Ceylon

1. History records and demonstrates that, whilst rulers and governments may have been concerned and preoccupied with the extension of national boundaries and have been ready to have recourse to war as an instrument and means of expanding their power, mankind on the other hand, both collectively and individually, in all territories and all climes, has been wedded to the idea of peace. This was manifested after the First World War with the desire to form a collective comity of nations as a means by which war could be outlawed. It was a singular historical irony that the illustrious author of the concept behind the League of Nations could not persuade his own country's legislature actively to participate in the work of the League. It was an even greater irony that the League became, in the ensuing years, a cul-de-sac of good intentions. And in the world at large, the collective will for peace had not yet gathered sufficient momentum or strength to prevent an even more devastating world conflict. On the termination of the Second World War, however, the war-weary peoples of the world manifested a determination to fashion an organization to put an end to war as an instrument for the solution of international problems. This collective will of the peoples for peace was given coherent shape by the founding fathers of the United Nations when, they fashioned an organization that would, by means of negotiation, conciliation, and arbitration, prevent international conflicts and differences from reaching the point of war. 2. I venture to think, however, that the most optimistic of the founders of the United Nations could hardly have visualized in 1945 that the body that they were then creating could, in the course of the ensuing twenty years, not only prevent regional conflicts from escalating into global wars, but also extend the areas of freedom and national sovereignty to a very large number of subject nations, so as to enable them to become active advocates of a stable world order. 3. One is, of course, conscious of the fact that there is a certain degree of disappointment, amounting in some cases even to disillusionment, that this Organization has not achieved more than it actually has. But even its severest critics must, on sober reflection, concede for it a not unenviable record of achievement in both the political and economic spheres of activity. 4. To the vast majority, if not all, of the smaller and recently independent nations of the world, this Organization is the repository of the ultimate hopes of their salvation and survival. If I may strike an individual note, I am proud to be able to state that I stand here representing the only one of the newly independent countries which has been able, by the free exercise of the free votes of a free people wedded to a democratic way of life, to change its Governments on two occasions within the last ten years, and still remain pledged to uphold the principles of the Charter of this Organization. We have little or no differences with our neighbours, and what differences there are we have always sought to resolve by friendly negotiations. I am happy to state that, in the assertion of our independence, we have assiduously refrained from entering into any regional or other alliances as a means of ensuring our national security and territorial integrity. We look to you, fellow Member States, collectively, to assure us of both and to ensure that degree of international stability which alone will enable all nations to reach fulfilment. It is my fervent hope that in the not too distant future, every country will actively eschew alliances, particularly of a military nature, in the supreme confidence that this world assembly will render such alliances not merely superfluous but actually meaningless. 5. How then is this Organization to be fashioned and its machinery to be strengthened to make it the ultimate and potent instrument for the establishment of a civilized world order? Here I would venture to suggest that, whilst the existing machinery for negotiation, conciliation, and arbitration is further built up and reinforced, the Member States of this body should manifest their determined and collective will for peace by investing the Organization with such further powers as will prevent any two countries from even contemplating a resort to arms as a possible means of resolving their disputes. It would be my submission that for the achievement of this objective an emergency force, got together in haste, ad hoc, and after the occurrence of an event in some part of the world which calls for the active intervention of the United Nations, will not suffice. 6. In this context, I feel sure that all of us will welcome the definitive steps taken by the Canadian Government, and announced by its distinguished Foreign Minister, and similar steps taken by the Scandinavian and other countries. But what I contemplate, and would like to commend to Member States, is the creation of an integrated standing force to which every Member State, regardless of its size, importance, strength or affluence, would contribute in men and material, to be placed at the exclusive disposal and command of the United Nations. To ensure avoidance of any criticism or misgiving that the larger countries are likely to exercise an undue influence, care may be taken that no major Power either is over-represented by the extent of its military participation or has a preponderant voice by reason of its financial contribution. It is my earnest hope that every small and medium-sized country will, without exception, actively contribute and participate in this venture, and that all medium-sized countries will not hesitate to throw in their weight in ample measure. And, if my proposal, which I humbly tender, were to find ready and willing acceptance among fellow Member States, I should be happy to pledge the support of my Government as a token of our faith and earnestness. 