1. Madam President, I congratulate you, and through you,
your great country, on the unanimous election which
entrusted to you the task of guiding the debates of the
General Assembly of the United Nations at its twenty-fourth
session.
2. We welcome this election because it underlines your
outstanding qualifications and also because it is proof of
the growing participation in the world community of a
great continent, which strongly reflects the deep-rooted
aspirations of the peoples gathered here: to be free, to live
in peace and to have productive relationships that will
promote the spiritual and material development of mankind.
3. Still fresh in our minds is the vivid memory of Mr.
Emilio Arenales, our brother from Guatemala, whose
achievement during the twenty-third session of the General
Assembly provides a message that is relevant to our
work—that is, that we must all make the same controlled
and silent sacrifice so that in times of~trial we may
overcome the obstacles, both personal and collective, to the
attainment of the goals we have set ourselves, however
difficult and arduous the road may be. Having said this, I
should now like to touch on the matter which is of deepest
concern to us.
4. Many voices are being raised, both within and outside
this forum, to express scepticism about the work of the
United Nations. A pessimistic attitude is now being adopted
towards the destiny of our Organization. We must react
energetically against this unhealthy trend, which could
destroy the world community and involve us in the
uncertainty of an international policy dictated by events,
outside the framework of the agreed and freely accepted
law.
5. On behalf of Uruguay, I must make it plain that I have
not come to this Assembly to attend the funeral of the
United Nations. On the contrary, we have come here to
make a healthily realistic examination of the growing
difficulties that affect the Organization’s effective
functioning, with the firm and unwavering intention of finding
solutions that will strengthen the Organization and increase
its competence and suitability as an instrument in the
service of the lofty ideals for which it was established in
San Francisco.
6. But I wish to make it very clear that Uruguay stands
within the Organization, not outside it. I now propose to
enlarge upon this statement. The policy of balance of
power, which took the form of alliances and covenants, led
to the First World War.
7. In the light of previous experience, the League of
Nations advocated and formulated the system of the legal
equality of States. Yet it failed to achieve its peace
objectives because, outside and apart from the League, the
same fatal system of balance of power continued in force
and finally led to the most recent world war.
8. The horrors of that terrible war brought forth a new
policy, which Uruguay described at the time as a potential
risk to the nascent Organization established in San Francisco:
unity of power to preserve peace. Unity of power
implied—as events later proved—that it is effective for that
purpose as long as unity exists; but when unity is broken,
the policy of balance of power reappears, today in the
form of antagonistic blocs.
9. This is the picture we have before our eyes. Outside the
Organization, or at least beyond its framework, the force of
events determines the fate of this world community, which
today appears to be merely a forum for denunciation and
protest and no longer a tool for the preservation of peace,
our common and indispensable task. This is why, at the
very beginning of this Assembly session, we wish on behalf
of Uruguay to put forward a different view and to do
something constructive to strengthen the United Nations.
That is why we have come here.
10. I should like to repeat today what the Chairman of the
Uruguayan delegation, Mr.Secco Garcia, the Under-
Secretary for Foreign Affairs of Uruguay, said at the
twenty-third session of the General Assembly:
“We are happy to say that in international law there has
been steady even if slow and difficult progress.” [1686th
meeting, para. 5.]
He added:
“This parliament seems to us slow to establish the rule
of law in practice and to create awareness of its benefits.
We know that there are factors beyond its control, but we
have a common duty to correct them, because they not
only endanger freedom and justice, but also raise problems
which affect intelligence itself.” [Ibid.]
Nevertheless, and in spite of these difficulties, we trust in
the instruments offered to us by the present Charter of the
United Nations.
11. The conflicts that exist in the Far East and the Near
East, and the painful problems affecting parts of the
African continent can and must find a solution within the
framework of the Organization that unites us. However
disquieting and ominous the symptoms may be in those
regions, there is still time to face them with resolution and
vigour, with the indispensable goodwill, in order to achieve
honourable agreements that will build a stable and lasting
peace.
12. Uruguay condemns the use of force and terrorism,
recourse to reprisals and, in short, any act of violence. We
believe that our Organization, through its competent
organs, is still able to arbitrate and find solutions that are
acceptable to the parties in conflict and that will lead to
future co-operation and harmony.
13. In this connexion, my delegation feels compelled to
mention the regional policy of the inter-American system.
