UN General Assembly
1949

62. In that connexion Sir Carl Berendsen had to point out a very serious difficulty. Members should not allow their hearts to run away with their heads; they should not allow their anxiety to achieve results, as quickly as possible over as wide a field as possible, to lead them too far and too fast. There was a danger that they might so dissipate their energies and their resources by endeavouring to do too much too soon that in the long run they might fail to do enough. All had probably been shocked and astonished by the figures quoted by the Brazilian representative (222nd meeting) as to the number of meetings held under the aegis of the United Nations alone, namely between 3,000 and 4,000 meetings annually. One wondered how such meetings could possibly be adequately maimed and how the cost of such meetings could possibly be met. Clearly, if meetings went on multiplying at that rate, many Members, and certainly the smaller States, would be unable effectively to cope with those demands. The United Nations must see to it that first things came first.