7. One may well inquire, at this stage, what is to be the function of such a task force and when it should begin to operate. To this I would tentatively answer that the force would move in and interpose itself in an area where there was, in the view of the United Nations, a very grave and imminent danger of an armed conflict; and it would create the necessary conditions and climate for the peaceful resolution of the impending conflict by negotiation and/or mediation. An example of such a situation would be where there was a massing of troops along an international frontier by one country leading to a real apprehension on the part of the other country of an invasion. The force would also move in and interpose itself between the armies of two countries engaged in hostilities and bring about a separation of the combatants by the use, if necessary, of minimum coercive measures, and would thereafter create the conditions necessary for negotiation and/or mediation. 8. The entire civilized world has heaved a sigh of immeasurable relief that the two great nations of India and Pakistan have acceded to the demand of the United Nations to bring about a cease-fire. Had the demand for the cease-fire not been agreed to by the two States, it would be difficult to imagine the extent of the suffering of the peoples of the two countries during what would have been, in the circumstances, an inordinate delay before this Assembly could have decided upon the next step and gathered the wherewithal to take effective measures to enforce a cease-fire. May God forbid the recurrence of such an event in the foreseeable future, but if it were to happen, should not this Organization be fully prepared to intervene effectively and promptly on its own independent initiative? 9. In this context, I should not like to be understood directly or by implication as wanting to minimize what I consider to be the special responsibility of the permanent members of the Security Council to preserve world peace. But I would respectfully like to observe that it should not remain their exclusive responsibility. It has been something of a tragedy that the built-in weaknesses of the structure of the Security Council have made it difficult for it to act effectively on occasion for lack of unanimity. And, without attempting to detract from the powers and functions of that body, I should like to reassert that it is the inescapable duty of the General Assembly in the last resort, having regard to the near universality of its membership, to preserve world peace and a stable international order. It would be nothing short of a disaster if these two limbs of the United Nations, which were intended by the Charter to be complementary to one another, should become competing organs of the world Organization. Here, I should like to observe that I also feel that the crisis from which this body has recently emerged, by a display of statesmanship by all concerned, was not basically a crisis due to the distribution of the financial responsibilities involved in peace-keeping operations, but, in fact, a crisis involving the ultimate determination of the extent to which the international community is prepared actively to ensure the maintenance of world peace and the prevention of armed conflicts. 10. I conceive the activities of the United Nations for the achievement of the objectives of world peace broadly under two heads; peace-building, on the one hand, and peace-keeping and enforcement on the other. 11. I sincerely regret the necessity that has impelled me to place in the forefront of my observations the need for setting up machinery for peace-keeping and enforcement of the peace. Perhaps I have been influenced — consciously or unconsciously — by the state of international relations in the world today. My Government, however, attaches the deepest significance and importance to the peace-building activities of the United Nations. Here I would like to welcome the initiative taken by the United Kingdom in placing this matter on the agenda of this Assembly, and while, no doubt, we shall all benefit by the studies contemplated therein, a sense of urgency impels me to suggest that early steps should be taken to utilize machinery that is already available to the United Nations in this regard. When civilized society has come so readily to accept the observance of the rule of law as indispensable for the orderly and equitable conduct of national affairs, is it too much for this Assembly to set as its goal the evolution of a rule of international law to which Member States could have recourse for the governance of their relations with one another? 12. We have already available to us under the Charter, as a primary organ, the International Court of Justice, whose judgements are binding on parties who, by agreement, take their disputes before it. In order to achieve the growth of a body of international law adequate to meet current international problems, should we not devise ways of bringing justiciable disputes before that Court? Could we not persuade ourselves to increase the number of legal issues that we may agree to consider justiciable? Is it too much to expect, in this nuclear age, that our collective will for peace should enable us not only to accept as binding judgements in contentious litigation which have been referred to the Court, but also to elevate to the status of binding judicial decisions advisory opinions that have been sought from the Court? If, as I earnestly hope, this suggestion of mine becomes acceptable to the vast majority of our fellow Member States, then one of the primary organs of this Organization would achieve its highest stature and become one of the most potent instruments in our armoury for the pacific settlement of international disputes. 13. Here, I should like to make a fervent appeal to the big and powerful nations, which so far either have not accepted the compulsory jurisdiction of the Court or, in accepting it, have made such wide reservations as to render such acceptance almost nugatory, to accept compulsory jurisdiction without reserve in the highest interest of international goodwill, peace and solidarity. Such a move on their part, I feel confident, will find willing and ready response among some smaller nations which may have so far been luke-warm about accepting and acknowledging the authority of the Court, and I sincerely look forward to an international climate in the comparatively near future when the judicial settlement of international disputes will be considered the norm rather than the exception. 