35.	I should like to add my congratulations to those so well expressed by the Minister for External Relations of Brazil to our new President, Ambassador Benites of Ecuador, whose long experience at the United Nations and his many contributions to international law and to the inter-American system all ensure that this twenty-eighth session of the Assembly will have outstanding leadership.
36.	I come before you today  —  confirmed in office but two days ago  —  as probably the world's most junior Foreign Minister. That President Nixon should ask me as my first official act to speak here for the United States reaffirms the importance that my country attaches to the values and the ideals of the United Nations.
37.	It would be idle to deny that the American people, like many others, have sometimes been disappointed because this Organization has not been more successful in translating its architects' hopes for universal peace into concrete accomplishments.
38.	But, despite our disappointments, my country remains committed to the goal of a world community. We will continue to work in this Parliament of Man to make it a reality.
39.	Two centuries ago, the philosopher Kant predicted that perpetual peace would come eventually — either as the creation of man's moral aspirations or as the consequence of physical necessity. What seemed Utopian then looms as tomorrow's reality; soon there will be no alternative. Our only choice is whether the world envisaged in the Charter will come about as the result of our vision or of a catastrophe invited by our short-sightedness.
40.	The United States has made its choice. My country seeks true peace, not simply an armistice. We strive for a world in which the rule of law governs and fundamental human rights are the birthright of all. Beyond the bilateral diplomacy, the pragmatic agreements and dramatic steps of recent years, we envisage a comprehensive, institutionalized peace encompassing all nations, large and small, a peace which this Organization is uniquely situated to foster and to anchor in the hearts of men. This will be the spirit of American foreign policy. This attitude will guide our work in this Organization.
41.	We start from a bedrock of solid progress. Many of the crises that haunted past sessions of the General Assembly have been put behind us. Agreement has been reached on Berlin; there is a cease-fire in the Middle East; the VietNam war has been ended. The rigid confrontation that has dominated international life and weakened this Organization for a quarter of a century has been softened.
42.	The United States and the Soviet Union have perceived a commonality of interests in avoiding nuclear holocaust and in establishing a broad web of constructive relationships. Talks on stretegic arms limitation have already produced historic accords aimed at slowing the arms race and ensuring strategic stability; we have today resumed negotiations on this subject. The positive results we hope for will enhance the security of all mankind.
43.	Two decades of estrangement between the United States and the People's Republic of China have given way to constructive dialogue and productive exchanges. President Nixon has met with the leaders of that great nation; we have agreed to a historic communique  that honestly sets forth both our differences and our common principles; and we have each opened a liaison office in the capital of the other.
44.	Many other countries have seized the initiative and contributed, in substance and spirit, to the relaxation of tensions. The nations of Europe and North America are engaged in a conference to further security and cooperation. The two German States have taken their place in this Assembly. India, Pakistan and Bangladesh have begun to move towards a welcome reconciliation. North and South Korea are at last engaged in a dialogue which, we hope, will lead to a new era of peace and security between them.
45.	Yet these achievements, solid as they are, have only made less precarious the dangers and divisions inherited from the post-war era. We have ended many of the confrontations of the cold war; yet, even in this room, the vocabulary of suspicion persists. Relaxation of tensions is justified by some as merely a practical interlude before renewed struggle. Others suspect the emergence of a two- Power condominium. And as tension between the two original blocs has eased, a third grouping increasingly assumes the characteristics of a bloc of its own — the alignment of the non-aligned.
46.	So the world is uneasily suspended between old slogans and new realities, between a view of peace as but a pause in an unending struggle and a vision of peace as a promise of global co-operation.
47.	In 1946 James Byrnes, the first Secretary of State to address this Assembly, spoke of how the United Nations could "help to break down habits of thinking in national isolation and go far to bring about understanding and tolerance."
48.	The United States will never be satisfied with a world of uneasy truces, of offsetting blocs, of accommodations of convenience. We know that power can enforce a resigned passivity, but only a sense of justice can enlist consensus. We strive for a peace whose stability rests not merely on a balance of forces, but on shared aspirations. We are convinced that a structure which ignores humane values will prove cold and empty and unfulfilling to most of mankind.
49.	The United States deeply believes that justice cannot be confined by national frontiers; that truth is universal, and not the peculiar possession of a single people or group or ideology; that compassion and humanity must ennoble all our endeavours.
50.	In this spirit we ask this Assembly to move with us from detente among the big Powers to co-operation among all nations, from coexistence to community.
51.	Our journey must begin with the world as it is and with the issues now before us. The United States will spare no effort to ease tensions further and to move towards greater stability. We shall continue, in the spirit of the Shanghai communique, our search for a new relationship with the People's Republic of China. We shall work to promote positive trends elsewhere in Asia. The uncertain peace in Indo-China must be strenghened; the world community cannot afford, or permit, a relapse into war in that region. We shall continue to pursue vigorously the building of constructive relationships with the Soviet Union. We shall strive to promote conciliation in Europe. In the negotiations beginning next month we shall seek a reduction of the military forces that have faced each other for so long across that divided continent. We shall give new vigour to our policy of partnership in the Western hemisphere. We shall honour our pledge to promote self- determination, economic development and human dignity across the continent of Africa. We shall press on with strategic arms limitations talks. We consider them crucial for security and stability in this period. We shall search for solutions to the world-wide problem of conventional weapons, which drain our resources and fuel the fires of local conflict.
