Mr. President, in calling upon you to lead the work of this session, the General Assembly has recognized in you the qualities required by such high responsibilities, which your predecessor, Mr. Adam Malik, carried out with competence and distinction. If that election is a tribute to your qualities and your experience, it is also a tribute paid to your country, whose fate for centuries was linked to almost all the painful changes that occurred in Europe through which its sons, generation after generation, did honor to the independence of peoples and the dignity of man.
122.	It is also the consecration of the universality of our Organization, because all of the Member States without exception are entitled to assume the highest positions in it. This privilege is all the more deserved because Poland, of which you are one of the leaders, has with courage and equanimity made a signal contribution to the abatement of tension in Europe and to the strengthening of what we already call, with reason I hope, international detente.
123.	It is not in order to exercise the demons of the hot war or the cold war that we like to call the present development in international relations a detente stage. Of course, the present state of the world still provides many serious reasons for concern, preoccupation and even anguish, and the road will still be long and difficult before the international community can feel that it is confidently moving towards that security and peace to which it aspires. But this evolution, timid and problematical as it may be, is already substantially changing the nature and quality of relations among the main Powers, whose antagonisms and confrontation were precisely the main source of the crisis which has marked the last 25 years. A series of events has occurred in the last two years which had been impossible to conceive of, at least not in the near future, in any analysis of the previous international situation.
124.	The visit of Chancellor Brandt to Warsaw, the meetings between the leaders of the two Germanys, the Moscow summit and the ratification of the German-Soviet agreements are the most significant stages of this process which has made it possible to substitute dialog for mistrust, at least with respect to the problems of Europe, a region which was one of the most serious hotbeds of crises in the post-war period.
125.	Another series of events has spread the same spirit to Asia and paved the way for making the most striking changes of our times. The restoration to People's China of all its rights and its admission to the United Nations, and the visit of President Nixon to Peking are in fact significant portents that the great Powers have realized the limits of the respective powers and have undertaken from now on progressively to normalize their relations.
126.	In Asia again, the visit of the Prime Minister of Japan to China and the restoration of diplomatic relations between the two countries at one stroke changed all the political considerations to which we had become accustomed and opened a new chapter in their history and in that of all mankind. The agreement between those two countries, the one with all its potential and the other with all its power, promises Asia an international role genuinely in keeping with its size and is a primary feature in the change in the world balance. Moreover, the constant readjustment of this balance, in our view, offers the best chance of safeguarding international peace and security.
127.	The non-aligned countries, which had organized themselves during the most crucial years of the cold war and held out against pressure as well as persuasion, can today be legitimately proud of having been able, through the mere force of their conviction, to set themselves aside from the influence of either block. Their principles and their action were to a very large extent important factors in the evolution of relations among the great Powers. If they rejoice in seeing that detente is emerging in one part of the world or has already become consolidated in another, they remain watchful and sometimes apprehensive of the risk that the new balance established among the great Powers might confront those Powers with the temptation of engaging in a simple reapportionment of roles, influences and interests in the various parts of the world. They want this detente to be indivisible and beneficial to the whole of the international community. In this very hall over a. full decade they have made of this a profession of faith whose defense was not always without its dangers.
128.	In this connexion, I should like to pay a tribute to U Thant, who had felt and shared in this aspiration and who contributed with remarkable patience to the emergence of this new political context which brought us from the cold war to detente. I also know, Mr. Secretary-General, what esteem and trust have been reposed in you, and I am convinced that with the qualities that you possess which have long since established your reputation that you will be able to lead us from detente to peace.
129.	A few minutes ago I spoke of the wish of countries such as mine to see this detente spread to all parts of the world, and despite the most natural feeling of national egoism, I have recorded Morocco's satisfaction at the emerging signs that peace is returning to some continents. But the continent of which Morocco is a part is still outside this charmed circle. The international community, which in the past quarter of a century has undertaken a deep reconsideration of the philosophies and values upon which it bases its behavior and which succeeded in changing its structure on the basis of a more tolerant ethic, still runs up against the colonial concept which, on the African continent, has assumed its most inhuman and most intolerable form since that phenomenon spread by successive waves over our continent during the last century. These foundations of colonialism, which were none the less solemnly repudiated within the framework of the new morality governing relations among peoples, still persist in Africa, where the process of decolonization which began in the 1950s has not been accelerated as we would have wished. And yet there are still nations with the most advanced civilizations which practice colonialism and others which support it, while both in the past either through their religion or their humanism have played a very important role in the changes brought about in relations among men. How are we to explain the indifference or the inertia shown by some Powers in this very Organization which sometimes, without any reason other than that of an alliance, ignore the courageous and desperate struggle of peoples aspiring to achieve their respect and dignity?
130.	Aware of this immobility, if not of this helplessness, those peoples have been taking their fate into their own hands to an ever-increasing extent and have irrevocably chosen the narrow and painful road of struggle. This courage has earned them the sympathy and assistance of a large sector of the international community. But the African States in particular feel that it is their overriding duty to help and support these peoples. During the last summit meeting of the OAU, which my country had the honor of welcoming at Rabat, the member States demonstrated in the most striking terms their wide and effective support of these peoples. The liberation of Africa was the dominant theme of the meeting and practical measures were taken to ensure that the struggle will be supported wholeheartedly. But if they are determined to wage an all-out struggle because it has been forced upon them by their opponents, they know that this Organization, by reason of its Charter and its political action, could shorten that suffering. What can be the power of South Africa or Portugal which allows them to claim that they are and will remain Members of this Organization and sometimes to behave here in an arrogant fashion while they contemptuously and disdainfully ignore the innumerable resolutions adopted by the Security Council and the General Assembly with the support of most of the great Powers? What is Southern Rhodesia compared to the power of Great Britain in the first instance, and of the international majority 14
which has condemned its secession and the policy of brutal segregation which followed thereon.
131.	It is true that the Secretary-General recently traveled to South Africa and Namibia and that he engaged in difficult talks with the Pretoria leaders. Without underestimating the positive nature of that initiative and of the new mission now being undertaken by the Secretary- General's representative for Namibia, we shall not harbor any illusions until we become convinced that because of these efforts the South African authorities will consent to engage in a dialog within the meaning of international decisions defining the legal status of that Territory, and within the terms of the resolutions clearly clearly setting out the steps for its liberation. Ambassador Escher, the representative of the Secretary-General, enjoys our confidence. I hope that he will provide us elements likely to make us less skeptical.
132.	As for Portugal, which is waging a total war in three regions of Africa, it should begin by realizing that, despite the means placed at its disposal, the resistance movements in Guinea (Bissau), as in Angola and Mozambique, have succeeded in establishing themselves in those Territories with a remarkable organization that makes it possible to associate with them all of the liberated populations in a venture that becomes more effective day by day. What indication could Portugal give us to make us understand that this country is finally ready to engage in a dialog with the United Nations which could progressively substitute politics for war? The nationalist leaders confronting it have proven their courage, their authority and their ability and are able to shoulder all their responsibilities. Africa has also clearly assumed its responsibilities: it supports their resistance, it determinedly and tirelessly pursues its political action at the international level and within this Organization. However, this same Africa which is still plagued by difficulties inherent in its rapid change and which is still confronted, both at home and abroad, with problems that are at times insurmountable, has proved at Rabat that it was capable of overcoming the problems inherent in its evolution and in the clarification of its interstate relations, just as it has shown itself able to cope with its responsibilities at the international level with the realization that it is an important factor in international life and that, for the world to feel concern for its problems, it must, in its turn, join ever more closely in the settlement of the world's affairs. These are the factors which the friends of Africa, as well as its opponents, have called the spirit of Rabat. We hope that next year this spirit will live again in another African capital.
133.	But to this analysis which, at the start of this statement, I intended to be a positive one, I must add that Africa is not the only area where the situation obliges us to recognize the persistence of .tensions and dangers still threatening security and peace. It has by now become a chronic phenomenon, especially during the last five years, for this Organization to consider the situation created in the Middle East by the Israeli against several States in that region at a pace which does away with the myth of the cease-fire and brutally reminds us that the aggression is continuous and generalized. This Organization has taken a whole series of decisions, at the level of both the Security Council and the General Assembly, establishing a framework for the search for a solution aimed at eliminating the results of the aggression of 1967, and especially at evacuating the occupied Arab territories and recognizing the legitimate rights of the Palestine people.