14. Another item of machinery that should be available to the United Nations for the furtherance of peace-building activities is a political task force which can step in and intervene even before a dispute has had time to crystallize into a justiciable one. Recent experience has shown that the United Nations has, happily, been successful in bringing about a cessation of hostilities and a cease-fire in a number of situations, but in most of these areas the United Nations has been unable to resolve the basic causes underlying the conflicts. It has had to content itself with the maintenance of a mission merely to enforce the continuance of the cease-fire. This, as recent history has shown, has led to a feeling of frustration and of disillusionment among the contending parties and a loss of faith among a large number of other nations that have looked forward to a final resolution of the causes of conflict in the areas of tension. It appears to me, therefore, that there should be made available to the United Nations, immediately, a body of distinguished and highly respected men of representative status and character who could, as a committee of the United Nations, move in to the area of conflict and there confer with the leaders and Governments of the contending parties, devise the best means of eliminating the causes of tension, and endeavour to negotiate apolitical settlement of the outstanding differences. Where such efforts succeeded, these would then be reported to the General Assembly or the Security Council as a final settlement of the dispute. In the event of any margin of difference which could not be resolved by agreement, this could be reported together with that, in the opinion of the committee, would be a just, fair and honourable settlement for adoption and enforcement by the United Nations, I should also venture to suggest that this political task committee could move into areas where political differences existed which might, even though not immediately, lead to hostilities. It could make observations, hold conferences, assess the nature and extent of the dispute; and devise means of a settlement between the contending parties. Here again, any margin of difference could be reported back with what, in their view, would be a fair and just settlement for enforcement. 15. A third means of strengthening the peace-building capacity of the United Nations, and its power and prestige, would be by further increasing its representative character by inviting into its fold countries like China and Indonesia. Our membership covers States with every type of political organization and every shade of political philosophy, and yet, on matters of universal interest like peace and the economic development of developing nations, the last twenty years have shown that it has not merely been desirable but actually possible for this heterogeneous group of countries, big and small, to get round a conference table and jointly try to solve these problems. In such a context I cannot resist the feeling that if China, with its teeming population of almost a sixth of the human race, covering a considerable part of the continent of Asia, is deliberately kept out of the councils of this international community and treated as an outlaw, it will tend to behave as one. If there is such a thing as the collective conscience of the world — and it will be readily conceded that there is — one must be prepared to invite the veriest outlaw to our conference table and treat him as one of us and persuade him to parley with us. In this way there can be hope that, in the fullness of time, if not in the near future, China may be convinced that in the larger interests of itself, if not of the international community, it will be better and easier for it to Conform to a code of international conduct and observe the rule of international law. 16. Here I should like to state categorically that whilst we advocate the seating of the People's Republic of China in this Assembly, my Government and I disagree with a great deal of what the world has come to identify as its policies and techniques. Yet I venture to think that few or none of us would want to exclude it from this Assembly on that score alone, much as we may detest and abhor its views and aims as expressed by its Defence Minister, Marshal Lin Piao, and, more recently, by its Foreign Minister, Marshal Chen Li. With our declared and universally accepted objective of total disarmament and the complete banning of nuclear weapons, the continued exclusion of China from the international community makes our whole objective unrealistic and its attainment impossible as long as China, in its isolation, is allowed with absolute impunity and with complete abandon to pursue its activities in this field. 17. We must also note with regret that Indonesia has thought fit to withdraw from membership of our Organization. It was only comparatively recently that it shed its colonial yoke, if I may say so, through the good offices of the United Nations itself. It is, therefore, more than unfortunate that it should have been impatient at the emergence of the Federation of Malaysia and decided unilaterally to adopt a policy of confrontation. The circumstances attendant on its withdrawal from this Assembly and the known support and encouragement it has received from China would, in my submission, be an added reason for an effort to be made to bring both China and Indonesia into the councils of the United Nations and effect a change from confrontation to conformation, and thus help to achieve the real universality of the membership of the United Nations. 18. The peace-building operations of the United Nations should not, I respectfully submit, be confined to the resolution of actual conflicts between States but extended to cover conflicts that are known to exist even within national boundaries, where large numbers of people, differing in some respects from the governing authority, are being subjected to what I may describe as barbarous and inhuman treatment, and are thus denied the conditions essential to reaching fulfilment. In this connexion, I feel that it is tragic that South Africa, a State Member of this Assembly, pledged to observe and honour the principles of the Charter, among whose objectives is the encouragement and respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms for all, is almost inexorably committed to a policy of racial discrimination, intolerance and oppression, What is worse is that its Government should openly flout the succession of resolutions and appeals of the United Nations. What is unfortunate here is that the authority, influence and prestige of the United Nations is being undermined, and this is affecting even the very foundations on which it rests. Appeals and resolutions have failed. Indeed, it would appear that South Africa has increased the tempo of its repressive policies. I should not like to suggest that the conditions are yet ripe for such a State to be excluded from this Organization, but I do feel that this world Assembly may, in this situation, take such action as would bring home to South Africa that it cannot conduct affairs, even within its own national boundaries, in such a way as to earn the eternal abhorrence and condemnation of world opinion. 