52.	In all these efforts the United States will be guided by certain fundamental principles.
53.	We have no desire for domination. We will oppose — as we have consistently opposed throughout this century — any nation that chooses this path. We have not been asked to participate in a condominium; we would reject such an appeal if it were made.
54.	We will never abandon our allies or our friends. The strengthening of our traditional ties is the essential foundation for the development of new relationships with old adversaries.
55.	We will work for peace through the United Nations as well as through bilateral relationships.
56.	We recognize our special obligation, as a permanent member of the Security Council, to assist in the search for just solutions in those parts of the world now torn by strife, such as the Middle East. While we cannot substitute for the efforts of those most directly involved, we are prepared to use our influence to generate a spirit of accommodation and to urge the parties towards practical progress.
57.	But progress on the traditional agenda is not enough. The more we succeed in solving political problems, the more other and perhaps deeper challenges emerge. As the world grows more stable we must confront the question of the ends of detente. As the threat of war recedes, the problem of the quality of life takes on more urgent significance.
58.	We are, in fact, members of a community drawn by modern science, technology and new forms of communication into a proximity for which we are still politically unprepared. Technology daily outstrips the ability of our institutions to cope with its fruits. Our political imagination must catch up with our scientific vision. This is at the same time the greatest challenge and the greatest opportunity of this Organization.
59.	The pollution of the skies, the seas and the land is a global problem.
60.	The increased consumption of cereals has reduced world food reserves to dangerously low levels.
61.	The demand for energy is outrunning supply, and the need for technological innovation is urgent.
62.	The growth of the world's economy is inhibited by restrictive trading blocs and an insufficiently flexible international monetary system.
63.	The exploitation of the resources of the ocean beds, which is essential for the needs of burgeoning populations, requires global co-operation lest it degenerate into global contention.
64.	Challenges of this magnitude cannot be solved by a world fragmented into self-contained nation States or rigid blocs.
65.	I do not intend, today, to cover the whole agenda of international co-operation. Rather, I shall speak briefly of some illustrative areas for common action. I pledge the readiness of the United States to solve these problems co-operatively and to submit proposals Jmed at their resolution.
66.	First, a world community requires the curbing of conflicts. The United Nations, in its 28-year history, has not always been idle in this sphere. In Indonesia, the Indian subcontinent, the Middle East, the Congo, and Cyprus, it has shown its ability for effective fact-finding, mediation and peace-keeping missions. This central aspect of the United Nations work must be strengthened. On a small planet, so bound together by technology and so interdependent economically, we can no longer afford the constant eruption of conflict and the danger of its spread.
67.	Yet, in recent years, we have found ourselves locked in fruitless debates about the inauguration of peace-keeping operations and over the degree of control the Security Council would exercise over peace-keeping machinery — an impasse which has ensured that permanent peace-keeping machinery would not come into being. Each peace-keeping unit we have formed has been an improvisation growing out of argument and controversy.
68.	We should delay no longer. The time has come to agree on peace-keeping guidelines so that this Organization can act swiftly, confidently and effectively in future crises. To break the deadlock, the United States is prepared to consider how the Security Council can play a more central role in the conduct of peace-keeping operations. If- all countries concerned approach this problem with a desire to achieve a co-operative solution, the United Nations can achieve a major step forward during this session.
69.	Secondly, a world community must have the widest possible membership. The exclusion of any qualified State denies representation not only to Governments, but to peoples. Membership in this body should be a step towards reconciliation, not a source of conflict. The time has come for North and South Korea to be offered their rightful place here without prejudice to a future evolution towards unification. In this spirit also, we support the permanent membership of Japan in the Security Council.
70.	Thirdly, a world community must assure that all its people are fed. The growing threat to the world's food supply deserves the urgent attention of this Assembly. Since 1969, global consumption of cereals has risen more rapidly than production; stocks are at the lowest levels in years. We now face the prospect that, even with bumper crops, the world may not rebuild its seriously depleted reserves in this decade.
71.	No one country can cope with this problem. The United States therefore proposes that a world food conference should be organized under United Nations auspices in 1974 to discuss ways to maintain adequate food supplies and to harness the efforts of all nations to meet the hunger and malnutrition resulting from natural disasters and that nations in a position to do so offer technical assistance in the conservation of food. The United States is ready to join with others in providing such assistance.
72.	Fourthly, a world community cannot remain divided between the permanently rich and the permanently poor. Let us therefore resolve that this Assembly, this year, initiate a search, drawing on the world's best minds, for new and imaginative solutions to the problems of development. Our search must be candid and realistic, but it must also be free of peremptory demands, antagonistic propositions, ideological confrontation, or propagandistic rhetoric, or we will surely fail.
73.	The United States is prepared to join this new search, providing freely of the experience gained over two decades. We have learned not to exaggerate our capacity to transform nations, but we have also learned much about what progress is possible. We will participate without pre-conditions, with a conciliatory attitude and a co-operative commitment. We ask only that others adopt the same approach.
