UN General Assembly
1958

23. No country should refrain from stating its views on these problems when they are before the Assembly. Our voice, small as it may be, will be spoken with optimism. Our vote will be cast with faith. Obstacles that seemed insuperable have been overcome in the course of the past few months. With the great weight of public opinion behind us, I believe that human ingenuity can and will find a way to meet a great, if not the greatest, challenge that the United Nations and history have had to face — namely, disarmament. 24. Just as New Zealand looks forward to progress at this session on the issue of disarmament, so too do we hope for progress in relation to the Middle East. Such a development is long overdue. From the inception of this Organization, the problems of the Middle East have been among the most difficult and the most persistent with which it has had to deal.