134.	Numerous approaches were undertaken both within the framework of these resolutions and among the great Powers in their talks, or through the initiative of one country or another. The Arab States have constantly lent their support to these approaches and have set up no obstacles in their way. But Israel has, invariably, on one pretext or another, blocked all such action and every such initiative. It rejects the resolutions of the Security Council, it refuses to engage in any co-operation no matter how slight with the representative of the Secretary-General, it denounces agreement among the four great Powers, it even opposes the Rogers plan. What is more, while opposing any search for a just and equitable solution, it continues its attacks, on an increasingly violent scale, against Syria and Lebanon, in particular. Convinced that it can rely on the requirements of a particular combination of circumstances in the internal life of a great Power, in one single week it launched two attacks against Syria and bombed and invaded the territory of Lebanon. And when the Security Council meets to consider these deliberate aggressions, the exercise of the veto by one permanent member guarantees the absence of any Council decision against Israel.
135.	It is particularly dangerous to international peace that a situation such as the one now prevailing in the Middle East should continue without being given serious attention, as if this Organization and the international conscience that it is supposed to represent had abdicated before a fait accompli carried out with inexplicable impunity. What does Israel hope for? Is it hoping that, once it is assured of this indifference and this impotence on the part of the United Nations, it could, at will, launch its aggression against any country it chooses, for which it is free to define the objective and determine the duration? Well, this is now the fact, and the vetoes in the Security Council will henceforth assure it that it can repeat these aggressions without any risk to itself.
136.	On several occasions the leaders of the Arab countries directly concerned have clearly announced their readiness to support any initiative that, with full respect for existing resolutions and while preserving their dignity, would serve to set in motion a process capable of facilitating the restoration of peace to the area. After five years, this show of goodwill and patience has been put to the test and these States, conscious of their responsibilities to their own peoples find themselves constrained to resort more and more to other possibilities that certainly do not bring peace any closer.
137.	This situation was vigorously denounced this year by all of the African States meeting in June at Rabat, and by the 62 non-aligned countries meeting in August at Georgetown. The persistence of the crisis and its unforeseeable future course can be laid only at the door of Israel and those members of the international community whose indifference is interpreted by Israel as tacit encouragement. In the face of such a clear-cut situation there can be no alibi. Especially not the alibi called terrorism.
138.	We do not hesitate to declare solemnly that we are opposed to all forms of violence, that blood shed by violence must be deplored, whatever the nationality, the race or the religion of the victim. For several decades we in fact have always been on the side of the victim of violence rather than on that of its perpetrators. And if today the explosive power of certain words is deliberately being intensified, it is exclusively for the purpose of adjusting them to their intended use. First of all, what is terrorism? We exclude from the definition that people are now trying to work out any act motivated by the defense of a legitimate and inalienable right which the law has failed to protect. This principle, in our view, applies as much as to an individual as to a group and, a fortiori, to an entire people. An objectively violent act, may have legitimate motivations and, speaking of the actions of Palestinians, let us clearly say that this involves the expression of one of the most painful aspects of the crisis in the Middle East, namely, that where there is aggression there is necessarily resistance.
139.	The Palestine people was coldly and cynically abandoned in 1948; half of that people remained as hostage to those occupying its country; half was driven from its houses, its lands, beyond its border, to yield its place to foreigners coming from every corner of the globe. That people for a long time hoped that those supposedly assisting it would help in the recovery of its homeland and its dignity. The Arab countries for 25 years have tried to denounce the flagrant injustice committed against their people with the blessing of those who today criticize them. They have failed so far. But a new generation, raised in frustration, often in poverty, has, on coming of age, at least regained the moral and unalterable inheritance of which nothing can deprive a great people: its dignity. To express this thirst for justice and dignity it has tried the only ways and means which the political order existing in the world has left at its disposal. These were ineffectual, since its rights continued to be ignored. This international community, from which it sought justice, apparently did not understand its despair and its cry for help, while like all people in history, it used the sublime recourse which is the gift of life itself to remind the world of its existence. There is no need to seek elsewhere, other than to understand the actions of the sons of this lost Palestine.
140.	That truth, which we painfully feel and which we express with the utmost regret, is also useful in our opinion to the search for a true peace in this area, a vital part of the Mediterranean basin. And, we, at the opposite end of the Mediterranean are trying to work out and agree, with our neighbors of the south and the north, on the basis for a co-operation likely to ensure to all of us permanent security and prosperity. The Maghreb, if it has not yet succeeded, is progressing happily with confidence in and respect for that unity which is the deep aspiration of all its peoples.
141.	On the shores of Europe, the Common Market is expanding and Europe is working on a political unity which we think could be a positive factor in the stability which Europe has been seeking since the end of the war, the stability necessary to ensure to it its rightful role in the world. Linked by history, convinced of the similarity of our interests and desirous to the same extent of avoiding falling under the hegemony of the great Powers, we are formulating together the hope of finding around this sea sufficient motivation to strengthen our ties in a solid and lasting way.
142.	We rejoice in the possibility, which we hope will come about very soon, of a conference on European security. The peoples of Europe, who throughout history have often had a common destiny, can reasonably expect today to build together a world in which they will recover their true vocation and their common hope. If we greet this conference with joy, we also think that European security would be incomplete and fragile without security for the Mediterranean and for all the peoples living along its shores. That is why we are most interested in having our problems taken into consideration at that conference.
143.	If Europe thinks that the Rhine or the Elbe are the axes of its destiny, we believe equally strongly that the Mediterranean is ours, and that we are seriously concerned about this. In Morocco we are gratified by the relationships we maintain with all the countries of the northern coast. There are so many affinities and so many interests binding us together that our will co co-operate with them is an inevitable element in our destiny. I should like to say especially to one of those countries with which we have had a kind of centuries-old historical intimacy, that we are aware of the fact that our positions in the Atlantic and the Mediterranean could in future lead us to establishing closer co-operation then in the past; and while the reservoir of friendship accumulated during that common history is an important factor in any calm consideration of such cooperation, I must say just as frankly that the road towards this common action must be cleared of anything that might give rise to conflicts and misunderstandings.
144.	The rather serious dispute which existed between us and Spain has appreciably lightened in recent years, but it still involves fundamental divergences which continue to be a source of concern. I have in mind the problem of the Sahara. The desire to preserve the potential benefits of the future has consistently led us to seek in frank and loyal dialog a solution which would redress the consequences of past phenomena which are no longer valid in our present day world, and which Spain has from this very rostrum strongly condemned when it claimed the legitimate return of Gibraltar to its national territory. We have carried forward a dialog for many years and action at United Nations level in which Spain is no longer facilitating our progress towards a solution, as it did in the past in accordance with our admission.
145.	True friends know how to overcome quarrels. Both sides must also be aware of their duty not to sacrifice such important prospects for co-operation to misunderstandings which in the long-run may imperil the deepest friendship.


Mr. President, the Canadian delegation looks forward with hope and determination to the proceedings of the twenty-seventh session, over which you will preside. We count upon you for that same wisdom and judgment which characterized your distinguished predecessor's term of office. Your election is a mark of our high regard for you and for your country. Poland symbolizes for the world the unquenchable flame of national will blazing out after centuries of darkness. We remember that the terrible war which brought this Organization into existence began in the defense of Poland's national independence. We remember, too, the debt every country in the world not least my own owes to the Polish people in all the arts of civilization. How fitting it is, Mr. President, that the year of your election should be the five hundredth anniversary of the birth of that towering genius, Nicolaus Copernicus, to whom all mankind stands debtor.
23.	May I welcome you also, Mr. Secretary-General, to the indispensable duties upon which you have embarked so vigorously. With the whole world as your province, you have already traveled widely. Canada was honored by one of your first visits as Secretary-General, as it was some years ago by your first appointment as ambassador of your country.
24.	Your concern for both the authority and the efficiency of the United Nations has been evident from the outset in the measures you have taken to assert the one and enhance the other. You have our admiration and our support. It is a current commonplace to take a dark view of the performance and prospects of the United Nations. One respected international commentator observed just the other day that "the United Nations has never been weaker than it is now", while your predecessor, Mr. Secretary- General, has called the phase through which the Organization is now passing "a time of trials".
25.	There is ample evidence to justify a sense of defeatism. The international community often seems incapable of preventing war, powerless in the face of acts of terrorism, apathetic at the spectacle of starvation and misery, and irresponsible in its willingness to risk permanent damage to the environment. We seek to explain this by observing that in a world of sovereign nation-States, the United Nations is bound to reflect the weaknesses of the international society which produced it. Time and again, national egotism seems to be the ruling principle of that society.
