UN General Assembly
1968

155. The international climate in which we are beginning our work is scarcely a propitious one. The general picture of our world is not encouraging. There are armed conflicts which have already lasted too long and whose cost in blood, tears and destruction saddens us. There has been no halt in the arms race. Vast sums are still being invested in the development and manufacture of ever more deadly weapons, while the majority of the world’s population is increasingly anxious and disturbed about the unjust and immoral distribution of wealth whereby a few countries have too much and many countries have too little; in one case labour is rewarded by well-being and a high standard of living, while in the other there is a tendency to perpetuate the wages of hunger and poverty. 156. And this is not all. Very recently we witnessed with stupefaction and indignation the violation of the most fundamental rights of a State Member of our Organization and the breaking of the most elementary rules of co-existence among States.