74.	In this spirit, the United States is willing to examine seriously the proposal by the distinguished President of Mexico for a charter of the economic rights and duties of States." Such a document will make a significant and historic contribution if it reflects the true aspirations of all nations; it will accomplish nothing if it is turned into an indictment of one group of countries by another. To command general support, and to be implemented, the proposed rights and duties must be defined equitably and take into account the concerns of industrialized as well as of developing countries. The United States stands ready to define its responsibilities in a humane and co-operative spirit.
75.	Fifthly, a world community must harness science and technology for the benefit of all. We must begin to match our remarkable technological skills with our equally remarkable technological needs. We must find the means for the co-operative and judicious development of energy resources. We must responsibly confront the problems of population growth, which are fast pushing humanity towards the limits of what our earth can sustain. We must embark on a new scientific revolution to increase agricultural productivity in all lands. No field of human endeavour is so dependent upon an open world for its advancement, no field is so in need of international co-operation to cope with its potential dangers.
76.	Are we prepared to accept the imperatives of a global society and infuse our labours with new vision? Or shall we content ourselves with a temporary pause in the turmoil that has racked our century? Shall we proceed with one-sided demands and sterile confrontation? Or shall we proceed in a spirit of compromise produced by a sense of common destiny? We are convinced that we must move from hesitant co-operation born of necessity to genuine collective effort based on common purpose.
77.	It is a choice no country can make alone. We can repeat old slogans or strive for new hope. We can fill the record of our proceedings with acrimony, or we can dedicate ourselves to dealing with man's deepest needs. The ideal of a world community may be decried as unrealistic, but great constructions have always been ideals before they can become realities. Let us therefore dedicate ourselves to this noblest of all possible goals and achieve at last what has so long eluded us: true understanding and tolerance among mankind.


56.	 This year the General Assembly once again looks to Latin America to provide a distinguished figure to preside over its proceedings. The honour, Sir, has fallen to you, and to your country. May I take this opportunity to congratulate you on your assumption of this high and responsible office, and also to express my confidence that our deliberations will be guided into constructive and productive channels with your experienced hand at the helm?
57.	The membership of the United Nations at this moment stands at 135. This is a large membership when compared with the 51 States which signed the Charter as founder Members In 1945, of which my country was one. One of the objectives then, and in the intervening years, was to strive for universality in the Organization so that "We, the peoples," of the Organization could justifiably speak as "We, the peoples" of the world. That desirable objective has been brought a step nearer realization by the admission during the current Assembly session of three new Members — the Bahamas, the Federal Republic of Germany, and the German Democratic Republic — representing between them a considerable population and a diversity of cultural, social, historical and political backgrounds and philosophies.
58.	The admission of the two Germanys is the fruit of a policy of detente actively pursued in Europe, and is a striking example of the fact that accommodation can be reached between parties with widely differing political persuasions and conflicting interests, provided that the will is there and the effort is conscientiously and patiently made. It is a lesson from which we can all profit for the lessening of hostility is conducive to the buttressing of peace, which is the raison d'etre of this Organization.
59.	The spirit of detente abroad was one of the main themes of the statements made in the general debate at last year's session of the General Assembly. The passage of time enables us to consider its consequences in better perspective and to take stock. Those countries which have adopted the course of detente appear to be consolidating their contacts and relationships to their mutual benefit and, in many ways, to the benefit of others. At the same time, some other Governments with seemingly irreconcilable differences have begun to follow their lead and to open up a cautious dialogue with one another. This attitude is highly commendable and ought to be endorsed and conscientiously emulated by all of us, for the single, overriding imperative of international relations is international peace. This is a fact which should be borne in mind, particularly by smaller countries, for they, too, have a duty to work towards a relaxation of tension after the example set by the major Powers. It would be a tragedy if the world should move out from under the shadow of major-Power confrontation only to be faced with the threat of increasing conflicts of smaller scale. Such a tragedy must be averted by responsible leadership in this Organization, as well as by the individual efforts of each one of us.
60.	In its external relations, South Africa, for its part, remains willing to pursue all avenues of contact and communication, with the object of relaxing tensions and creating conditions favourable for the solution of problems of concern to us. Where our efforts in this direction have been reciprocated the results have been encouraging. South Africa remains ready to enter into discussions with any country, on the African continent or elsewhere, which shares our approach, an approach rooted firmly in the principle of the peaceful settlement of disputes. South Africa harbours no aggressive intentions against any country; hence our willingness to conclude non-aggression pacts with other States in Africa. Accusations that we have committed acts of aggression are totally unfounded. We are irrevocably opposed to the use of force and violence in international relations.
61.	It is deplorable that force and violence in the form of indiscriminate attacks against innocent, uninvolved and unsuspecting individuals and groups should have become a characteristic of our times. Terrorism takes many forms, but a common component is the utter disregard by the perpetrators for established authority and their determination to subvert, and if possible destroy, constitutionally established law and order, both national and international. It is doubtful that the international law of sovereign States can survive in a meaningful way if the international community should fail to discharge its responsibilities to curb this evil. It is a source of concern to my Government that so little progress has been made on this urgent world problem in the Ad Hoc Committee on International Terrorism, which held its first session in July and August this year. My Government considers that the Assembly should urgently commence drafting a general convention on terrorism. We cannot afford to evade or to confuse the issue while terrorism is rampant.
