UN General Assembly
1947

Let us look at one or two of the results of that failure. Last year there was a most melancholy incident now known as the “Corfu Incident”. First our ships, moving through the Corfu Channel, were fired upon. The old reply would have been to fire back. Our commanders kept their heads. There was no precipitate action. That was in May. Then in October two of our ships in the Corfu Channel were mined and badly damaged. Forty-four men who were pursuing their lawful occasions were lulled and others were wounded. We acted in. the spirit of the Charter and submitted our case to the Security Council. There we temperately pleaded our cause. There we established the facts. We had the Council with us, as we had world opinion with us. Yet the veto was exercised in the Council, preventing the Council from taking action, preventing a formal expression of opinion on the merits of the case by the members of the Council. We are glad that the question now goes to the International Court of Justice. But from our point of view that is perhaps the worst abuse of the veto in the Security Council, though other nations would, no doubt, offer other examples equally or comparably grievous.