The Cuban delegation’s purpose in participating in this general debate is to state briefly, owing to the great number of speakers listed, our Government's views on the most important items on our agenda.
38. Also, we should like to lay before the delegations for their consideration what might be called a summary of our country’s economic situation and the great work carried out by cur Government in the past few years in spite of the difficulties that have arisen. These difficulties are due chiefly to the unremitting action taken by the Cuban Government against the infiltration of International Communism into the island and to our staunch stand in the United Nations in defence of the democracies, in opposition to a new imperialism and a new colonialism which, it would seem, will yield only to those moral and material forces which are opposing it and will make their final triumph impossible.
39. We consider disarmament the most important item on our agenda. We have stated repeatedly that, although it is true that only the great Powers can effectively solve this problem - since they are the only ones capable of launching a total war - it is equally true that those nations which do not have great military strength are those that suffer most from wars, without ever reaping any benefits from the outcome of wars. That is why we are presenting our views, for right and truth are not a monopoly of the great Powers.
40. The problem of disarmament must not be considered without taking into consideration certain circumstances which are fundamental in placing the question in its proper context. As long as we do not do this, any statements made in this Assembly will be futile. The Assembly should never be used as a forum for propaganda intended to deceive unwary nations.
41. There is one fact that cannot be denied: it is the reason why the situation is so complicated. During and after the War, the so-called Western Powers ended their political domination over thousands of square kilometres of territory, and millions of human beings acquired the right to be called citizens of independent and sovereign States. India, Pakistan, Burma, Tunisia, Morocco, Sudan, Ghana, the Federation of Malaya, the Philippines, Laos, Cambodia, Viet-Nam, among others, serve to demonstrate the accuracy of our statements.
42. While this was taking place, we were alarmed to note the rise of the new imperialism and a new colonialism threatening the freedom of all mankind. One State seized control of thousands, millions even, of square kilometres of foreign territory, and imposed its pitiless yoke on millions of hitherto free men, women and children. That the number of subjugated peoples was not greater was due to the decision of the United Nations and the exceptional sacrifices of the United States and its allies, which routed aggression in Korea. Thus it was possible to save South Viet-Nam from subjugation by a State which was overrunning peoples and territories.
43. This background, which is apparent to all and cannot be denied with mere rhetoric, is what is destroying the mutual trust essential to any discussion of disarmament. As long as guaranties acceptable to all parties are not provided, it would seem futile to hope for any favourable outcome from the negotiations. It is well to remember the obvious fact that it is due only to the strength of the United States in atomic weapons that it has been possible for the rest of the world to remain free.
44. In our view, and we say this with full awareness of our responsibility, all that renunciation of atomic weapons represents, in the absence of complete and absolute guaranties that aggression will not be unleashed following such renunciation, would be an act of imprudence which the great Western Powers cannot risk.
45. The Soviet Union too is entitled to insist on guaranties. We do not deny this. But such guaranties have been offered to it in profusion. Yet when the Western Powers request guaranties to protect them against surprise attacks, atomic tests and secret manufacture of nuclear weapons, the Soviet Government balks at granting them and launches a vast propaganda campaign through its militant communists and fellow-travellers in all parts of the world, whose sole purpose is to prove that it wants to abolish the use of atomic weapons in order to be able to launch its final and complete conquest.
46. Furthermore, the Cuban delegation sincerely believes that it is contrary to the most elementary rules of logic even to suppose that a lasting peace can be achieved as long as the division of Germany, against all principles of justice, is maintained. We cannot understand how Soviet statesmen can imagine that this division can be made permanent without endangering international peace. It is an artificial division of the State which has the greatest economic potential in all Europe and of a people who constitute an entity and have one of the world’s most advanced cultures.
47. The Cuban delegation subscribes unreservedly to the Berlin Declaration of 29 July 1957, signed by the Governments of France, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Federal Republic of Germany, in which all other States are informed of the urgent necessity of achieving rapidly the much desired unification of Germany.
48. We are astounded too that Soviet statesmen, who always analyse problems in accordance with materialistic principles, do not realize that for their own security the right of self-determination must be fully granted to those peoples in Europe and Asia whose lands are occupied by the Soviet Army. This could be achieved through broad guaranties to the effect that under no circumstances would those liberated peoples become belligerents against the Soviet Union itself.
