May I be permitted to join our colleagues who preceded me in congratulating Sir Leslie Munro and wishing him success in presiding over our deliberations during the present session of the General Assembly.
58. I would like at the same time to recall with grateful admiration the masterly and conscientious way in which His Royal Highness, Prince Wan Waithayakon, guided our deliberations during the previous session, which was admittedly the most difficult ever held by the Assembly since the inception of the United Nations. Prince Wan always succeeded in accomplishing the feat of showing how docile, how resilient and yet how unbreakable firmness could be, and all the way through he gave us the distinct fueling that here was one who had acquired the wisdom and attained the bliss of detached attachment and who was at real peace with himself and with the rest of God's great creation.
59. It is at the same time a privilege and a pleasure for me to join in congratulating the Secretary-General, with whom we occasionally differ, but whose re-election by unanimous vote has been one of the most uncontroversial matters ever considered by the United Nations, and a well-deserved recognition of his devotion and his brilliant and sterling qualities. Now he is committed to five more years during which he will have to share our endless worries and put up with our frequent indiscretions.
60. We have all watched him for years, at close range and from far away, plan, toil and dare, in behalf of the great things which this Organization stands for. We have all seen how, deep to the marrow of his bones, he has vividly and truly vibrated with his sacred message, and the shrewd suspicion grew all around into a firm conviction that no one could personify a smiling prospect for peace hotter than does this determined Swede, this shining citizen of the world, Dag Hammarskjold.
61. Congratulations are equally due to the sister country, the Federation of Malaya, whose admission to the United Nations will no doubt richly contribute to the work and add to the wisdom, of this Organization.
62. The skies seem clearer today than they were at the time the General Assembly met last year, when, as all will recall, there was nasty weather indeed. In this connexion I shall not proceed any further with my present submission without renewing the expression of Egypt's gratitude for and admiration of the noble and determined stand taken by virtually the unanimity of the United Nations against the tripartite attack on Egypt and in behalf of the principles of the Charter and the dictates of world peace. At the same time, it is my pleasant duty to register here the deep gratitude of my country for the unstinted efforts of the United Nations and its Secretariat for the clearance of the Suez Canal, which greatly helped in making it possible to proceed with the other steps necessary for restoring the Canal to normal service.
63. In contrast to what took place last year, this time I bring good news from Egypt, some of which I ask leave to put before the Assembly, in as far as it relates to questions to be dealt with by it, or is or should be of particular interest to it.
64. Egypt has gone — at great sacrifice, I must admit — a long way in reconstructing Port Said and repairing other damage caused by the tripartite attack. Its efforts in this direction have included the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the Gaza Strip and the restoration of normal navigation through the Suez Canal. In all this, Egypt has had, especially in the initial stages, the extremely valuable help of the United Nations and its Secretariat.
65. A similar effort has been made by Egypt in bolstering its economy and adapting it to new requirements and new circumstances. A good measure of success has been already achieved in this field, in spite of the economic war- or shall I stamp it with the right hallmark and call it "brink of war"? — with which several powerful Members of this Organization are facing Egypt.
66. The General Assembly will recall the declaration of the Government of Egypt on 24 April 1957 [A/3577], relating to the Suez Canal and the arrangements for its operation. This declaration, among other things, reaffirms the unaltered policy and firm purpose of the Government of Egypt to respect the terms and the spirit of the Constantinople Convention of 1888 and the rights and obligations arising therefrom; provides for a stable policy regarding Canal tolls; provides for adequate resources to meet the needs of development of the Canal; states that the Government of Egypt would welcome and encourage co-operation between the Suez Canal Authority and representatives of shipping and trade; provides for means of recourse in relation to complaints; provides for acceptance by Egypt of the compulsory jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice regarding differences arising between the parties to the Constantinople Convention of 1888 in respect of the interpretation or the applicability of its provisions; provides for compensation of the shareholders of the nationalized Suez Canal Company.
67. The declaration, which is an internationally binding instrument, as solemnly stated in it, was registered as such with the Secretariat of the United Nations. Since this declaration was issued, the Government of Egypt has amply and repeatedly shown its resolve to honour it and to implement it fully.
68. Among the steps inspired by this resolve has been on the communication of 18 July 1957 from the Foreign Minister of Egypt to the Secretary-General of the United Nations [A/3576 and Add.1] enclosing a declaration accepting, on behalf of the Government of Egypt, the compulsory jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice.