19. The conduct of South Africa is regrettably serving as an example to the minority section now in command in Southern Rhodesia. I find that, with a very restricted franchise, the Prime Minister of that territory proposes unilaterally to declare his country's independence and has even taken a step towards asserting his intentions by exchanging so-called diplomatic representatives with Portugal, a country which has by no means an exemplary record in the pursuit of its colonial policy. 20. Whilst we note with pleasure that the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom has expressed his disapproval of the intentions and objectives of Mr. Smith and of his Government, I think that I am voicing the sentiments of a large majority of those States represented here if I venture to hope that he will bring the entire authority of Her Majesty's Government to bear in creating a Southern Rhodesia where the final arbiters of its destiny will be the permanent indigenous majority of that area. 21. I can hardly conclude the observations I nave made on the political aspects of the functions of this Organization without referring to a matter of very grave concern, particularly to us in Asia, namely, Viet-Nam. Speaking as a Member of the community of nations dedicated to the preservation of international peace, and purely on this motivation, I should like to observe that the United States — however understandable its motives may be in regard to its commitments in Viet-Nam — may wish, as a first step, to reconsider its military commitments purely on the grounds that an increase in the scale of operations in this area would necessarily increase the terrible suffering of the vast majority of the people of that unfortunate land. Their own views and loyalties appear to be somewhat indeterminate and nebulous. But the final political objective that must commend itself to most of us is the emergence of a healthy and indigenous national movement, independent of foreign arms and of foreign political support. One fears that the achievement of this objective may be compromised by a mere reliance on armed action from without; but here I must not be understood as either condoning or excusing the contribution in arms and material that China is reported to be making to extend the conflict. May I suggest in these circumstances that the United Nations should explore the possibilities of utilizing its machinery and resources to throw a cordon sanitaire round South Viet-Nam, thus insulating it from foreign pressures and helping the indigenous population to give expression to their true wishes and inclinations in regard to their future. 22. If, as we hope, political and cold-war problems which have accumulated in recent years tend to be solved in the near future by an increasing consciousness of the need for international solidarity and friendship as a basis for a stable world order, we feel that economic problems will in like measure have to receive the increasing attention of the United Nations. In any event I do sincerely feel that true international amity cannot ultimately be built on secure foundations except upon the basis of growing economic equality among the nations and peoples of the world. It is sad to contemplate that in an age of plenty and of spectacular scientific advance there is a growing inequality among the countries of the world. Half the population of this earth suffers from under-nutrition or malnutrition and an appreciable portion of its adult population is still totally illiterate, In this context, it is a terrible commentary on our times that the Governments of the world spend as much as $14 million every hour on armaments. 23. In the effort to achieve equality, the underdeveloped nations not only start at a great disadvantage relative to the advanced countries, but have also to combat the problem of a rate of increase in population which is nearly twice that of the developed countries. The recent past has thus been characterized by a growing inequality and an increasing gap between the per capita incomes of the developing countries and those of the developed ones. The point is a simple arithmetical one, namely, that unless the rate of growth of the per capita income in developing countries substantially exceeds the per capita income of the developed countries, there is no prospect whatever of reducing international inequality and of arresting the spread internationally of those tensions with which we are familiar within national boundaries. And I do fear that if concerted action is not taken to remedy this imbalance the world may yet have to witness the confrontation of a small minority of well-to-do nations by a large majority of poor nations growing poorer. 24. The United Nations, conscious of its responsibility in the economic sphere, has adopted a relatively modest, and, one would have hoped, a realizable objective. It has designated the present decade as a decade of development by the end of which the rate of economic growth of the developing nations, that is of their collective national incomes, is to be accelerated to reach a minimum of 5 per cent per annum. Having thus stated its objective, the international community proceeded at the recent Conference on Trade and Development at Geneva to will the means to that end. The Conference recognized that the problem of accelerated development involves the problem of bridging the trade gap both by national policies and by international effort in the field of trade and aid. The report presented to the Conference by its Secretary-General, Mr. Prebish, estimated a trade gap for the developing nations of the magnitude of $20 billion in 1970, which will have to be bridged if the target of the decade is to be achieved. I regret to have to state that the mid-term appraisal of progress towards this target does not reveal encouraging results. A report of the Economic and Social Council casts doubts whether the progress achieved is an improvement even on the record of the second half of the 1950's. The report goes on to state that more intensive efforts will have to be made to accelerate production, to expand trade and to enlarge the flow of external funds and assistance if the targets are to be achieved by the end of the decade. 