26.	This is at the root of the world's deep anxiety. For the better part of this century, we have known that nationalism has imperfections. Yet mankind is not about to do away with sovereign States. Indeed, the events of the century, by breaking up old empires and multiplying new sovereignties, have acted as a stimulus to nationalism. New States are not willing to deny themselves the advantages they believe older States have gained from national independence. Certain great tasks of social and economic construction are indeed impossible except in conditions of independence and, while some advantages of independence may prove illusory, even this is irrelevant since the Charter establishes national sovereignty as a fundamental principle.
27.	Those are powerful considerations. In the face of them, it is unrealistic to plan for an international order in which the system based upon sovereign national units has been replaced. Instead, it is more hopeful and more sensible to work to transform the existing system, encouraging it when necessary to produce the antidote to its own poisons.
28: There have been encouraging developments in this sense recently. Even in the brief space of time since last we met, relationships between the great Powers have undergone' a remarkable transformation. Earlier this year, the two nuclear super-Powers signed a declaration on basic principles governing their relations,  an agreement limiting anti-ballistic missile systems,  and an interim agreement on the limitation of strategic arms.  Furthermore, the Soviet Union and the United States have reaffirmed the undertaking in the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons [resolution 2373 (XXII), annex] to pursue their negotiations to end the nuclear arms race and bring about actual measures of nuclear disarmament.2 The nuclear sponsors of the non-proliferation Treaty have a particular responsibility to adopt measures to curtail the nuclear arms race and thereby prevent further nuclear proliferation. One such measure would be a ban on all nuclear testing. Surely it is time for the two super-Powers to end underground tests, for the two States which continue to test in the atmosphere to cease their testing, and for a complete test ban to be concluded.
29.	The international community has a right to expect that the agreements concluded in Moscow will open the way to more far-reaching nuclear arms control and disarmament measures. But it by no means under-estimates the historic significance of what has already been accomplished. Surely this amounts to a recognition that the search for a one-sided strategic advantage has become self-defeating and illusory and that the way ahead lies through a stabilized nuclear balance to nuclear disarmament itself.
30.	In this same brief space of time to which I have referred, the People's Republic of China has, to Canada's great satisfaction, taken its rightful place in the United Nations. Relations between China and the United States and between China and Japan have witnessed a dramatic improvement. In Europe, breeding-ground of two world wars, the most significant steps in this generation have been taken to reconstruct relations between the Federal Republic of Germany on the one hand and the German Democratic Republic, Poland and the Soviet Union on the other. The first general negotiations on co-operation and security in Europe since before the Second World War, as well as negotiations to bring about a mutual and balanced reduction of forces in Europe, will soon begin.
31.	Caution says of course that all these developments are only beginnings. But they could mark the greatest change in the international order since the United Nations was founded. If we are right to say that the United Nations reflects the international order on which it is based, can we be wrong to hope that these beginnings will sooner or later transform the United Nations as well? There are other hopeful developments. Dialogs have now begun between the two halves of Germany and Korea. These face enormous difficulties. But we can expect that in the not-too- distant future the universality of the United Nations will be strengthened through the extension of membership to the peoples of the divided countries. It will be strengthened also as self-determination brings the era of colonial empires to its final end, especially in Africa, where the most intractable problems of securing human dignity and freedom are posed. Although the recent proceedings of the Security Council give little support to the view, surely it is no longer visionary to conceive of situations in which the Council will function as was originally intended, by consensus of the permanent members and of the United Nations as a whole, through co-operation rather than through confrontation.
32.	We founded the United Nations, as the Charter says, "to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war". More has been accomplished in this past year to remove that danger than in any year since this Organization was created. Certainly so far as the risk of a general nuclear war is concerned, the hopeful evolution of great-Power relationships evokes deep feelings of relief, gratitude and satisfaction from us all.
33.	It would be a bitter irony if the safer, saner world which seems at last a possibility rather than a dream should turn instead into a world in which the stream of violence simply cuts new channels.
34.	Time and again, the smaller countries have called for an end to the nuclear arms race, an end to nuclear confrontation. We have sought an international order in which the great Powers conceived it neither as to their interest nor as their obligation to police the world. Now the great Powers, in their own interest and in the interest of us all, are moving in this direction. Is the new security and freedom which will thereby be available to all countries, large and small, to be dissipated in new forms of violence? Must we admit that only the fear of nuclear escalation has allowed us some limited success in the past generation in controlling recourse to force? Yet the international community still has no answer to the dilemma of deciding at what point local violence has such wide and obvious international implications that it can no longer be accepted as a purely domestic matter. We struggled with this problem last year during the crisis in Bangladesh. Even where violence is plainly international from the outset, our means of dealing with it are often pitifully weak. There are those in the world who appear to believe that the norms of civilized international life are not for them. They consider that they have a right to pursue their grievances by kidnapping, piracy, murder and wholesale terror and violence.
35.	The problem is growing. It has become world-wide. My own country has had its tragic experience of violence of this sort. Canadians instinctively share the horror and shock which these acts produce wherever in the world they may occur. The Canadian Government understands only too well the agonizing choices Governments face when called upon to deal with a sudden nightmare of violence.
36.	Terrorism takes many forms. It is called forth by a wide range of complex situations. The rights and wrongs of these situations are bitterly contested. It is simple realism to recognize all this. But the problem cannot be ignored because it is difficult. There must be no truce with terror. Some acts of terror are the work of deluded and demented criminals, others of frustrated and desperate men willing to sacrifice their own lives and the lives of innocent people in what they regard as a noble cause. When we agree that the cause is noble, we are tempted to condone the terror. But are we wise to do so? The act we condone today may be the one we regret tomorrow, when it is turned against us, for terrorism in the end affects everyone: it is an attack on civilization at large. Violence breeds violence, murder answers murder, and order dissolves in chaos.
37.	Therefore, we approve the Secretary-General's initiative in seeking to have the subject placed on the agenda [A/8791 and Add.lJ. A number of delegations have reservations about the debate upon which the Assembly is to enter. Some fear it will be too diffuse to be useful; others that it will be too narrow to be constructive. It need be neither. The Canadian delegation looks upon the debate as a way to focus international concern upon the whole range of acts of terror and to stimulate action both by international bodies such as the International Civil Aviation Organization and the International Red Cross and by Governments acting within their o vn powers or under bilateral agreements.
38.	The means of dealing with the problem will be as varied as its forms. Some international legal instruments already exist for the purpose. Those should be quickly strengthened through ratification by as many States as possible. Perhaps new international machinery and new international legal instruments will be necessary as well. Then let us create them. How can the world, which has declared slavery, piracy and the drug traffic beyond the pale of civilized life, fail to outlaw terrorism? The Canadian Government, which has already amended its domestic law, entered into bilateral negotiations to limit terrorism in the form of hijacking and ratified the international conventions concerned, stands ready to contribute to the strengthening of international law to outlaw terror.
39.	The task is formidable. But the United Nations has responded to challenges of equal difficulty in the past. Since we cannot expect national loyalties to disappear, we must work to temper those loyalties by a growing sense of responsibility on the part of individuals and Governments to the international community at large. I suggest that a consciousness of this responsibility is growing in ways unknown to previous generations.
40.	Consider the field of human rights. It would be easy to multiply examples of violations of human rights throughout the world. The task of creating and ensuring respect for agreed international standards ha^ been daunting. Deep historic and cultural differences have produced widely differing views of the true source and proper extent of individual rights. Those differences are profound. How can we legislate them out of existence? Yet and I would draw this to the Assembly's attention the international community has successfully legislated the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights [resolution 2200 A (XXI), annex]. In doing so, it has recognized that there are limits to the exercise of State sovereignty and that certain rights attach to individuals among others, the rights to life and freedom, to liberty and personal security, to fair and prompt justice, to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, and the right to leave any country, including one's own.
41.	The task now is to ensure that these rights are honored in practice. So far as my country is concerned, I am glad to say that the constitutional difficulties which have delayed Canadian ratification of the human rights Covenants are well on the way to being overcome. Through national experience and international example, Canadians have come to appreciate that the field of human rights is another sphere in which national and international obligations reinforce each other.