69. Another step taken for the same purpose of fully implementing the declaration has been the active and great care which the Suez Canal Authority has dedicated to the improvement of the Canal. A most thorough and continuous study has been made with this in view, with the help of all the qualified and experienced technical knowledge required. The sum of €3,285,000 has already been set aside for the development of the Canal, with more funds to follow for the same purpose.
70. Furthermore, and as a result of the completion of the clearance of the Canal and the actual carrying out of the first stages of the development programme, it is expected that ships with a draught of up to 35 feet will soon be able to pass through the Canal, as was the case before the tripartite aggression. It will be recalled, in this connexion, that the Canal, in spite of sabotage by some big Powers, had functioned perfectly until aggression blocked it; and when the aggression ended, an end was rapidly put to the blocking of the Canal. And the Canal is once more a link of good will and of mutual benefit to the nations of the world.
71. Parallel to this, and as all are admitting, cooperation between the Suez Canal Authority and the representatives of shipping and trade dealing with it has been at its best, and I wish, in this connexion, to state that the head of the Suez Canal Authority and some of his aides are about to visit various countries in order to get in still closer touch with these representatives.
72. The question of compensation to the shareholders of the nationalized Suez Canal Company has, of course, been constantly on the mind of the Government of Egypt and has received and is still receiving its utmost care. My Government, therefore, among other things, during the last few months has been consulting with several other Governments, as well as with the Secretary-General, on ways and means of ensuring proper representation of the shareholders, so that the matter of compensation to them can be promptly discussed and finally settled.
73. Meanwhile, the Suez Canal is rapidly emerging from the results of last year’s tripartite devastation and showing a serviceability and dynamism under its present administration consonant with modern times and the requirements of an ever expanding international navigation.
74. Egypt, with the other nations of the world, shares the growing, nay, the full, awareness of the sheer folly of war, and parallel to this of the immense and previously undreamt of possibilities through sane thinking and modern science for the welfare, happiness and honour of the human race.
75. Still another source of gratification to Egypt, as it is or should be to all other countries, is the awakening of the peoples of the world to a sound and active realization that the relationship between the nations of the world should be marked by real comradeship and invested with the dignity of humanity and freedom.
76. In this year of grace 1957, one feels, however, even more than in 1955 when at San Francisco we celebrated the tenth anniversary of the inception of the United Nations, the need to take stock of what has been happening in the world during the last few years, and to make some comparisons between the hopes of yesterday and the realities of today.
77. Our reaffirmation, as in the very preamble of the Charter, of our faith in human rights, in the dignity and the worth of the human person, and in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small, is still far short of being matched by what is happening in many parts of the world.
78. In disregard of religion, of humanity and of the Charter, racial discrimination in several countries continues to be a most shameful and most disturbing fact of life. Moreover, many of the peoples of the world are still denied their natural right and right under the Charter to freedom and to self-determination.
79. Furthermore, partition and the morselling of countries has shattered the unity and dimmed the hopes of many a nation. Especially after the Second World War, the world has been plagued by an epidemic of partition, of which the most conspicuous victims are Palestine, Germany, Korea, Viet-Nam, not to speak of certain other present or prospective cases.
80. Economic and technical co-operation, which was meant by the Charter to be a means of hastening the development of the countries of the world and enhancing the purposes of goodwill and peace, has been distorted and deviated from by some big Powers to become an instrument for tempting or bringing pressure to bear on other countries, in order to impose upon them certain policies and certain commitments. Economic assistance has, in other words, been thrown out as a bait for some countries to bite at; and if they do not bite, then an attempt is made to spear them and get hold of them by force. If this in turn fails, then the planners go into a rage and level all sorts of accusations and recriminations against what they look upon as the poor fish. Reference is not made here particularly to the High Dam in Egypt. I am at this moment and in the present context referring essentially to the high principles and ideals enunciated in the Charter.
81. Similarly to what has been taking place in the field of economic and technical assistance, the supplying or the withholding of arms has been used as a means of pressure of temptation by some big Powers which are recklessly and mischievously making of many other countries of the world a miserable dumping ground for their policies and for their inevitably obsolete arms. This tragedy of arms and of arms supply is in fact much too tragic for words. The big producers of arms are engaging in a feverish competition lest they be overtaken in strength and in the ability to destroy by those whom they look upon as their likely enemies. While doing this, they strain the nerves of all concerned, including their own people, and overburden the economy of all concerned, including their own people.