62.	If we, the international community, resolve that we shall settle our political differences without having recourse to force, if we renounce irresponsible methods of terror and violence, and if we continue to make progress in disarming a world bristling with lethal weapons, we can direct our energies and our resources to the solution of the world's other pressing problems, which are many. A number of these are problems of a non-political nature, and confront mankind as a whole. I suggest that the most basic problem of all, and one which encompasses a host of supplementary problems, is how in the future we shall balance the world's rapidly increasing population against our planet's dwindling resources, taking into account the rising economic and social expectations of the very same people whose numbers are increasing at a phenomenal and unprecedented rate. We have, for example, already been given a disturbing reminder this year of the difficulties of providing everywhere the most elementary of man's needs: food. The spectre of famine was raised by the devastating drought in West Africa, end drought conditions, floods and other natural disasters elsewhere. Let me at once express South Africa's sympathy to those who have suffered as a result. These disasters and the consequential threat of famine should not be seen as isolated occurrences. They are a foretaste and a warning of the problems that will have to be dealt with in the future.
63.	Another serious problem with which mankind will have to deal is the potential energy crisis. It is necessary that there be the closest co-operation between the developed and the developing nations in the consideration of this matter, for, after making due allowance for the need to protect the quality of our environment, energy is the key to the material improvement of man's estate. We are faced with the possible gross depletion of the total known reserves of all sources of energy if energy is in future consumed at the rate forecast today. It is, therefore, essential for all of us that the different energy-producing resources of the earth be rationally exploited in the interest of mankind as a whole.
64.	Nuclear energy undoubtedly occupies a key position in supplying mankind's energy needs of the future. Nuclear power reactors which will supply only about 51,000 megawatts of electricity in 1976, are expected to contribute as much as 564,000 megawatts in 1985 and then to double their supply in the space of the next five years. In terms of total world requirements of electricity, nuclear energy is expected to supply 23 per cent by the year 2000 as compared with half of 1 per cent in 1970.
65.	South Africa is one of the world's major producers of uranium. We possess large exploitable deposits of low- grade uranium and we provide a stable supply of a portion of the world's uranium on a competitive basis. At the present moment we are engaged in assessing our capability of supplying this nuclear fuel in an enriched form since enriched uranium is the fuel for most nuclear powered reactors.
66.	Having said this, let me add that South Africa's atomic energy programme is devoted to peaceful purposes exclusively. It has always been our policy, and it remains our policy, to sell uranium only on condition that the uranium be made subject to International Atomic Energy Agency or equivalent safeguards to ensure that it is not diverted to military purposes. In the same spirit, the uranium enrichment project to which I have just referred will also be applied for peaceful purposes only. To that end, the South African Government proposes to negotiate, at the appropriate time, an agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency for the application of safeguards to the enriched uranium produced by the project, so as to ensure that the product is used solely for peaceful purposes.
67.	We believe that this development will not only herald a new era of industrial and economic growth in South Africa but will also enable us to make a contribution to the efforts of the international community to solve the potential world energy problem.
68.	May I at this point digress to refer in a few words to the unfortunate events at Carletonville of which mention has been made in the course of the general debate. The tragic loss of life is deeply regretted. Sympathy with the next of kin was expressed by my Prime Minister and others immediately after the incident. A memorandum compiled by my Mission, in the course of reproduction as an official document,  will place the matter in perspective. Meanwhile I would simply ask that judgement on the incident not be formed purely on the basis of emotion. What transpired at Carletonville will be determined by the judicial inquiry which has been instituted.
69.	Turning now to the question of South West Africa, may I say at the outset that my Government has noted with regret the repeated calls of the Security Council to terminate the contacts between South Africa and the Secretary- General. Those contacts represent a voluntary attempt to use the facilities of the United Nations for the pursuit of a peaceful settlement of the problem. That is one of the primary purposes of this Organization. Yet the call is now apparently to bypass and to set aside the machinery which the United Nations offers for the peaceful settlement of problems. This must inevitably serve as an encouragement to those who advocate confrontation, force and violence as a means to an end in South West Africa. And that course is being advocated despite the fact that in the 14 months between March 1972 and April 1973 during which contacts were made, more real progress was achieved in the search for a solution to the problem in the United Nations context than in all the preceding years.
70.	For the first time in the history of the Territory, directly as a result of the contacts, representatives of black, white and other groups from throughout the territory have been brought together around the table under the chairmanship of a Prime Minister of South Africa for the purpose of discussing and trying to resolve issues with Territory- wide implications. We consider that this is a significant and important development for, as my Prime Minister has declared, it is the inhabitants of South West Africa themselves who must decide their own future and not South Africa or the United Nations.
71.	We for our part do not consider that we have the right to impose a settlement on the Territory and we do not believe that the United Nations has the right or indeed wishes to impose a settlement on its inhabitants. We shall respect their wishes.
72.	We have indicated that any exercise to ascertain the wishes of the population will not be compromised by any existing political and administrative arrangements. And we have stated, with regard to the question whether individual population groups may suddenly become independent as separate entities, that we do not envisage such an eventuality. We expressed the latter position in dealing with a point raised by the Secretary-General whether the possibility could arise, in the light of South African legislation, that one or other of the population groups might acquire separate independence before the South West African people as a whole had exercised their right to self-determination.
