UN General Assembly
1959

59. The principle of collective effort, rather than hostile competition, is one that could usefully be applied to all areas of tension, including areas which have recently been, or still are, under some form of colonial rule. But collective effort implies equality of status. A people which has been under colonial rule can co-operate with its former rulers and with other countries on a footing of equally. That has happily been demonstrated in many areas. If, however, the colonial Power attempts to prolong its rule without the consent of the governed, then the conditions for collective effort do not exist, and what ensues is a bitter and sterile struggle, wasting the human and material resources of ruler and ruled alike. There, as elsewhere, what is needed — and what we hope is coming — is a burst of imaginative energy to shatter this vicious circle, and release for creative purposes the powers which mankind is now abusing for purposes of self-destruction. If this is achieved, as it can be by wise and daring leadership and increasing enlightenment of public opinion, then territories which are at present scenes of tragic strife can become fields for development through common effort under a law whose strength is in its acceptance by free men.