82. A tremendous surplus of arms is inevitably heaped and stored by these big producers, and is used mostly to influence and to rope in as many as can be secured of the non-arms-producing countries. If country “X” takes the arms and swallows the policies of the big Power proffering them, good and well, of course from the big Power’s point of view. If, on the other hand, country "X" is as impolite and as careless as to fail to accept those arms and to refuse to swallow those policies, then another scheme is unleashed; and the arms-supplying country switches its offer to the rivals or the enemies of country “X”, and opens a front of propaganda and of economic war against it.
83. Another phase of this fathomless tragedy is that it undermines in a most drastic way the economy and the prospects of social advancement of a great number of the countries of the world, especially those which are direly and most urgently in need of dedicating themselves and their resources to the improvement of the lot of their peoples.
84. I cannot think of any acts short of war Which could be more mischievous than the mischief and more tragic than the tragedy of this sombre nightmare of arms and arms supply. A way out of this mess has to be found; a road, other than this road of all-round suicide has to be trodden.
85. Another extremely disturbing feature of present- day international relationships is the appalling imbalance and the crushing effects of the tremendous difference in strength between some Powers As compared to other Powers. This difference is creating a most ominous situation which basically affects the future, the freedom and the very existence of many of the nations of the world.
86. This alarming lack of equilibrium between the various Powers is the more accentuated and the more dangerous in view of the absence until today in international relations of the guarantees and sanctions which in national life assure respect for the law. Our law in the United Nations is, of course, mainly the Charter. But we all know too well how little the Charter is actually made effective by the guarantees and the sanctions stipulated in it.
87. This state of affairs shows with great emphasis the importance of a well-informed, wide-awake and most resolute public opinion throughout the world. This has been so clearly shown in connexion with the attack on Egypt last year, which would have rolled the history of human progress thousands of years backwards had it not been for the awakening and the rising of world public opinion and its ready rallying around the principles of the United Nations. We all vitally needed that yesterday, and we all as vitally do need it today and in the future for such and similar contingencies.
88. And these are by no means the only matters of great moment which make a robust, a conscious and a responsible public opinion of the world so infinitely essential.
89. To give only two illustrations of this: right here and now, and throughout this universe in which we live, such world opinion is vitally needed to help and to convince all the Governments concerned to stop this insane and suicidal race of arms and its corollary of nuclear and thermonuclear experiments which are playing havoc with the health and the sense of security of the world’s inhabitants, and with whatever vestiges there remain of the rule of law in international relations.
90. Indeed, the question has been repeatedly asked, and it is quite a valid question, as to whether, even mischievously supposing that a State has the right to destroy its own nationals, it has the right to release forces which it cannot control and which it cannot stop from harming seriously or, for that matter, harming at all, the nationals of other countries. This is definitely among the questions we all have to answer, and no amount of escapism can enable anyone to hide it or light-heartedly to explain it away.
91. An additional instance showing the tremendous importance of a solid and active mass of world opinion is our obvious need, all of us, for putting an end to another destructive feature of international life, namely, the scramble by some big Powers, in various ways and under various guises, for the control of countries and areas in the world which ought to be allowed scope for developing their freedoms, their economy and their social life.
92. But the promotion of an enlightened, robust, effective and sound public opinion throughout the world is clearly not the responsibility of Governments alone. The role of the various' media which can serve this purpose, the home, the school, the Press, the radio, television, the cinema, the theatre, is vast and deep and vital.
93. As you will have noted, everybody is busily speaking these days about the Middle East, as he is entitled to, and as indeed he should, in view of the current stirring events, problems and the manoeuvrings in, and in relation to, this area. Some outsiders are even considering and busily speaking about the Middle East as if it were their own enclosure, their own exclusive business; and they have, on occasion, by their attitudes and by their acts, made a most fantastic innovation in and a most unbridled departure from political and diplomatic practice by going around the Middle East, or what was once called the general area of the Middle East, peddling their policies, and trying to take a kind of poll or referendum, as if the Middle East were their country club or their electoral constituency.
94. This, apparently, is but one of the many symptoms of the main trouble, the main disease — power hunger- which afflicts some big Powers whose attempts to secure their positions in the Middle East have succeeded — if this is success — in making of it, from Algeria to Palestine, to Syria, to Yemen, to Oman, and to other parts of it, the most worried, the most distraught and the most tortured area in the world at present.