73.	We believe that all this, taken together with the other points set out in the South African statements reproduced in the Secretary-General's reports, constitutes progress in the real sense of the word. South Africa, for its part, is ready to engage in further contacts, for we believe that we ourselves as well as the United Nations should persevere in searching for a solution.
74.	We realize that there are those who believe that progress has been too slow. On the other hand, they too should realize that this is a most complicated and intractable problem and that it cannot therefore be solved overnight. This is fully recognized by the Secretary-General, who stated in his report of 30 April of this year that:
"Should the Security Council decide to continue these efforts", — that is, the contacts — "it should bear in mind my earlier statement to the effect that time and protracted discussion will be required if any progress is to be achieved."
75.	South Africa's presence in the Territory is accounted for by the undertaking we have given to ensure that its inhabitants are able and ready to exercise their right to self-determination and independence. We have no designs whatsoever with respect to any part of South West Africa's territory. In the meanwhile, we believe we have a duty to continue to assist in the development of South West Africa in all spheres: economic, social and political. We derive no financial or economic advantage whatsoever from our presence in the Territory. Every cent which accrues from taxation levied on income derived within the Territory, including profits on foreign investments and operations in the Territory, is reinvested in South West Africa for the benefit of all its inhabitants. In addition, South African taxpayers contribute to the Territory's advancement on current account alone — that is, excluding payments to finance capital projects — funds which in the last few years have varied between $60 million and $80 million per annum. It will be appreciated that our resources are not unlimited. Moreover, we have responsibilities also to our own peoples in South Africa, where there is an increasing need for funds for development purposes. Nevertheless, we make this Contribution to South West Africa in the genuine belief that it is our duty to do so.
76.	One cannot of course forecast the outcome of the Security Council's consideration of the Secretary-General's latest report. We recognize that the gap separating us, although narrower than it has ever been as a result of our contacts with the Secretary-General, still exists. But we would hope that the Council and this Organization as a whole will be guided by the imperative need for peaceful evolution by consent of those directly concerned, namely, the inhabitants of South West Africa, both black and white. We believe it is crucial that all the segments of the population of South West Africa should be enabled to get together to sort out their problems and to resolve them to their own satisfaction, in a manner consistent with the peaceful objectives of the Charter
77.	As I have indicated, a start has already been made in this direction. We have also been encouraged in this regard, by a series of discussions which have recently taken place and which are continuing between representatives of the white group in South West Africa and representatives of such groups as the Hereros, the Namas and the Damaras as well as of the organization known as the Voice of the People. The latter representatives are among those who are known to be opposed to the South African Government. Nevertheless, they have all in the course of these discussions expressed themselves as favouring dialogue in South West Africa and as being opposed to violence as a means to an end. As an example of these discussions, I may mention that Mr. Clemens Kapuuo of the Hereros and Mr. D. F. Mudge, a member of the Executive Council for South West Africa, met in Windhoek on 24 September. In a joint statement issued shortly thereafter, they declared that they were both in favour of contact and dialogue as a method of solving the problems of South West Africa and that they rejected violence. In the course of their discussions, according to the statement, they exchanged views on matters relating to South West Africa in general. It was clear, the statement added, that both of them wished to promote the interests of their respective peoples and of the peoples of South West Africa as a whole. Further meetings of this nature are envisaged.
78.	These meetings of individuals of differing views and attitudes are an indication of the desire of the inhabitants of the Territory to involve themselves jointly and directly in the future evolution of South West Africa, and we hope that they will receive encouragement to seek progress in this way. We for our part will afford them every encouragement.
79.	In this world of continual change, we recognize and accept the need for change also in areas of our own responsibility. Our policies are anything but rigid or static. My Prime Minister has stated in Parliament that the South African Government is a Government of change, and that it will continue to bring about change in a systematic and orderly way as warranted by changing circumstances and changing requirements. But we believe in change by evolution, not by violence. This is why we attach special importance to the consultations which are continually in progress between the Government and the leaders of the black and other peoples in South Africa.
80.	We have stated on many occasions that our policies provide-for the different black nations in South Africa to achieve self-government in the geographic areas of their jurisdiction and to advance to complete sovereignty and independence in the sense in which this concept is generally understood. In other words, each of them would qualify for membership in this Organization. They are aware that they can negotiate their independence, in the full sense of the word, with the South African Government at any moment of their choice, as the South African Prime Minister has repeatedly stated.
81.	Eight black nations, totalling more than 14 million people, have already achieved self-government in varying degrees. Six of them have their own Parliament, their own Cabinet and Prime Minister, the latter answerable to their Parliament. The two other black nations, including the 4 million Zulus, have Legislative Assemblies, with executive power vested in an Executive Council. During the course of the last two years, five elections have been successfully held to elect members of these Parliaments. A sixth election is still to be held.
82.	Arising from this political progress, the South African Government and the Prime Ministers and other leaders of all the various nations are continually in dialogue with each other. Frequent contacts take place at all levels from the Prime Minister downwards and in the private as well as the public sector. In fact, my Prime Minister has, during the seven years of his premiership, held more official discussions with the leaders of these nations than have all his predecessors together. Many of these leaders, moreover, travel abroad and state their positions publicly. Their opinions on matters of detail falling within the over-all objectives of South African policy do not always coincide with the opinions of the South African Government — but it is their prerogative and duty to put the position of their peoples as they see it. The South African Government regards these contacts and discussions as essential for the promotion of peaceful evolution.
