UN General Assembly
1964

106. I have asked to speak at this date so that I can share with all delegations, in a spirit of openness, with candour and with simplicity, my Government's views on the state of affairs at the United Nations as our annual general debate comes to its conclusion. Certain things which I shall say here today have to do with law, with procedures, with technical and administrative matters. So I want to emphasize in advance that these are but manifestations of much deeper concerns about peace and world order, about the welfare of human society and the prospects of our peoples for rewarding lives. 107. There can be little doubt that we have reached one of those watersheds in human affairs. It is not the first, of course, and surely not the last. But this is clearly a critical point in the long, wearisome, erratic, quarrelsome but relentless journey towards that lighter and brighter community which is the central thread of the human story.