95. Being a Middle-Easterner and an Arab, I might also be allowed, in my turn, to say a few words about the Middle East, and about what some call the Near East, in the hope that my voice and others from among the people of the area will be heard above the clamour and the shouting of some busybodies from outside.
96. Many actions in the area, or in relation to it, by outside Powers have been at complete variance with the standards of international behaviour which we have all agreed to and set together in the Charter.
97. The whole area is so covetously wanted by some Powers and some groupings of Powers from outside, as a ball and a pawn in the game of international politics. Gone are the days when people believed the statement of one big leader of our times that the establishment of spheres of influence and the domination of one country by another were to be no more. Gone are the days when people could believe the statement of another leader of our times that the world was about to witness the real establishment of the rule of law in international relations. The rule of law? Just come and see, if only a little of what is happening in the Middle East as well as the Near East.
98. Our first step could be Algeria, this Algeria whose people are doomed to more suffering and to more humiliation, while the French Parliament indulges in its endless and barren debate, while it topples one ministry after another, and while we are made for the millionth time to hear the crazy notion that, because some French lawyers in Paris have written an article into their country’s laws saying that Algeria is part of France, the people of Algeria must be treated as things and as serfs.
99. In this connexion, I wish to say that, though I am an Arab and a blood relation of the Algerian people, I cannot better or in clearer outline define the question of Algeria than have done several of our colleagues. Just to mention one of the statements made: how well and how rightly the Foreign Minister of Ireland spoke, on 20 September last [682nd meeting], when he pointed out that the case of Algeria deeply disturbed the friends and admirers of the French nation; that the nature of the conflict was one that left a country with Ireland’s tradition no choice; that Ireland could not do otherwise than support self-determination for Algeria and urged the French Government, in the interest of the French people, in the interest of the French settlers, in the interest of the peace of mind of France’s friends, in the interest of world peace and for the glory of France, to declare its readiness to concede absolutely and unequivocally the right of self-determination to Algeria.
100. Then there is the tragedy of Palestine. No question, to my knowledge, has aroused so many and such deep emotions as has the question of that unfortunate land and its noble yet ill-fated Arab people. About no other question has as much been written or spoken. Yet it turns incessantly in a dizzy whirlpool; and no real progress has been made to rescue it from under the heap of fallacies and of lies in which it has shamelessly been thrown.
101. Israel, which has called itself the child of the United Nations, barely recognizes the existence of the United Nations except, as we have seen much too often, to use the halls and the rostrums of this Organization to try to confuse the issues of the Palestine question which cannot be confused and to obscure the rights of the Arab people of Palestine which cannot be obscured, and, in and around these halls, to scheme and manoeuvre, with its cohorts, to do away with the, whole issue.
102. When we look at the armistice agreements concluded by Israel, the glaring fact appears that Israel signed them but has refused persistently to honour its own signature. And, taking the load from this refusal, and particularly — logic or no logic — from Israel's aggression last year against Egypt, the Prime Minister of Israel says that the Armistice Agreement with Egypt is dead.
103. In the same spirit of defiance, Israel has refused until now to implement the resolution adopted on 2 February 1957 [1125 (XI)] by virtually the unanimity of the General Assembly, which stipulated that the United Nations Emergency Force should be stationed on both sides of the armistice demarcation line.
104. Furthermore, while the lawful Arab inhabitants of Palestine have been driven away from their land and their homes and are living miserably as expellees from their own country, and as if this were not sufficient to disrupt the peace of the Middle East, the Prime Minister of Israel, not for the first time, stated only a few days ago that “the survival and peace of Israel will be safeguarded by one thing and one thing alone — large-scale immigration. For this security, Israel requires an addition of at least 2 million Jews in the coming period”.
105. How valid and how prophetic was the comment of the late Count Bernadotte on this question. The Assembly might recall the following passage from the report submitted to the Security Council by the late Mediator on 12 July 1948, in which he stated: “It could not be ignored that unrestricted immigration into the Jewish area of Palestine might, over a period of years, give rise to a population pressure and to economic and political disturbances which would justify present Arab fears of ultimate Jewish expansion in the Near East. It can scarcely be ignored that Jewish immigration into the Jewish area of Palestine concerns not only the Jewish people and territory but also the neighbouring Arab world." [S/888, para. 26.]