83.	One of our concerns, in this evolutionary process, is the question of human dignity. The South African Government is fully conscious of the importance of recognition and acceptance of the human dignity of the individual, and my Prime Minister has publicly stressed the central position it must take in future political developments in South Africa. Earlier this year in Parliament he said he was at all times prepared to do away with unnecessary measures if these measures stood in the way of healthy relations in South Africa.
84.	There is nothing which exercises the minds of South Africans more than the solution of our own special political problems. It is after all our future we are building and it is our security that is at stake.
85.	We ask the international community to respect our desire to resolve our problems without interference. Let me repeat, however, that we are at all times ready to enter into discussions concerning our internal policies with anyone who is genuinely interested therein. But in the final analysis, it is we ourselves who must solve our problems and solve them we must and shall, whatever the sacrifice, if we are to continue to live in peace and prosperity in South Africa.
86.	This brings me to the end of my prepared statement. Before resuming my seat, may I refer briefly to the efforts made to prevent me from addressing the Assembly. I do not intend to deal with the accusations levelled against my Government in the course of these efforts, for they are irrelevant to the issues before the Assembly. I must, however, totally reject them.
87.	We have witnessed here an attempt to violate the principle of freedom of speech and expression in this august Assembly. It was an attempt to deprive the representative of a Member State of his inherent right to participate in the proceedings of the General Assembly and to state the case of his country. If it had succeeded it would have put the clock back 2,000 years. For it was the Romans who introduced the concept audi alteram partem: listen to the other party, a principle which has survived for over 20 centuries and is still observed and cherished in all civilized societies. The actions of some representatives were unworthy of the dignity and the status of this Assembly.
88.	Moreover, far from humiliating me and my country, they have succeeded only in furnishing proof of the length to which they will go to undermine a principle which forms one of the main corner-stones of the United Nations and without which it cannot survive.
89.	Finally, in view of what has happened here I must place on record my strongest possible objection to the unprecedented, illegal and unconstitutional action by the General Assembly concerning South Africa's credentials. My Government views it in the most serious light indeed.


90.	 Mr. President, it gives me great pleasure to extend to you my warm congratulations on the trust bestowed upon you by the General Assembly through your election as President of the twenty-eighth session.
91.	I should also like to join my colleagues who paid a tribute to your predecessor, who, by his impartiality in exercising his responsibilities and his tactfulness in steering the discussions, has added further respect and dignity .to this noble post. Wishing you, Sir, the best of success in the execution of your high mission, I should also like to welcome the new States which were admitted as Members of our world Organization at this session. I hope that their presence with us will have a positive influence on the strengthening of international peace and co-operation.
92.	This is our twenty-eighth annual session, and it once again confronts us with an increasing number of international issues and problems, for which we hope the Organization will find practical and positive solutions that befit the Organization's role and the sublime values embodied in its Charter. Despite the fact that my country is a relatively new Member which has only lately begun participating in the work of the United Nations, its deep faith in the Organization's principles and Charter has been from the very beginning identical with its faith in a future dominated by a spirit of peace and in an international community whose relationships are governed by justice and mutual understanding. We still have in mind the glorious image of the international Organization which was set up after the bitter years of destruction, murder and horror which cast their dark shadows over the world during the Second World War, in the hope that it might put an end to wars and grant mankind its right to dignity and freedom and relieve it from oppression, aggression and exploitation.
93.	More than a quarter of a century has now elapsed since the establishment of the United Nations. During this time we have discussed many issues and adopted many resolutions and this hall has heard hundreds of speakers. Words like "peace", "justice", "international security", "peoples' right to self-determination" have resounded in each resolution. Nevertheless, we still ask ourselves whether we have accomplished within the framework of this Organization and in the light of its Charter a part of the role for which the Organization was established. Has peace been established? And have all signs of war which should have been eliminated when our predecessors signed the United Nations Charter actually vanished?
94.	We are not here to spread pessimism; but war, aggression and exploitation in all forms are still allowed to devastate the lives of human communities in Asia and Africa and to cast their ugly shadows on the whole world. Should we continue, none the less, repeating the words "peace", "justice" and "peoples' right to self-determination" without allowing the international community to enjoy these privileges in reality when we would destroy the world's dearest hope and allow this Organization to dwindle into impotence and bankruptcy?
95.	We notice with great relief the end of war in Southeast Asia, as it is high time for that region to enjoy real peace. We welcome the detente which has reflected its effects on the situation in Europe and Asia, resulting in positive progress in economic relations and in conferences held for disarmament and European security. Yet there is one region in the world which still maintains a state of permanent tensions; there is one issue which has been allowed to remain on the agenda of this Assembly since 1948 and one specific subject which is continuously debated in the Security Council without being allowed to benefit from the relaxation of international tension or the prevalent optimistic spirit.

96.	The situation in the Middle East has been and still is a chronic problem for the United Nations. It has become an impediment on the road to peace, despite the recommendations issued by this Assembly and the resolutions adopted by the Security Council. I need not reiterate here those recommendations and decisions, but I am sure that most of them include clear condemnations of Israel. It is a strange irony that Israel should be the object of the greatest number of convictions issued by this Organization, which created Israel, because it still maintains its occupation of the territories of three Arab States, denies a whole nation the right of self-determination and, moreover, strives to disperse it and to liquidate its national entity and human structure.
