UN General Assembly
1953

16. It is essential that the effort that made military rearmament possible should be directed to economic ends and that from now on the cold war against want should be fought and won. A depression, a world economic crisis or the continuation of the present imbalance between production and consumption could cause as much harm as war and disrupt the democratic system. The most important thing at this point is to tackle die problem of financing programmes of economic development, to increase the resources of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, to set up an assistance fund — in short, to enable all the peoples who desire freedom to live their lives in real freedom without the constant fear of want and poverty. For that reason, my delegation believes, now as always, that the economic and social questions on the General Assembly’s agenda are closely linked with recent victories in the political field, and if we do not make headway in dealing with those questions, the little we have gained in one sphere may well be lost in the other.