106. Syria is still another harassed sister country in our area. Have you heard the shouts and the cries and seen the fireworks round and about the State of Syria? Continually, through the years which have followed the Second World War, arms in huge quantities have been and continue to be poured, with shameless persistence and frequency, into all countries and areas surrounding Syria, particularly into Israel which, for good measure and as a bonus and a token of appreciation of its aggressions, has been receiving gaudy gifts of goods and money amounting to more than its budget. But Syria, which had been denied even a semblance of adequate provision for its defence, and which had been rebuffed every time it wanted to acquire the necessary arms from certain countries, has been insulted, threatened, molested and looked upon by some as anybody’s whipping boy. Yet, of all this, of all the arms supplied to other countries during the last year, no noise, not a word, not a whisper. All the arm-twisting, all the commotion and all the hullabaloo obviously have been reserved for such an occasion as Syria's taking a modest step or two to provide for its own defence.
107. And here I feel impelled to state and to remind the General Assembly that Syria is Egypt's ally, as well as Egypt's blood relation, and it is fully entitled to Egypt's help, as well as to help by the United Nations for the repelling of any aggression which might be launched against it. And I wish, in no equivocal terms, to leave no scope whatsoever for doubt that Egypt, for its part, will not tolerate that even a fingertip of Syria be hurt, that a hair of the head of Syria be ruffled, by any aggressor, but will immediately rise to a man and stand four-square with its sister State of Syria.
108. Syria, in preparing and providing for its own defence, has not done anything which it is not fully entitled to do; and it is not accountable to anyone for any of its actions in the exercise of any of its indisputable rights.
109. The huge clamour made about danger to the peace in the Middle East has by now rumbled down and screeched into nothing at all. That clamour began in perfect conformity to the usual pattern which bears the unmistakable mark of its own artificiality. Suddenly, and out of a clear sky, one false accusation after another was levelled at Syria; in quick succession one threat followed another, from various capitals, on the road to Damascus; and Syria was depicted as the irrepressible and irresponsible knight-errant of the Middle East, as the great danger to world peace. What a balloon full of emptiness! But we do not see it anymore; it has already exploded and disintegrated into nothingness. Syria is there, peaceful and quiet, behaving as always as a good, loyal and devoted Member of the United Nations. And if anyone should say that the Syrians wish to throw away in any direction, or to the four winds, the independence which they have earned with their sweat and their blood, then that one is a foolish man's fool, as he fools nobody but himself.
110. How about using some restraint and a minimum of alarms? How about cooling off and thinking and talking of Syria, as well as of other countries and other matters, like reasonable people endowed with a real sense of responsibility? Perhaps it is high time that everyone did exactly this.
111. We ardently hope that the question of Cyprus and the people of Cyprus will soon be blessed with better luck and a better fate than they have had so far. We entertain this fervent hope for the sake of the people of Cyprus and for the sake of freedom and world peace.
112. As an Egyptian, I feel the urge and have the right to say that, in nobody's wildest imagination could a free Cyprus be fancied as an arsenal and as a base for launching last year's murderous attack against Egypt. As confirmed by its Commander-in-Chief, that attack, I must register here, was planned and irrevocably decided upon while the Foreign Ministers of the United Kingdom and France were feigning to negotiate here in New York with the Foreign Minister of Egypt a peaceful solution of the Suez Canal question. With this in our thought in Egypt, we felt sincere sympathy and sorrow for the people of Cyprus who, we were perfectly sure, were deeply hurt and saddened by that intolerable episode of recent history.
113. A most important and particularly welcome development which has been taking shape and receiving the plaudits of one and all is the steady and surefooted growth in stature and the increase in positiveness of the United Nations Secretariat, especially since the crisis of last year. It has been incisively and vividly demonstrated that the Secretariat has indeed come of age and ti.at it has boldly assumed in full and in real fact its responsibilities according to the Charter, as one of the organs of the United Nations; and we are happy to see beside us and with us in our daily toils and cares a solid, dynamic and daring Secretariat which is thoroughly permeated with the tireless energy and inexhaustible resourcefulness of its wise and far-sighted pilot, the Secretary-General.
114. When, in parts of my submission today, I made reference to failings and shortcomings in our tackling of the problems of the world and in our endeavour to serve the purposes of the United Nations, I did not, for a moment, forget the difficulty, the intricacy and the stubbornness of many of these problems. Nor did I underrate the immensity of the obstacles which often beset our road, or the great efforts made to overcome them. Indeed, never before has the world been harrowed and haunted by such problems as these. Never was it, more distinctly than it is now, in need of redoubled effort and of God's guidance and grace.