97.	A Member State, whose representative sits with us in this hall, constantly declares that it will annex by force the territories of three other Member States; that it will defy the decisions of the Security Council and the General Assembly prohibiting it from changing the characteristics of Jerusalem and thereby violate the sanctity of the Holy Places and challenge the feelings of both Moslems and Christians all over the world. Israel has announced its refusal to receive a three-member Committee of the United Nations delegated by the Council to investigate Israel's violations of human rights in the occupied territories.  It has shamelessly admitted that it committed attacks on civil airliners and that it would continue such attacks in the future. To sum up, Israel declares that it will challenge any such decision adopted by this Organization which does not bless its aggressive expansionist policies.
98.	The State of Qatar voted for General Assembly resolution 3034 (XXVII), asserting its faith that terrorism and aggression still threaten the security and stability of nations. If the constant aggression of Israel against three Arab Member States and its liquidation of the Palestinian people is not to be branded as terrorism, then what is terrorism?
99.	Israel, like other imperialist and racist States in Africa, endeavours to mislead the world concerning its policy based on terrorism and belligerency by trying to depict movements for national liberation as if they were an exercise in terrorism while in fact certain means of struggle carried out by the above-mentioned movements are merely aimed at directing world attention to the justice of their causes. In contrast, a State Member of this Organization which undertakes to explode some civil aircraft in the air and hijack others, to assassinate individuals and communities and to uproot millions of people from their fatherland or subject them to the most vicious forms of repression inside their occupied and usurped homeland, a State whose whole conduct is dominated by terrorism and a fierce demeanour, is actually the party which deserves denunciation, conviction and punishment.
100.	My Government, while submitting these facts to the Assembly, declares that the time has come for this Organization to take positive and effective measures that would secure the cessation of acts of aggression committed by Israel against States Members of this Organization and effect its withdrawal from Arab lands that it has occupied by force, guarantee the Palestinian people's right to self- determination and put an end to the Judaization of Jerusalem and the defacing of its historical landmarks and aggression on the properties and freedom of citizens in the occupied territories.
101.	While we duly esteem the great role played by Ambassador Gunnar Jarring, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General to the Middle East, in his attempts to work out a peaceful solution to the problem, we deplore Israel's obstruction of his mission and its non-co-operative attitude towards him. Meanwhile, we appreciate the good offices of the Secretary-General during his last tour of the region, which Israel attempted to render void of any practical sense, thus challenging Security Council resolution 242 (1967).
102.	In this connexion I should like to express, on behalf of my country, our great thanks and gratitude to President Mobutu of the Republic of Zaire for his deep and wise understanding and support of the vital Arab cause, especially of the legitimate rights of the Palestinian Arabs, hoping and wishing for more Arab-African solidarity in the crucial issues that concern the African and the Arab worlds.
103.	The small, non-aligned States are the real beneficiaries of peace. Hence, on the basis of this realistic evaluation my Government supports the non-aligned countries and upholds the resolutions adopted at the recent auspicious Fourth Conference of Heads of State or Government of Non-Aligned Countries, held at Algiers from 5 to 9 September 1973, and at previous conferences.
104.	My Government also maintains a similar attitude towards OAU and welcomes its decisions. Africa still suffers from the exploitation, aggression and attrition exercised by Portuguese colonialism in Angola, Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau. Millions of Africans still moan under the yoke of imperialist rule imposed by colonialists in Rhodesia and South Africa.
105.	The non-aligned countries members of OAU are States that work for peace. Would the world Organization, then, turn a cold shoulder to their legitimate aspirations and positive yearning for peace, justice and freedom?
106.	My Government feels that the policy of nuclear armaments and. their proliferation still poses a direct threat to humanity and, consequently, we deem it extremely necessary that a conference for nuclear disarmament should be accorded serious attention and care so that it may finally become possible to arrive at the stage of substantive negotiations on universal disarmament. Hence, my Government highly commends the General Assembly's wise resolution declaring the Indian Ocean a zone of peace [resolution 2832 (XXVI)\ As a State directly concerned with this resolution, we hope that it will be implemented at the earliest possible opportunity.
107.	Our appreciation of the important role of the United Nations in fields of development makes us feel that the world community has to exert utmost efforts to create stronger and more meaningful ties between developing and developed countries and to establish close and equitable co-operation between them. Commendable as they are, the efforts exerted by the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development are still below the level requisite for bridging the gap between the developing and the developed nations. This gap will further widen and endanger world peace unless the United Nations seeks fresh horizons and takes larger steps in urging developed nations to redouble their assistance to developing countries with a view to enabling them to surmount backwardness and to bring about a balance between the prices of raw materials and industrial products.
108. Finally, the State of Qatar hopes that this session will be more successful in realizing the aspirations of the peoples of the world for peace, freedom and justice, and in ensuring a prompter implementation of United Nations resolutions and enforcement of the principles of its Charter.