49. The Cuban delegation is in a position to collaborate to the full extent of its ability in all measures designed to reach at least preliminary agreements in attempting to solve this vast problem affecting all mankind. But under no circumstances would it cast its vote in support of any proposal which, yielding to the pressure of biased and skilfully directed propaganda, would represent a renunciation of freedom and independence for the peoples of this part of the world, and of their right to live according to their traditional democratic principles.
50. The Algerian question was the subject of much discussion during the eleventh session of the General Assembly, at which the Cuban delegation expressed its views. It cannot change those views for fundamental reasons which I shall briefly summarize.
51. The Charter of the United Nations - which, of course, should be more widely disseminated among the peoples of the world so that they would not consider the Organization as a body to provide solutions to internal political problems of the Member States, solutions which are always requested to suit the taste of the party making the request - is our constitution, and therefore its provisions are mandatory upon all Member States. Article 2, paragraph 7, of the Charter reads as follows: "Nothing contained in the present Charter shall authorize the United Nations to intervene in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any state or shall require the Members to submit such matters to settlement under the present Charter..."
52. We have said this before and we repeat it again. When France joined the United Nations it considered Algeria, unlike Morocco and Tunisia, as an integral part of its national territory. Several Member States have overseas provinces which, they consider to be integral parts of their national territory, and so would the United States if Hawaii became a State of the Union. At the time France became a founding Member of the United Nations, no Member State objected to having Algeria considered an integral part of its national territory. This problem has arisen in the past few years.
53. The Cuban delegation feels that it will be possible for the United Nations to act in this matter only in so far as France accepts such action. What the French Government does not agree to discuss would be outside our competence. This does not prevent us from expressing the hope that a settlement of this problem may be achieved in keeping with the noble traditions of a nation which the people of Latin America love and admire so much.
54. On the agenda of the current session of the Assembly there is a draft code of offences against the peace and security of mankind, whose title is not in keeping with its content. This draft introduces a mutilated definition of genocide and makes Communism immune to charges of such offences. The result is that the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, a convention ratified by fifty-five nations, would be repealed. There is no doubt that endeavours are being made to reach a settlement which would combine the definition of genocide with the so-called inhuman acts carried out against the civil population, which is a vague legal definition.
55. In accordance with the Convention on Genocide, constitutionally responsible rulers, public officials and private individuals may be held criminally responsible. Under the draft code, private individuals do not bear criminal responsibility. The Communist Party of the Soviet Union is composed of private individuals; accordingly, it would be declared immune from any criminal charge. The history of the Communist Party is a long chain of acts of genocide, several of which have been admitted by Mr. Khrushchev, and the most recent of which were the atrocities committed in Hungary.
56. Furthermore, in contradiction with the principles of individual responsibility in criminal law, in the draft code, the authorities of a State are held responsible. Private individuals can be considered responsible as an exception, but only if they acted at the instigation of the State authorities. However, everyone knows that in the Soviet Union the Government acts at the instigation of members of the Communist Party, and not the other way around.
57. In these circumstances, the Government of Cuba, which is proud to have initiated, together with the Governments of India and Panama, the Convention on Genocide in the United Nations, strongly protests against this attempt to thwart any progress in the application of this civilizing concept. We hope that the General Assembly will reject the draft code of offences, since to adopt it at this time would be detrimental to the community of nations.
58. For the majority of Member States, which, like Cuba are classified as under-developed countries, economic questions acquire exceptional importance. We maintain our opinion that the highly industrialized, and therefore wealthy, countries must realize that their privileged situation entails moral obligations and that in the long run a contribution to the economic development of other nations will redound to their own benefit as well. This cannot be achieved solely through a flow of private capital to our countries; we also need another kind of economic assistance to enable us to undertake non-self-amortizing projects, which are essential for the welfare of our people. Hence we shall devote our utmost attention to an item on the agenda we have before us concerning the establishment of a Special United Nations Fund for Economic Development.
59. It would seem appropriate, since I am now referring to economic subjects, to give a broad outline at this point of the economic situation in Cuba and the steps we have been taking to solve some of our most pressing problems.
60. In order to give a clear picture of the present economic situation in Cuba, we must go back to the conditions prevailing during the prosperous years of 1951 and 1952, in which our nation achieved exceptionally high exports - principally of sugar - invested part of the funds raised through the Government loan of 1950-1980, floated in the amount of $120 million, and - in the second of those two years - harvested the greatest crop ever achieved in the history of Cuban sugar production. After those years, as a result of the impact of the immense volume of the 1952 sugar production upon a conspicuously inadequate market, there appeared a depression trend which originated in the sugar Industry, but which tended to spread disastrously throughout the entire national economy.
