems closely and the United Nations is a forum for that opinion. A world unbelievably different from the one which saw the birth of our Organization understands that peace is inseparable from the maintenance of the United Nations and that without respect for law, without repudiation of force, without recognition of the dignity of man, without the sovereign equality of all States, and without striving against poverty, which always brings hatred and resentment, the future of our world will be dark and uncertain rather than bright and clear as we would have it be.
153. Uruguay, which unites to an unshakable tradition of peace, a repudiation of the use of force and faith in justice and law, the conviction that poverty, hunger and illiteracy are more dangerous than the ideological or political differences between Member States, has during these twenty years given its sincere and wholehearted support to the work of the United Nations.
154. We do not want a world characterized by the permanent confrontation of two antagonistic groups who hold mankind in a precarious peace based on the tension of the atomic terror. With all its complexity, and all the difficulties that it entails, we want an active and creative peace, based on law and international co-operation and born of the conviction that without such co-operation, uniting States of different systems in a common effort for peace and economic and social progress, nothing great or permanent can be created.
155. Uruguay is a member of the Organization of American States, a regional body whose existence dates back to the final years of the last century. We live within the inter-American system, convinced of its usefulness and of the fact, that the system of juridical guarantees it establishes is complemented by those of the United Nations. We have never been able to imagine that these two systems—the universal and the regional—can be in opposition. On the contrary, they must work together for the achievement of the aims of peace and security which are common to both.
156. Without the sovereign equality of States, without full acceptance of the rule of international law for all States, great and small, powerful and weak, there can be no true peace. My country, which has made respect for international law a fixed rule of conduct, has recently — and on more than one occasion — shown the extent to which it is prepared to state its point of view with the independence that comes from the conviction that in doing so it is defending a just cause.
157. The United Nations Charter clearly prohibits the use of force except in legitimate cases of individual or collective self-defence. From this stems our repudiation o£ any aggression, our constant criticism of any use of force, whatever its source and of any action not in seeping with the rules of the Charter.
158. Together with this primary objective of maintaining peace, and security by prohibiting the use of force as a means of resolving international conflicts, the United Nations — and the Charter is very explicit in this respect — has other objectives which are not only valid in themselves but indirectly constitute essential prerequisites for the existence of that peace and security. The process of decolonization, the work of strengthening the principle of self-determination for all peoples, has been one of the most outstanding and successful chapters in the history of the United Nations. The task of implementing the General Assembly's historic resolution 1514 (XV), a task to which my country has contributed with a steady devotion of which we think we can be justly proud, has culminated in the virtual elimination of the political colonialism which, until only a few years ago, darkened vast areas of the world and of which only the last vestiges now remain. In this respect the work which the Organization must do has not been completed.
159. The world-wide struggle against poverty, both of States and individuals, must continue with renewed vigour in order to achieve economic collaboration, fairness in the prices of raw materials and a system of international trade based on justice rather than spoliation. The unimaginable resources that are devoted today to the creation of almost diabolical weapons of destruction and to the outer space competition — which in many cases is but a pretext for perfecting and increasing the means of man's destruction — should be fundamentally directed towards the promotion, with the powerful means at the disposal of modern science and technology, of the economic development of a world community which understands that no one, in any part of the planet, can consider himself secure and happy while knowing that there are hundreds of millions of men who lack a roof over their heads, food in their stomachs and all hope of a worth-while future.
160. Today the United Nations is ecumenical in character; it is an association of peace-loving States which, regardless of their ideological, political or economic systems, have united to achieve their objectives through acceptance of its principles. Uruguay, a Latin American State founded upon a democratic political conception which seeks the happiness of man through respect for his freedom and recognition of his economic and social rights, strengthened, too, by a philosophic tradition that nourishes our culture and way of life, has shown that, without in any way renouncing these ideals, it is able to collaborate loyally with all other States. For all political forms must ultimately be directed towards the human being, whose future must be assured, a future of peace and happiness regardless of colour, race, religion or the political or economic system under which man lives.