42.	Among the most serious challenges to the honoring of human rights today are those that lie in Africa. In South Africa the very system of apartheid does violence to the concepts embodied by the international community in the two Covenants on human rights. In Rhodesia an illegal regime continues to deny the majority of its citizens even the hope of the basic rights to which they are entitled, and now, in Uganda, a new form of danger has arisen. I do not wish to enter into the substance of the question. Obviously, however, the situation in Uganda requires the exercise of the greatest restraint on the part of the Ugandan Government if the Asian community is to be allowed to leave in conditions of reasonable dignity and security. Humanity on the part of other Governments is required as well, so that the tens of thousands who may ultimately be affected by enforced expulsion may have a generous reception in the many countries of the world where their talents could find new and useful expression.
43.	The great programs for economic co-operation' between the developing and the industrialized world are another instance in which a growing sense of obligation to the international community has become an expression of enlightened nationalism. The whole notion that this world venture should be undertaken at all has become part of general public consciousness only in the last 20 years. And once again those who are looking for reasons to be discouraged after a relatively brief effort find their case ready made. From the statistics of the first United Nations Development Decade we know that per capita incomes in the developed countries-already far higher than in the third world have been growing at not much less than twice the rate of incomes in the developing countries. We know that in the developed countries the consumption of energy per capita is 5 to 10 times the world average and that, quite apart from the difference in protein content, the intake of food in calories is almost twice as much per capita as in the developing world.
44.	Those gaps are great. Some of them are growing. Meanwhile, the efforts of the developing countries to strengthen their economies are partially absorbed in supporting populations which in Asia, Africa and Latin America are growing at the rate of between 2 and 3 per cent a year-double or more the rate for Europe and North America.
45.	The resources devoted to attacking these problems of development and disparity are undeniably inadequate. If they are to be increased in quantity and quality the developing countries must continue their heroic efforts while the developed world finds ways of increasing the measure of its participation. The attack must focus equally on social issues, given the interdependence of social progress and economic growth.
46.	In Canada, I am glad to say, sustained public consciousness of these problems has permitted the Government to make steadily increasing resources available for programs of economic co-operation. I expect this trend to continue. It will be combined with an intensified search to ensure that the co-operation is extended in the forms we are best fitted to provide and our partners are best fitted to use. Hand in hand with this will go measures to improve the terms on which the developing countries have access to our markets.
47.	In economic relations generally, discouragement at some current tendencies would be justified. There is will an inadequate international framework within which to adjust the trading relations of the developed with the developing economies, and the market with the socialist economies. Among the major trading nations there are distressing tendencies towards protectionism, associated in part with the growth of trading blocs.
48.	International monetary machinery labors under extra-ordinary strains and urgently requires strengthening. Yet all these problems are recognized. They are under repeated attack in the Economic and Social Council, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, the International Monetary Fund, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, the regional economic commissions and elsewhere, and not without success. In the last analysis a sense of common purpose leads gradually to overcoming national differences.
49.	If we wish to measure our progress we have only to recall the economic chaos of the period between the two world wars. Then rampant nationalism combined with economic ignorance to bring the world economic system down in ruins. How many of the political failures of that period can be traced to economic failures? For all their faults, the present world economic structure and the institutional framework for economic co-operation which has grown up under the United Nations are an infinite improvement.
50.	But perhaps the most dramatic example of the rapid development of an international conscience and a sense of international responsibility concerns the protection of the environment. Even 10 years ago threats to the balance of nature were a matter for specialists. The public generally, and governments generally, were hardly aware that problems existed. In a matter of a few years we have awakened to the risk that we may be doing irreversible harm to the** natural order which sustains life upon the planet.
51.	The United Nations Conference on the Human Environment was the world community's first response to that challenge. It will undoubtedly take its place as one of the major conferences in United Nations history. Through its Declaration  the Conference has established a kind of "environment charter", providing a sound basis for the development of international environmental law and other co-operative measures for the protection and enhancement of the human environment. The recommendations for action agreed to by the Conference  demonstrate the willingness of Governments to work towards that goal. The endorsement of those recommendations consistent with the spirit and sense of purpose displayed in the Declaration will, in the Canadian view, be one of the major achievements of this Assembly, for the Stockholm Conference enunciated'.fundamental principles of international environ-mental law.
52.	The international community now has an opportunity to make a further advance in strengthening the international legal regime as it affects the environment. This is in relation to the law of the sea. Canada, like many other countries, is in favor of convening the third law of the sea conference in 1973, but only if preparations are adequate. This will be possible if the sea-bed Committee  is able to hold two further sessions during 1973. Then the conference could be formally launched with an organizational meeting in the fall of 1973.
53.	Those who wrote the Charter of the United Nations had certain clear ideas about what was needed to preserve international peace and security. They inherited some social, economic and legal machinery, and devised more. But the most foreseeing of them could not have anticipated many of the problems that have preoccupied the United Nations since. The whole range of exercises in peacekeeping; the transition to the post-colonial world; the machinery for economic co-operation between the developed and the developing countries; the extended protection of human rights; the work accomplished in relation to the environment, the sea-bed and outer space all these endeavors have called forth activity unimaginable in 1945.
54.	In a remarkable way this Organization has risen to these demands. It has done so by creating a large and complex family of agencies-so large and complex, indeed, that strong administrative leadership is as crucial to the continued authority of the United Nations as political leadership itself. To ensure that the machinery functions at maximum effectiveness on a sound and equitable financial basis is a problem of the first order. The Canadian delegation will work to ensure that this problem receives the steady attention it deserves. Considerations of cost and complexity are, however, a reminder that a price has to be paid if the United Nations is to be flexible and dynamic.
55.	I contend that it has displayed these qualities. The successive challenges of the last generation have been met with only two changes in the Charter: the increase in the membership of both the Security Council and of the Economic and Social Council. Apart from this, we have built upon the Charter machinery, giving a living interpretation to the Charter itself. While it has been difficult in practice to secure the required degree of agreement to amend the Charter, this does not seem to have prevented the United Nations from keeping up with the times. Canada is ready to look seriously at any specific proposals to amend the Charter or make it work better if these have broad support among Member States. But I am not convinced that a new Charter that could be agreed upon would be better than the Charter written in 1945.
56.	I have struck a hopeful note, and I may be criticized for that, but I am convinced that this is the right perspective. We have to concentrate on the problems of the day. This Assembly will have to concentrate on measures to prevent terrorism, consolidate our first advance in the environmental field, secure administrative and budgetary reform, protect human rights in Africa and elsewhere, and develop international law, especially the law of the sea and the law governing air piracy. Meanwhile the Security Council may well be obliged to deal with threats to peace-for example, if the current tension in the Middle East rises dangerously. All these matters are sources of deep concern. To deal with them successfully to deal with them at all-will, we know, lead us at times into anger, frustration and despair.
57.	It is therefore a healthy corrective to lift our heads above these problems on occasion, to remind ourselves of the great work the United Nations has accomplished in the past and to seek to trace those currents in human affairs which give hope chat its greatest accomplishments lie ahead.


Mr. President, before addressing this twenty- seventh session of the General Assembly, may I congratulate you on your election as President. Your qualities of energy and flexibility, understanding and experience, are a firm guarantee for the success of our work. To these words of tribute I wish to add the tribute of my people to the Polish people, to which we have traditionally felt linked by ties of friendship and understanding.
126.	This session is the first to be held since Mr. Waldheim took up his duties as Secretary-General. Therefore I cannot fail to state publicly our deep satisfaction and extend our sincere congratulations to him. Since Austria and Spain shared an unforgettable period of their histories a few centuries ago, I am well aware, as a Spaniard, of the promise of success in the hard and difficult task of being Secretary-General implied by the election of Mr. Waldheim, who is devoted to the service of peace and international justice.
127.	Once again voices throughout the world are bringing to this hall expressions of hope and disappointment; once again we are reckoning the balance-sheet of successes and failures, of encouraging signs and ominous portents. These expressions of light and shadow reflect not only the fact that the work of the United Nations, like every human endeavor, is marked equally by successes and shortcomings but also a much more deep-rooted and disturbing fact. We all know the aims and purposes of the Charter, but after 27 years we continue without having found the precise picture of how our Organization should act as an instrument of peace and co-operation. We all want peace, but we have not been able to find the instrument for peace. We all recognize the value of co-operation, but we have not been able to create effective tools to be placed in the hands of man to achieve this.