61. In 1952, the present Government of Cuba, under the Presidency of Mr. Batista y Zaldívar, started the process of recovery, with such complete success that in 1956 the national income reached the 1952 levels and the sugar depression was wiped out. This was done, first, through a compensatory policy based on deficit spending, on the one hand, and public credit, on the other hand, plus the carrying out of emergency public works; and secondly, through a policy of economic development initiated in order to attain a given tempo of investment in agriculture, industry, mining, railways, ship-building, and the like, through various official credit institutions and private initiative.
62. AH these measures, together with a 1957 sugar crop that exceeded 5.5 million tons, with excellent prices on both the world and the North American markets - although improvement in the latter area was not so pronounced - led to the economic situations prevailing this year.
63. Owing to high private and public investments in industrial and agricultural development plans, the recurrence of an abundant sugar crop with high selling prices, and high public expenditures, the economic situation in 1957 has been satisfactory. This combination of factors - until 1957 the last of them was missing from the national economic picture - will no doubt continue throughout the year. The result, readily predictable at this juncture, will be that gross national product, which in 1956 was slightly under $2,500 million, will probably reach $3,000 million in 1957, thereby providing an increase of perhaps 20 per cent in the national income and the highest total ever reached.
64. So substantial a rise in employment and living levels will be evidenced - as it is already - in higher figures for exports, imports, bank deposits, as regards both current and savings accounts, the public revenue, and so forth; and for 1957 these figures are expected to be the highest ever reached in Cuba's economic history. Here it is only fair to state that it has been possible to achieve all this only through the effective co-operation of the National Bank of Cuba, which is presided over with unerring skill and integrity by Mr. Martinez Sáenz.
65. With respect to public works, to cite only one of the activities of the Government of President Batista, the Ministry of Public Works, headed by Mr. Arroyo Márquez, has carried out the following projects.
66. In the past few years, plans have been made for construction of 3,132 kilometres of main highways. One hundred and forty-two of the planned highways have been completed and the remaining eighty-nine are in process of construction and will be finished soon. Fifteen new hospitals, with more than 4,000 beds, have been completed. Sixty-one new bridges have been completed and five more are under construction. Two hundred and eighty-three streets have been provided with sewers, drainage and paving, and work on seventeen others is in progress. Fifty-three two-way avenues have been extended, provided with drains and paved; similar work is proceeding on thirty-three more.
67. These public works carried out by the Government of Cuba are in addition to those we mentioned [600th meeting] during the general debate at the eleventh session of the General Assembly.
68. By an overwhelming majority, the General Assembly in its eleventh session [576th meeting] agreed to place the question of Hungary on the agenda of the current session. Not to have done so would have been to fail in an obvious duty. As long as that unfortunate country continues to be occupied by the armed forces of a foreign power, the United Nations must use all the means at its command to effect the liberation of a people, such as the Hungarian people, whose history and the courage it has displayed entitle it to the support of all honest men throughout the world.
69. The question of Hungary continues to be a source of anxiety to the Government and the people of Cuba. We have said so on several occasions and we repeat it now. The United Nations cannot be divided into Member States who comply with the resolutions of the General Assembly, and one State - which, it is true, has great military strength - which systematically flouts them and shows Olympian contempt for the opinion of the great majority of the Members of the United Nations.
70. The delegation of Cuba considers it essential that we should not approve the credentials presented by the representatives of the Kadar regime, who obviously do not represent either the Hungarian nation or the Hungarian people. We feel that if the General Assembly did not approve their credentials when the events which had occurred in Hungary had not yet been officially proved, it would be contrary to the most elementary principles of logic and law to approve them now when we have an official report from the Special Committee on the problem of Hungary [A/3592] in which there is a plethora of evidence that the Kadar regime has been imposed on the country by the invading forces of the Soviet Union.
71. We have great faith in the frequently demonstrated skill of Prince Wan Wuithayakon, to whom the General Assembly has entrusted the difficult mission of obtaining from the Moscow Government and the Budapest regime a satisfactory solution of the Hungarian problem. We wholeheartedly wish him complete success in all his efforts.
72. The delegation of Cuba has come to the current Assembly, as always, to work with the greatest enthusiasm and good faith for the cause of international peace. We shall do our utmost to help to achieve satisfactory solutions to the extremely serious problems which affect the whole world. We feel that if the principles of Christian charity are put into practice it will be possible to solve the majority of the problems dividing us, for the good of all peoples and for the greater glory of the United Nations.