161. This year the United Nations will receive the visit of His Holiness Pope Paul VI. May I salute in advance this illustrious figure, the representative of one of the noblest, greatest and purest of religions, a figure who is a symbol of peace and love and who, like his great predecessor, Pope John XXIII, has striven and continues to strive for the realization of the principles expressed in the encyclical Pacem in Terris, and which are shared by all men of goodwill regardless of creed or race.
162. I trust that his words of peace, in a world convulsed as it is today by social and philosophic problems, by internal and international differences, will be received as a truly significant message that will renew the hope of all the inhabitants of this earth for a better future.
163. Unfortunately, while the presence of His Holiness will fill this hall with a special solemnity and a particular devotion as we listen to his symbolic words, a devotion as we shall all feel, believers and nonbelievers alike, the account that we have to offer on the twentieth anniversary of the United Nations is not precisely the fulfilment of the great hope of those who planned and created it.
164. It cannot be denied that the United Nations has accomplished much in the years that have elapsed since the Charter was signed in San Francisco. The work now being carried out is important and it can be regarded with satisfaction and even pride. But it remains far short of what we must aspire to.
165. At a time when we hear the word peace on every side no false constraint need deter us from saying that, in our everyday language, we still use the word, "peace” to mean a goal which has not yet been achieved. We speak of peace, while staggering sums continue to be spent, day by day, on instruments of war; we use the word "peace" as a symbol while we squander our resources on arms, at a time when the world in which we live is suffering from hunger, a hunger which in some parts of the earth truly constitutes an accusation against the civilization of which we speak with such exaggerated pride. While we hoodwink ourselves by using the word "peace" like a handsome cloak, half or more of the population of the world can neither read nor write. In other words, the human being whom we claim to be defending is not receiving from us the true weapons of peace, the weapons of intellectual and cultural developments which would justify a civilization whose benefits are enjoyed by some to the point of excess while others suffer from want amid an indifference of which we are all guilty.
166. As a counterpart to the words of love and goodwill which His Holiness may offer us, it might be pointed out that today, in the year 1965, twenty years after the creation of this Organization which we should all like to be a model, there are in the 117 countries comprising it more than 500 million adults who are completely illiterate. That is surely not a symbol of which we can be proud.
167. As it has always been our aim, within the modest part we play in the concert of nations to preach by example, Uruguay has always acted in the regional organizations, the Organization of American States, as a firm opponent of any plan that might lead to conflict — as if the conflicts we are already enduring were not enough — and which, albeit unintentionally, might jeopardize peace. We have striven and shall continue to strive to prevent the creation, in nations like ours of the Americas — out of good intentions, we grant — of an armed force Which today may appear under the symbolic and apparently irresistible designation of being organized for pacific purposes. For no one can assure us that such a force will not tomorrow be a source of discord and of violation of the fundamental rules we have all undertaken to respect under the Charter.
168. To sum up, I should like to say that in my country we are tired of seeing the flag of freedom waved while the basest crimes are committed and while the principles of non-intervention and the self-determination of peoples are hypocritically flouted in the name of that freedom.
169. In the face of so much misunderstanding, Uruguay, on its own belief and as a non-permanent member of the Security Council, is doubly glad to welcome the sanity shown by two nations with whom we have friendly relations, Pakistan and India, which, understanding our good intentions and adding to them their own goodwill, have agreed to a cease-fire in their dispute. In that dispute our brethren on both sides were falling in a struggle which, for the very reason that it was a dispute between those we consider as brothers, was 'most distressing to us. The cease-fire must also be regarded as another and laudable triumph for the international Organization.
170. On 1 October Uruguay will assume the presidency of the Security Council. In that high office we intend to strive to convert what today is a truce into a lasting peace agreement between those two countries which are our friends.
171. I should like to conclude my statement today on behalf of my country, Uruguay, which though small in area stands for complete respect for the fullest freedom of thought — and that, we believe, makes it a force in the universal community — by quoting the words of the great Spanish philosopher, Ramón y Cajal: "The only men who deserve glory are those who, by intelligent and unselfish deeds, have beautified, improved and enlightened in some way the world in which we live”.
172. With that goal in view, and with that just saying in mind, Uruguay will work in this forum of the United Nations, which should be a symbol of peace and freedom.