128.	Perhaps the reason we have failed to find the proper course for this Organization should be sought in our indefinite and exaggerated appraisal of its historic role. Sometimes we have insisted on considering the United Nations as a panacea for all ills, as our universal savior. At other times we have tried to reduce it to a forum for the discussion of minor issues, a congress or seminar of modest technicians. Never have we tried to follow the middle course between exorbitant and chimerical ambition and sterile and selfish realism. Let us try to achieve realism and effectiveness within a framework of good faith.
129.	It is of fundamental concern to us to achieve and preserve peace. By all possible means and from the very outset, Spain has been maintaining a consistent attitude of support for the idea of convening a conference on security and co-operation in Europe, which might serve as a useful instrument for the creation of a new order, through the acceptance of formal commitments, on the basis of respect for the independence and sovereignty of all European States.
130.	The ratification of the Moscow and Warsaw Treaties, the signature of the final protocol on Berlin and the agreements signed by President Nixon during his visit to Moscow permit us to set out on the preparatory multilateral phase of the conference, in which we shall be present and animated by the utmost desire to co-operate. In this phase and in the conference itself, Spain will make every effort to ensure that the agreement which seems to be dawning on the items with which we are dealing now, with our gaze fixed on the idea of encouraging a relaxation of tension in Europe and creating conditions of true peace and co-operation in economic, scientific and cultural spheres, will be worked out.
131.	As a result of this agreement, we should study the related problem of the reduction of armed forces, within the world context, looking particularly at the Mediterranean. There would be no sense in reducing tension in one geographic region in order to raise it in others.
132.	For some time now heightened tension in the Mediterranean has led the riparian States to formulate an expression of the need to ensure that the system of security now obtaining in that area a balance based on mutual dissuasion between two super-Powers be supplemented through an agreement between the States whose shores are washed by this sea. We should try to grant the riparian States a growing participation in the determination of their own destiny, which is obviously the result of situations that they do not control and in whose formation they do not participate or participate to only an inadequate degree.
133.	Spain, a Mediterranean country, whose history is linked to the destiny of that ancient sea, accepts these ideas with the utmost interest and co-operates in creating self-awareness and intends to consider all initiatives which, with a sense of realism and the desire to turn them into facts, may emerge in this forum.
134.	In the Middle East a very dangerous situation continues, a situation of "no war, no peace". The international community must, through the United Nations, redouble its efforts so that an equitable and stable peace can be reached in the area through the application of Security Council resolution 242(1967), which will take into account the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people.
135.	Spain is a firm supporter of the peaceful settlement of international conflicts and repudiates the use of violence, whether it is used by States or by individuals or by national or international political organizations. But this just condemnation of violence will not be sufficient unless the causes are uprooted, unless we provide a remedy for the injustices and frustrations which engender it. Peace is not the absence of acts of violence but rather calm and order, and there can be no order when displaced populations do not see a clear future before them but see rather the shadows of a possible conflict or at all times their continued destiny as exiles.
136.	From this lofty rostrum a year ago [1949th meeting] we stated that we should give special attention to Jerusalem. Spain will give favorable consideration to any efforts which may be made along these lines. Ever since 1948 the Organization has sought to find a formula that would guarantee the inviolability of Jerusalem as a Holy City. It is urgent to work out such an arrangement through which Jerusalem would preserve its character and the different beliefs could be practiced in a system of freedom, equality, security and dignity.
137.	The doctrine established by the United Nations on various occasions, with the support of the overwhelming majority, recognizes the right of Spain to the decolonization of Gibraltar, which, as long as it remains in the hands of the United Kingdom, is an anachronistic residue of a colonial policy which has no meaning in current times. I can inform this General Assembly that throughout this year the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs of the United Kingdom and I have held three full and frank conversations, which we intend to continue.
138.	The Spanish Government hopes that the United Kingdom will understand the necessity for these conversations as quickly as possible to lead to a negotiated solution which will put an end to the colonial situation of Gibraltar and restore the territorial integrity of Spain while respecting the interests of the people of Gibraltar. Thus it would become possible, looking towards the future and not to the past, to have a new and lasting relationship between Spain and the United Kingdom based on friendship and co-operation within the framework of a united Europe.
139.	I should like to reiterate in my statement this year the interest that Spain has in the work being done by the expanded Committee on the Peaceful Uses of the Sea-Bed and the Ocean Floor beyond the Limits of National Jurisdiction, which is preparing the updated law of the sea in terms of the mandate which it received from the General Assembly [resolution 2750 C (XXV)], taking into account the interests and rights of all the States of the international community and the new realities which the last decade has witnessed.
140.	My Government is pleased that at the two sessions held by that Committee this year its work has progressed satisfactorily in terms of the importance of its task.
141.	Throughout its sessions the Committee on the sea-bed has confirmed the justice of the thesis which my country shares with many other countries concerning the legal regime of the territorial sea belonging to States, and specifically concerning the basic concept of innocent passage, a concept of universal interest to protect the security and the vital interests of each and every State. We are opposed to the discriminatory attempts to alter this concept to the detriment of the riparian States which border on certain straits. Any seaman can in good faith satisfy his legitimate interests by respecting the sovereign rights of the State in whose waters he is traveling. The alleged freedoms that some are now seeking are only strategic political demands which will be translated sooner or later into attempts against peace and security. They are therefore unacceptable to us.
142.	The safeguarding of peace is the primary objective of this Organization. For the full realization of his destiny, man needs peace and freedom. He requires that his peace should not be threatened nor his freedom limited by insuperable obstacles. Of all these limitations, none is more unbearable than subjugation by terror.
143.	When we seem to be closer than ever to seeing ourselves freed from the domination to which we have been subjected by our physical environment, when we have available to us the means which enable us to push back the frontiers of disease, sorrow and death, a scourge of violence and terror is spreading throughout the world, actions carried out by man against man which should not be legitimized as a means of attaining what may well be noble goals.
144.	Everywhere we hear voices asking for an end to violence and terror. Spain, well aware of the value of peace, which we regained after decades of sterile convulsions, is ready to associate itself with others in the search for effective solutions which will do away with terrorism.
145.	The hope and illusion that mankind will be saved from terror cannot blind us to such a degree that we cease to be realistic in appraising the difficulties which will confront us in finding appropriate means for achieving that goal. Areas of tension, ideological conflicts, struggles between groups and classes, persistent injustice, and the passion and intolerance they engender make it difficult to achieve the unanimous acceptance of the possible proposals for a solution. The eradication of these tensions, conflicts, struggles and injustices should be the ultimate goal of our activities. If these are not done away with, there will be no peace or freedom in the world.
146.	The United Nations should take appropriate and effective measures at the international level to achieve the following objectives.
147.	First, it should formulate a definition of terrorism.
148.	Secondly, it should ensure that all States fill the existing gaps in their legislations to combat new forms of delinquency, not only by adjusting their domestic legislation, but also by accepting existing international conventions. Thus, when the hijacking of aircraft began, the great majority of countries realized that their penal codes did not contain a description of the crime of aerial hijacking. Even today there are many countries that still have not incorporated into their domestic legislation the agreements of Tokyo, The Hague and Montreal,  and it seems to me inadmissible that we should agree to a situation in which day by day it is made more humiliating for passengers to accept some improvised security measures and which gives aircraft crews the impression- that we do not adequately value the high responsibility of their profession.
149.	Thirdly, at the same time we should succeed in working out regional and sectoral agreements for the prevention and punishment of terrorism.
150.	Fourthly, we should discuss a draft international convention or conventions which at the world level would contain the necessary means for putting an end to this plague which afflicts us today.
151.	Terrorism is a fresh challenge to our will to act. Calmly but with firmness and urgency we must confront that challenge. Let us not convert the suffering of so many people into rhetoric or propaganda. Let us return to suffering mankind its dignity and freedom and men will again place their hopes in and turn their eyes to our Organization.
152.	One of the most important developments this year in the field of international co-operation has been, beyond question, the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, which was held in Stockholm last June. It implies that there is a formal awareness on the part of the international community of a series of almost new problems in the life of mankind. We are dealing here with serious threats which affect us all equally. This latter point should be emphasized: it is not valid for each of our countries to feel that it is protected because it stands at a greater distance in time or space from this or that specific polluting agent or from this or that specific process of the degradation of nature. In a "compact world" such as is rapidly emerging before our eyes the reality of our immediate natural environment is already rigorously unitary and in the common endeavor to protect it, either we all act by common accord and effectively or we shall hurl ourselves in the course of a few decades into a disastrous situation.