The inter-American Pact, inspired by genuine regional
solidarity and strengthened by long years of existence, has
recently proved its effectiveness. A policy of promoting and
implementing the law, with a brotherly and friendly
understanding of the factors of a dispute, is, in the long
run, the best policy.
14. We hope the world Organization will realize that, as
the provisions of the Charter indicate, might does not make
right or place anyone in a better position to negotiate peace,
and that peace is based on justice and justice on international
morality, and ultimately the conduct of States must
be adapted, not to the prevailing interests of the hour, but
to the permanent values of law, because law, regulating
peaceful coexistence, is the only instrument capable of
diminishing the policy of balance of power and restoring
the legal equality of those same States.
15. As a small State, but one inspired by its devotion to
international law, Uruguay comes to the work of this
Assembly with faith and hope in the Organization and in
the solution that may stem from it. The success of our
meetings rests on the contribution of all to the supreme
blessing of world peace. By using our energies, our
co-operation and all the other means at our disposal, by
supporting the existing organs and means in order to
overcome the grave problems of the world, and by
co-operating with the family of nations on a regional and
world-wide scale, we must make the utmost effort to sweep
away the tight barriers that prevent us from reaching the
common goals which unite us.
16. We are not unaware of the fact that an appropriate
amendment of the Charter which governs our work may be
the most feasible means of achieving these objectives, but
we must not await that event. In the meantime we must
make the best of the imperfections of the existing system,
and work with confidence and faith to maintain peace,
which all mankind needs and is asking of us.
17. But peace cannot be achieved without an appropriate
hierarchy of values, international social justice requires an
equitable balance and a better distribution of wealth. The
specialized agencies of the United Nations are useful
channels for contributing to this vital equalization between
the rich and the poor countries.
18. At present the unstable and precarious peace in which
we live appears to be the result of our fear of a nuclear war.
But the strategic recourses for war include a weapon more
dangerous than this terrible power, and that is the power of
hunger, the power of the dispossessed, the power of those
who have been insulted and injured by the mighty of the
earth.
19. History teaches us that all empires pass away. No
matter how vast their material resources, how immense
their technological capacity, they will fall because of the
violence unleashed by injustice and because of the despair
generated by hunger. And hunger does exist on earth.
Therefore, it is for their own good and for the good of all
mankind that those who possess such power should realize
that power implies not privilege, but service, and that this
same power imposes greater responsibilities upon them in
these anxious times in which mankind is living.
20. I shall leave the specific items on the agenda for
discussion in the Committees. The particular instructions
given to the delegation of Uruguay with respect to those
items will be made known at that time, and we shall then
indicate the responsibilities of those who can and should
act, and offer our co-operation in seeking possible solutions.
21. I should now like to invoke the protagonist of our
endeavours. States and frontiers do not exist for the States
themselves, nor for the frontiers themselves; they exist for
man.
22. At a time when the substance and realm of the atom
have been laid bare by human intelligence, at a time when
man, following the plan of creation, has walked on the
moon and achieved mastery of outer space, at a time when
our entire technology indicates that man himself is capable
of achieving what he was created for, namely, of governing
the earth, at this very time man seems unable to govern his
own passions.
23. Acting through nations or communities, man seems to
and in opposition and contradiction to his fellow man.
Invisible but no less real, the man from all latitudes is
nevertheless present in this Assembly, calling upon States
and Governments not to forget his real existence, his
anguish and his fear, his hope and his faith, his ultimate
destiny.
24. Therefore, the primacy of spiritual values over the
material contingencies of the moment must govern our
work. The words of the Old Testament make themselves
heard among us today as they did at the time of the landing
on the moon: “What is man, that thou art mindful
of him?”.
25. The Assembly’s answer to the question that has been
asked since the beginning of time must be the one given us
by that same Old Testament: "Except the Lord build the
house, they labour in vain that build it".
26. On behalf of Uruguay, I express the hope that these
permanent spiritual values will guide our work, and that
when we return to our countries the common man who
suffers and hopes and has his eyes fixed upon us will know
that we have not laboured in vain because we have built on
the solid rock of ultimate values: law based on justice,
justice based on morality, and peace as the fruit of
international social justice uniting all men in a single
people, a single family, and abolishing all frontiers, so that
we may be bound together by brotherhood and love based
on a profound faith.