25. May we examine the causes of this failure. It was the continuing theme of the Conference on Trade and Development that the developing countries themselves should mobilize the internal resources required for accelerated economic development. I shall readily concede that adequate progress has hot been made in this regard by all developing countries, but I should like to point out that a substantial number of developing countries, about one-third of the total in the opinion of Mr. George Woods, President of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development — I quote now from his article in The Times of London of 16 September 1966 — "appear, in spite of economic handicaps, to be pressing persistently forward". 26. What is unquestionably checking progress in these countries appears to be not a lack of internal effort, but a lack of the necessary foreign exchange. If I may quote Mr. George Woods again: "... what is known about the development projects and programmes of the under-developed nations, in the experienced judgment of the World Bank staff, suggests that over the next five years the development effort could make highly productive use of $3,000 million to $4,000 million more annually than is being put into it." 27. One form in which the foreign exchange necessary may be made available to developing countries is, of course, by direct financial aid by the developed nations. But the actual picture shows that the flow of economic assistance to the developing countries has remained unchanged since 1961. It is scarcely necessary to comment on the extent of the commitment undertaken at the Conference on Trade and Development by each of the developed nations to transfer 1 per cent of their annual income to the developing countries. 28. A preferable alternative to aid would, of course, be the expansion of trade. Here again, the outlook Is depressing. The economies of a large number of the developing countries depend on agricultural exports; in some cases, for example my own country, almost exclusively so. It is well known that, over a long period, prices of primary products tend to decline whilst the prices of manufactures, even when they do not rise, tend to remain stable. Indeed, the prices of capital goods necessary for a measure of industrialization of the developing countries have tended to increase over the years, resulting inevitably in serious difficulties in the balance of payments of the developing countries. Here, I should like to add that in a number of countries the efforts made to improve the output of agriculture by intensive cultivation has resulted in an appreciable increase in the volume of produce, but has had little or no effect on income from export earnings as such. I quote now from The Economist of 10 July: "Vital exports of many tropical countries in Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa are selling at lower price levels now, in real terms, than at the worst of the Inter-war depression." 29. Cocoa and sugar have been hard hit and the outlook for coconuts and rubber, two of the basic crops on which the economy of my country rests, is gloomy and depressing. The price of copra has fallen precipitously recently and the International Rubber Study Group predicts a steady decline in the price of rubber. As a result, Ceylon and a number of other primary producers will see their valiant efforts in export agriculture dissipated through the working of forces entirely beyond their control. Some of the developing countries will be compelled, I fear, in the absence of a more rational price structure, to move towards a lower level of unproductive self-sufficiency with a consequent reduction in their standards of living. 30. I am optimistic enough, however, to hope that this would not be considered desirable by the community of nations, and I should like to adopt and support in the strongest possible terms the plea made by Mr. Prebisch, the Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development at a recent meeting of the Trade and Development Board, for the kind of political goodwill needed to utilize the existing machinery of the United Nations for tackling the problem of depressed commodity prices by international commodity price arrangements and by devising, where feasible, arrangements for financing the accumulation of buffer stocks with a view to controlling the market. 31. Man in all his recorded history has never been so able to use for his greater good the vast resources of the earth and the inventiveness of his brain as he is able to do today. Yet the will to live seems to have deserted him, and it is ironical that the accumulated wisdom of the ages seems unable to prevent him from continuing to create the weapons of his own destruction. 32. The time is long past for pious platitudes in the cause of peace. Time was, even in this century, when victory in war was considered a desirable objective, not only because it conferred good legal title to ill-gotten territory, but also because it enhanced the prestige of nations and leaders. Genghis Kahn, Alexander, Caesar, Hannibal and Napoleon are good examples throughout the ages of men for whom war, in a sense, secured their place in history. But times have changed and with them the weapons too. I need not remind the Assembly of the terrible potency of the new weapons that are being created and, with this in mind, I am sad that the awful prospect of complete annihilation has not been as yet a sufficient deterrent for man to erase war from his vocabulary and banish it from his thinking. 33. Twenty-five hundred years ago that venerated Sage from the East, Gautama the Buddha, said: "If a man were to conquer in battle a thousand time a thousand men, and another conquer but one, himself, he indeed is the greatest of conquerors." This as yet unattained ideal of all religions will never be attained if the hatred of man reaches the point when, in conquering others, he destroys himself.