153.	The Spanish Government is fully aware of this problem. We are aware of it domestically, where a process of industrialization carried out over a brief span of time, a deep-rooted social transformation and the rapid urbanization of areas and populations that were by tradition rural are constantly creating problems of changes in ecological balances which had been unchanged for centuries and the restoration of which, within the new and more lofty demands of the population, should be provided for as far as possible. Without going into the details of the principal measures we have been taking in recent years, I shall merely say that in terms of institutions we created this year a delegated commission of the Government, made up of 14 ministers, which co-ordinates all the legislative and governmental action relating to the defense of nature and the environment, Very advanced legislation in this field is in the stage of final drafting, and we hope that it will serve immediately as a guide-line for administrative action at all levels.
154.	The immediate concern of the Spanish Government is directed towards common action for the defense of the natural environment of the Mediterranean. This area is subject today to a process of continuing degradation of nature, which is of deep concern to all the riparian States. As we fully share this concern, Spain has undertaken or is participating in various regional activities to improve our knowledge of the problem and to seek practical solutions. Among other efforts, I shall only mention the convening of a congress on ecology and tourism in the western Mediterranean, which will be held in Madrid early next November, and the proposal presented by Spain to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development [OECD] for the realization of a pilot project on the Mediterranean region, which is the object of intense attention at the national level and which will be carried out in collaboration with the remaining riparian countries of OECD on the Mediterranean.
155.	A large Spanish delegation, which included all the affected sectors of the life of our country, was present at the third session of UNCTAD that was held in Santiago, Chile, from 13 April to 21 May of this year. I should like particularly to emphasize the wise decision taken by UNCTAD to enlarge the Trade and Development Board, and the belief that this body, since it will be more representative, will be able to cope with the vast tasks that are entrusted to it with better guarantees of success.
156.	If we should like to draw up an assessment of the third session of UNCTAD, we would have to conclude that it has not lived up to all of the hopes that had been placed in it, but that none the less it has succeeded in strengthening the move of international public opinion towards co-operation in the settlement of these problems and at the same time in the adoption of a series of specific decisions which are also directed along these lines.
157.	It is true that within the concept of under-development there are varying degrees and that there are pressing and urgent measures the adoption of which will admit of no delay. My country considers it wise to wish to single out the least advanced of the developing countries. We believe that the work done is praiseworthy, but we also believe that the criterion for classification followed heretofore may in some instances be considered inadequate and may leave out of this category certain Latin American countries whose needs are at least as pressing as those of some of the countries already included on the list. It is not only for reasons of brotherly ties but also because of an elementary concern for justice that we would hope that the aspirations of these countries will be taken into account.
158.	As is known, Spain still has not reached a full measure of economic development. None the less, within the limits of our potential, we are making a notable effort to help countries which are less advanced than we are. This assistance is being rendered in the form of gifts, direct investment, export credits, dispatch of technicians and experts, fellowships, organization of lectures, seminars, and so on. This constant but quiet work of my country will be continued and increased, and we shall preferentially direct it towards those countries which for various reasons are specially close to our concerns.


Mr. President, allow me, first of all, to associate myself with the preceding speakers in extending the sincere and warm congratulations of the Mauritanian delegation on the occasion of your election to the presidency of the twenty-seventh session of the General Assembly of the United Nations. The confidence unanimously shown in you by all States Members of the United Nations constitutes a deserved tribute to your talents and to your statesmanlike qualities and also striking proof of the esteem that the international community holds for your country, its people, and its distinguished leaders. In the accomplishment of your difficult but important mission, my delegation wishes to assure you of its entire and loyal co-operation.
79.	My delegation also wishes to pay a sincere tribute to Mr. Adam Malik, the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Indonesia, for the skill, impartiality and patience, and also for the subtlety, dedication and tact, he displayed in presiding over the long and difficult debates of the twenty-sixth session.
80.	I should also like to express to our Secretary-General our satisfaction with his efforts to help bring peace to the world and in particular with his eagerness to help the countries of the third world in their struggle to resolve their many problems. We are also following closely his initiatives in reorganizing the Secretariat out of a concern for efficacy and economy.
81.	We are also particularly happy to see among us today the delegation of the People's Republic of China, whose presence in this hall we hail after a long wait. I should like to pay a tribute of admiration and sympathy to that delegation and to the great Chinese people. My delegation welcomes the presence of China, and I am happy to say so publicly and sincerely. We are convinced that the presence of the People's Republic of China in the United Nations will contribute to the settlement of many problems confronting the Organization.
82.	Despite the restoration of the lawful rights of the People's Republic of China, despite the elements of detente that have emerged in relations between the United States and the Soviet Union, and the United States and China, the twenty-seventh session is meeting at a time when grave problems continue to threaten international peace and security.
83.	Murderous wars in the purest colonial style continue to rage in various parts of the world. The absence of any real will for general and complete disarmament and the disappointing results of the third session of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development [UNCTAD] are a matter of concern to the Government of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania and to all countries that love peace and justice.
84.	Thus, the African peoples continue to suffer under the savage yoke of Portuguese colonialism, aided by inter-national imperialism. To be sure, these people are organizing themselves and every day the national liberation movements of Guinea (Bissau) and the Cape Verde Islands, Mozambique and Angola, testify to their determination to fight to the end to bring down the illegal Portuguese rule.
85.	In Zimbabwe, in South Africa, in Namibia, colonialism is compounded by the contemptible system of apartheid, which arbitrarily condemns the majority of the population to languish in moral and material wretchedness and permits the racist white minority to live with impunity on the natural and human resources of the majority.
86.	It is high time that the international community took effective steps to put an end to this intolerable situation prevailing in southern Africa. The United Nations, if it is not to condemn itself for good, cannot fail to take up the continuous challenge thrown down to it by South Africa, Portugal and the racist regime of Rhodesia. No responsible country, no man of good faith, can feel free so long as millions of human beings remain deprived of their most elementary right to a life of freedom and dignity.
87.	Similarly, international peace, security and concord can never validly be established so long as all peoples have not had recognized their inalienable rights to freedom, independence and dignity.
88.	Confronted with this extremely painful situation, imposed on our brothers in southern Africa by the colonialists and racists, with the effective support of international imperialism, my country would like once again forcefully to reaffirm its support and militant solidarity with our African brothers in South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe, in Mozambique, in Angola and in
Guinea (Bissau), in their heroic struggle against injustice and arbitrary rule, for freedom, in peace and dignity.
89.	This arduous but determined struggle will surely triumph despite the fanatic stubbornness of Portugal and the white minority regimes of South Africa and Rhodesia which refuse to look reality in the face while continuing to offer insolent defiance to the United Nations.
90.	Before leaving decolonization, I should like to mention a final problem to which my country attaches special importance since it is of direct interest to ourselves. I refer to the question of the Sahara under Spanish rule.
91.	This problem is indeed one of the major concerns of my Government since it is a problem which intimately and deeply affects the Mauritanian people. It concerns us by reason of every kind of tie-historical, geographical, human and cultural-which binds us to this part of the Sahara. It also affects us because between our people and the brother people of the Sahara there is more than one reason for common feeling, more than one link of solidarity and common life. It is precisely because of this common past, this community of life and destiny that my Government, back in 1957, made the decolonization of this north-west part of the Sahara one of the fundamental objectives of its policy, but decolonization in all friendship and cooperation with the administering Power. This policy, decided on immediately following the formation of the first Mauritanian Government still under the colonial regime, has always been ours and we have made it known constantly and consistently.
92.	Since our accession to independence and since our admission to the United Nations, we have never ceased, particularly from this rostrum, to make known our determination to safeguard the territorial integrity of our country and to consolidate the unity of our people. It is therefore for valid and legitimate reasons that independent Mauritania concerns itself and must concern itself primarily with the decolonization of the north-west part of the Sahara, known both as Rio de Oro and Saguia el-Hamra. But despite the legitimacy of our position, we have thought and continue to think that the settlement of this problem by peaceful means—that is to say, in understanding and co-operation-remains the path most in conformity not only with the principles and purposes of the Charter, but also with the interests of peace and stability in the African north-west subregion. It is our loyalty to these principles and objectives and our devotion to peace which naturally impelled us to accept the prospect for a peaceful solution through the implementation of the United Nations resolutions concerning this territory. That is why we hope tjiat the Spanish Government, within the framework of the good relations, old and new, which bind our two countries, will at last implement, as it has undertaken to do, the relevant provisions of these resolutions. Such an attitude on the part of the Spanish Government would further strengthen the traditional friendship and the bonds of every kind which exist not only between Spain and Mauritania, but between Spain and each of the other countries in our north-west African subregion.
93.	For it was in the framework of this quest for a peaceful solution that my country had the honor to receive at Nouadhibou, in September of 1970, His Majesty Hassan II and Houari Boumediene. The three heads of State, from Algeria, Morocco and Mauritania, resolved to co-ordinate their efforts with a view to bringing Spain, through dialog, entente and co-operation, to implement the resolutions of the United Nations regarding the territory. As far as we are concerned, in Mauritania we remain true to the spirit of that conference of Nouadhibou and to the undertakings there entered into and we continue to believe that this attitude remains that of the other parties to the policy of co-operation and good neighborliness.
94.	In other words, Spain, which in the past has conducted itself positively in the matter of decolonization, has every interest in heeding this spirit of understanding between the States of the subregion, and also in accepting the irreversible nature of the decolonization of the Sahara.
95.	The continuance in Africa of this dangerous situation must not make us lose sight of another hotbed of tension, which is in the forefront of our concerns: namely, the Middle East crisis.
96.	In the Middle East the Zionist authorities of Tel Aviv continue to trample underfoot the fundamental principles of the Charter and the decisions of our Organization. Their troops continue to enjoy the fruits of their cowardly aggression. The vast territories of the Arab Republic of Egypt, of the Syrian Arab Republic, of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, continue to suffer under the most barbaric military occupation. The criminal burning of the famous Al Aqsa mosque over two years ago aroused the indignation of almost all the world. This burning, for which the Zionist occupation authorities are entirely responsible, reminds the world of the very grave threat to the holy places of Islam, Christianity and Judaism represented by the completely illegal decision taken by the Zionist authorities regarding the annexation of the Arab part of the city of Jerusalem.
97.	More than five years have elapsed since the Israeli aggression of June 1967. Since that date vast Arab territories have been occupied by an unscrupulous and inhumane army. The Arab population which has not been expelled is living an unendurable calvary. Houses are destroyed and fields are transformed into barracks or military bases. Colonies of Zionists are replacing Arab villages. A major campaign is under way in Europe and America to get the greatest possible number of Jewish immigrants to come and settle in the occupied Arab territories. This colonialist policy was denounced in Israel itself at a protest meeting-held at Kibbutz Kerem-Shalom, where it was emphasized that the Bedouin farmers had been expelled to make way for Jewish settlers. The writer- journalist Amos Kenan stated:
"We must stop using these euphemisms such as 'creation of Jewish agricultural agglomerations' when the correct term is 'colonization'."
He continued:
"If we want to stop the growth of this colonialist, militarist and Pharisaical Israel that we see taking form before our eyes, we must here and now declare to the
leaders of our country that we will not fight in the next war which they are preparing with their own hands."
I repeat: this was not an Arab speaking; it was a distinguished Jewish writer and journalist, Amos Kenan.
98.	Furthermore, in support of what Amos Kenan said, a member of the Central Committee of the Labor Party, Mrs. Shulamit Aloni, wrote the following in an article in Yediot Aharonot on 18 April 1972:
"... Jewish farmers newly installed in the Gaza zone are employing in the fields Bedouins expelled from their lands."
She concluded: ". .. here we are confronted with a colonialist-type annexation".
99.	The barbarous action of the Israeli army is not confined to those violations of the jus gentium; on the contrary, Israel is still daily violating the air space of neighboring Arab countries. Its naval units regularly bombard peaceful Arab villages, killing innocent civilians. Its incursions across frontiers of this or that neighboring Arab country have become art everyday practice. This situation constitutes a flagrant violation of the principles of justice, equality and territorial integrity of States and absolute respect for their sovereignty principles which are the life-blood of our Organization.
100.	Everyone in this hall now knows that for the Zionists of Israel principles have no value except in so far as they can use them in the interest of their dark designs. If the authorities of Tel Aviv had the least respect for principles they would have applied the pertinent General Assembly and Security Council resolutions on the Middle East question, particularly Security Council resolution 242 (1967), which they have nevertheless accepted. If the Tel Aviv authorities had the least respect for principles they would have co-operated with and assisted in the smooth functioning of Ambassador Jarring's mission instead of blocking it. If the authorities of Tel Aviv had the least respect for principles they would have accepted the mediation of the 10 members of the Committee of African Heads of State, members of a committee appointed by the OAU and chaired by the Head of State of Mauritania, then President of the OAU. If the authorities of Tel Aviv had the least respect for principles they would have permitted the United Nations commission appointed to investigate the lot of Arab prisoners to do its job.
101.	It is clear to us all that Israel has the utmost contempt for the United Nations. As we have seen, Israel remains deaf to all appeals and all memoranda. Today the international community can no longer doubt that this state of affairs exist. Confronted with this situation, the international community must do everything possible to impel Israel, in the interests of international peace and security, to implement all the provisions of Security Council resolution 242 (1967)-the only way of definitively and peacefully solving the question of the Middle East.
102.	The legitimate liberation struggle carried on by the Palestinian people to recover their usurped homeland enjoys the active support of Mauritania and all peoples who love freedom and justice. The courage and self-sacrifice of the valiant Palestinian people, which is carrying on the liberation struggle in extremely difficult conditions, merit the admiration and encouragement of the international community. For too long there has been a desire to ignore the Palestinian people and to reduce them to inhabitants of refugee camps. Today they exist and are organized as a dynamic and embattled liberation movement. They are on their feet, weapons in hand, and have taken charge of their destiny. Henceforth it will therefore be futile to seek a solution to the Middle East conflict without their essential participation.
103.	No authority-whatever it may be-is empowered to speak or deal on behalf of the Palestinian people. This responsibility will henceforth be incumbent on the liberation organization of Palestine alone.
104.	In his speech to the twenty-fifth session of the General Assembly, the Mauritanian Head of State said:
"We all know that a final and durable solution cannot be found, whether voluntarily or not, if the Palestinian people are put into brackets. We must also cease using euphemisms and referring coyly to 'refugees'. The Palestinian people, chased from their lands by the Zionists who have taken over those lands by force, has a right to its existence. That people does exist even if this fundamental right, enshrined in the Charter which governs our life, is denied it. The Palestinian people, therefore, is courageously waging its fight for national liberation and refuses the role of accepting international charity and living in camps. There is no doubt whatever that its cause will triumph. Therefore, wisdom and realism demand that we should hasten the realization of that goal, which is inevitable and which will put an end to misery, bereavement, suffering and death, and bring about the restoration of the rights of the Palestinian people." [1877th meeting, para. 13. J
There is the only realistic solution, the only wise solution to the Palestinian tragedy. Any other approach will be doomed to failure. The Zionists must be convinced of this.
105.	In a recent book Le pays du cerf, edited by Am Oved, Deputy Arie Eliat, member of the leadership of the Labour Party the Party in power draws up the most complete and most damning indictment of the official line, as follows:
"An attempt to ignore this problem is vain, since it is impossible to pass over in silence such a tragedy, both human and national...; the Palestinian problem is at the source of the conflict; it is the root of the evil which has given rise to the Jewish-Arab hostilities. It is a festering and bleeding wound, from which their blood and ours flows."
Eliat adds: "There will be no real peace, no end to the Israel-Arab conflict, until the Palestinian problem is solved."
106.	The Palestinian liberation movement, like any other liberation movement throughout the world, will continue by every means at its disposal the struggle imposed upon it, until it has recovered all its rights. The attempts of the
Zionists and their accomplices to alienate from that movement the sympathy of Western public opinion will not weaken its resolve; quite the contrary.
107.	All those not blinded by racism and by the taste for domination, all those who believe in equality and fraternity among men, in the right of peoples to self-determination and to live in freedom, all those who cherish peace, all those who reject oppression and the law of the stronger, all those who are aware of the crimes that have been committed and are still being committed by the Israeli Zionists against the Palestinian people, all those will understand that the Palestinian patriots are completely
' different from the image that the militarist Zionists of Israel give of them.
108.	The terms "terrorist" and "saboteur" now used to describe those who are struggling in Africa and the Middle East for the independence of their countries and the dignity of their peoples cannot distort the reality they conceal. That is also the view of Deputy Arie Eliat, a member of Mrs. Meir's governing party. Eliat protests against those who describe the Palestinian fighters as "bands of terrorists" and he writes:
"Israel should not ignore or underestimate the Palestinian armed resistance ... It must no longer under-estimate the morale and the courage of the Palestinian organizations..."
And the author adds: "... the Palestinian Arabs are our fiercest enemies, but that is no reason for not calling them by their name . .."
109.	The Islamic Republic of Mauritania cannot but be indignant at the taking of innocent human lives, but it has the right and the duty to say that those who are truly responsible for such acts are those who, by their policy of domination and intolerance, by their policy of the massacre of civilian populations, the destruction of peaceful villages and the kidnapping of persons, those who by their policy of racism and colonialism lead peoples to despair and violence.
110.	The United Nations, if it is to be realistic and consistent, must root out the evil or face the consequences.
111.	This tragic and dangerous situation in Africa and in the Middle East must not make us forget the extremely grave situation prevailing in South-east Asia, where the peoples of Viet-Nam, Cambodia and Laos are carrying on, with a determination never belied and a courage never equaled, a heroic struggle to secure respect for their sacred right to an independent, free and worthy life.
112.	Despite the Paris negotiations and the hopes they have aroused, the Viet-Nam war becomes daily more barbaric, more murderous. The mining of the ports of the Democratic Republic of Viet-Nam and the stepping up of the indiscriminate bombing of its territory constitute a particularly grave escalation in the war which the United States is waging against the industrious Vietnamese people.
113.	Confronted by this situation, in which a small people is in danger of being annihilated by the greatest Power in the world, which insists upon trying at all costs to impose its will on that people, the international community has the urgent duty to do everything possible to put an end to the war so that the people of Viet-Nam may at last live in peace.
114.	However, peace will never be effective until the American troops and those of other foreign countries have accepted the peace proposals of the Provisional Revolutionary Government of South Viet-Nam in its statement of 11 September 1972.
115.	I take particular pleasure here in reiterating to the valiant people of Viet-Nam the unreserved support and militant solidarity of the party, Government and people of Mauritania. We would like to take this opportunity of expressing our deep conviction that its just cause will inevitably triumph over all the obstacles in the path to its independence and freedom.
116.	Our unfailing and unreserved support and solidarity go also to the people and the Provisional Revolutionary Government of South Viet-Nam in the courageous and self-sacrificing struggle they are waging for the dignity and freedom of man in Viet-Nam.
117.	The situation in Cambodia deserves, as much as any other, the attention of the international community.
118.	In that country, foreign forces are obstinately op-posing the aspirations of the valiant and peaceful Khmer people, struggling for the triumph of their noble ideals of peace, justice, freedom and dignity.
119.	The Royal Government of National Union of Cambodia, under the enlightened leadership of Prince Sihanouk, today controls over 80 per cent of the territory and the population of the country. It ought to have been possible to liberate the rest of the country by now, had it not been for the foreign forces in the country. Therefore, anyone can see where legitimacy lies, and who represents the will and aspirations of, if not the whole, then at least the over-whelming majority of the Khmer people.
120.	The international community should draw the necessary lesson from this incontestable reality. For our part, we should like once again to assure the people and the Royal Government of National Union of Cambodia of our unfailing support and entire solidarity, at the same time expressing our deep conviction that their just struggle will surely triumph.
121.	In regard to Korea, my country welcomes recent developments in relations between the South and the North of the country and earnestly hopes that the contacts already made will continue and will result in the peaceful reunification of the country. Nevertheless, it is clear that such reunification, so eagerly awaited by every Korean and by all who love peace and justice, is the exclusive concern of the Koreans themselves and, consequently can only be validly achieved after the cessation of all foreign interference in the affairs of Korea.
122.	The United Nations has the right, and above all the duty, to assist in the course of the present session in creating conditions favorable for accelerating the independent and peaceful reunification of Korea. Independent reunification means without any foreign intervention, but peaceful reunification also through the withdrawal of foreign troops stationed in South Korea, whose presence is not likely to create a peaceful climate in which the talks now taking place between the two parties can usefully proceed.
123.	It was the duty of the General Assembly for it had the right and the opportunity, at this session-to help remove all the obstacles to the essential reunification of Korea. It could, at this session, have decided that the flag of the United Nations should no longer be used to camouflage the presence of foreign occupation troops in Korea. It could also have re-examined the mandate and the activities of the United Nations Commission for the Unification and Rehabilitation of Korea, since it is now clear that that Commission, far from promoting rapprochement, is a divisive element and also represents a heavy and unnecessary burden on the Organization's budget.
124.	It is therefore exceedingly regrettable that the General Assembly has decided to postpone consideration of this important question of Korea to a later session. My delegation deeply regrets that the* General Assembly did not take the opportunity offered to it of contributing to the solution of a painful problem whose existence is due essentially to political and military intervention by the United Nations.
125.	The concerns of my delegation are not confined to the grave problems I have just mentioned; far from it. We think that the problem of disarmament is very urgent, and its importance escapes no member of our Organization. The stockpiling and further improvement of weapons of mass destruction represent a grave danger to development and even to the survival of mankind. The vast sums devoted to armaments dangerously reduce the investments available for the economic and social progress of the developing countries. My delegation, for its part, will therefore support any international effort to bring about genuine general and complete disarmament.
126.	If the grave problems I have mentioned are important, since they bear in themselves the seeds of conflict and therefore directly threaten international peace and security, if those grave problems require our attention and the search for solutions in conformity with the principles and purposes of our Charter and the aspirations of peoples, there are others, too, which must also be the object of our concern.
127.	My delegation finds it impossible indeed to address this Assembly without referring to the grave economic and social problems with which the developing countries tragically find themselves confronted. It is regrettable that, on this fundamental level of mutual assistance which should characterize relations between peoples and nations, the co-operation of the wealthy countries is cruelly lacking.
128.	The disappointing results of the third session of UNCTAD, the failure of the first United Nations Development Decade, the decision-making monopoly held by certain developed countries as regards the international monetary system-all this testifies to the absence of a political will to take the necessary measures to establish, in the interest of all Members, a genuine international economic co-operation profitable to all.
129.	In such circumstances, with fluctuations in the prices of raw materials and constant increase in the prices of manufactured products, the already scandalous gap is continually widening.
130.	Our Organization has the duty to redouble its efforts and to ensure that the rivalry among the great Powers is confined to the peaceful and elevating field of scientific research in the service of improving the lot of mankind.
131.	As has been emphasized from this rostrum, close to $200,000 million are spent annually on armaments, whereas the flow of capital from the rich countries to the poor barely amounts to $10,000 million. This is a scandalous disparity that should not be tolerated in our day and age.
132.	For its part, the Islamic Republic of Mauritania is convinced that no country can truly triumph over under-development without having a vigorous grasp of the truly gigantic efforts and sacrifices required of both the nation and the individual.
133.	That is why from this rostrum we wish to say that we are fully aware of the necessity of bilateral and multilateral assistance, but no less aware that we must first of all count on ourselves before counting on others. In this regard, Mauritania believes that the countries of the third world must not allow themselves to take the easy but dangerous way out, that of looking to foreign assistance for everything.
134.	The industrialized countries, in both their own long-term interest and that of mankind as a whole, of course have the duty to work out a genuine international economic co-operation that would serve as a base for peace and understanding among peoples, and also as a powerful factor for a real implementation of the rights of man, whoever and wherever he may be. But as we have just said, such co-operation must be accompanied on our part by an awareness of the obligations of work and sacrifice.
135.	With regard to the continent of Africa, the people and Government of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania see in the rallying of countries around common objectives a potent means for speedily advancing their economic growth. We believe, therefore, in the usefulness of groupings at the subregional, regional and continental levels. Such groupings, through the markets they create, through the opportunity they provide for the member States to harmonize their development plans, represent an adaptable and useful framework the creation of which deserves to be encouraged by the United Nations. Such activity is perfectly consistent with the social and economic programs of our Organization.
136.	Reference to the political and economic difficulties and the conflicts that sometimes darken the international horizon should not cause us to forget the positive role played by our Organization in the restoration and maintenance of peace in the world.
137.	We express the sincere hope that we may see every Member State work for respect for the principles of the Charter and for application of the decisions taken by our Organization. Thus there will be a rebirth of the confidence now somewhat shaken-of peoples in this world Organization, for the greater good of all humanity.