194.	Mr. President, your opening remarks [2117th meeting] were worthy of the civilization you represent. The ethical and legal principles on which that civilization is based are today's most needed commodity. It was refreshing to hear you present your views in the light of those principles. It was about time we all did. Those principles are flouted by many every so often — in the name of national interest sometimes, in the name of self-defence at other times, and many other times out of wooden logic. All have paid you compliments. I sincerely join them.
195.	Ours is one of those periods in history which you have so aptly depicted as "stormy periods when [man] can find no haven in which to pitch his tent" [2117th meeting, para. 93]. The problems holding man by the scruff of the neck, enumerated by speakers before me, give authenticity to this view and corroborate the vision you put to us. I crave your indulgence and that of my colleagues to sound as grave as I do. I have my reasons.
196.	Recently I accompanied my President on a tour of some western and northern African countries. We have not been to all the drought-stricken areas; we have been to some and as near as a person could be to the others. The experience was unwholesome. Never before have I felt the need for international co-operation. The misery of famine and disease one could visualize from world press reports and photographs. What struck more was the scanty relief given by the world. Valiant Nigeria, among many other African countries, offered all it could in the way of airport space and labour; but the use the world community made of the facilities at its disposal was depressing. I saw a solitary cargo aircraft waiting to be used, while hundreds of people in Africa were turned into fainting forms.
197.	What I heard from Africans nearer the misery and suffering was to do with the present. The tales were distressing; they left me with a dismal feeling. In this age that prides itself on its technological achievements, that part of the world is in for an even worse predicament. It is not the short-term problem of relieving the stricken but the urgent need for long-term ecological strategies that seemed to disturb the peoples of the region. How to reduce and eventually eliminate future droughts?
198.	It is not only the periphery of West African Sahara; it is also the area lying between Senegal in the west and Ethiopia and Somalia in the east, some 4,000 miles. The Sahara, after all, is a creation of uncontrolled natural forces; left unchecked, it may extend farther south. Superior intellects have warned us before, but we did not heed their words. C. P. Snow was one of them. Long ago he put the poverty problem in plain everyday words:
"We know it is happening. We see people starving before they die. We know they are going to die. We know so much and do so little. We draw what in England we call curtains, and we try to make an enclave of our own."
199.	Professor Prosierman will not go the same way of the late Sir Charles Snow — I hope. He reckons that over the coming 12 months between 10 and 30 million additional deaths in Africa and Asia might occur because of starvation and because of disease rendered fatal by malnutrition. He goes further and marks the egotism of the countries which can do something to avert the oncoming disaster and says:
"America's garbage over the next year will contain a large enough amount of thrown-away food to prevent a significant proportion of the famine deaths that will otherwise occur in Asia and Africa."
200.	The situation is one of tragic pauperdom on one side and insolent surfeit on the other. The poor nations in question are 2 billion people who lose 25 per cent of their children before their fifth day; 800 million of them live on the equivalent of 35 cents a day.
201.	The problem is no longer one of inequities and inequalities. It is becoming a threat to the very fabric of human society. Edgar Faure, in his brilliant introduction to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization report on education — the first international survey of the geography of ignorance — has put it sc ably:
"The great changes of our time are imperilling the unity and the future of the species, and man's own identity as well. What is to be feared is not only the painful prospect of grievous inequalities, privations and suffering, but also that we may be heading for a veritable dichotomy within the human race, which risks being split into superior and inferior groups, into masters and slaves, supermen and submen. Among the risks resulting from this situation would be not only those of conflict and other disasters (for present-day means of mass destruction might well fall into the hands of destitute and rebellious groups) but the fundamental risk of dehumanisation. affecting privileged and oppressed alike. For the harm done to man's nature would harm all men."
202.	There is need for a mental revolution, a revolution that defies the origins of contemporary social and political thought. The poor of the world, some 800 million of them, cannot be wildly interested in peace in the world, which preoccupies the big Powers. They own nothing to lose; they arc unaware of this preoccupation of some of us here. Detente, dialogue and accommodation are but vacuous utterances. The poor nations are not cynical, but how can a skeleton of a man have the wits to be bothered about anything but a bowl of rice and a calabash of water. On the contrary, even an empty stomach can be a menace without knowing, a factor of instability at home and abroad. Indeed, it was as early as 1912 when Woodrow Wilson said — and right here in New York — that no one can worship God or love his neighbour on an empty stomach.
203.	One cannot escape the feeling that a considerable part of the food crisis is largely artificial. It is ironic indeed that extensive means for production of food are at our call while people die of hunger and fall victims to prolonged droughts. We in the developing world have generous potentialities that could lend a hand to the combat of hunger beyond the limits of the boundaries of under-development. This potential has not yet been exploited, save certain partial efforts. The example of my own country is striking in this respect. The arable land in the Sudan is estimated at about 50 million hectares, but only 6 million hectares have been developed. Some would perhaps wish us to accept penury and pestilence, in the best Malthusian tradition, as a destiny that must visit the human race.
204.	It is in this sense that we note with interest the call for a world food conference in 1974. This call tallies well with the resolve of the developing countries, as expounded in the decisions of the Fourth Conference of Heads of State or Government of Non-Aligned Countries, held at Algiers from 5 to 9 September 1973 to convene a world meeting on food and trade.
205.	The proletarian nations of the world, exhausted by monstrously frequent internal upheavals, can well join the President of this Assembly in saying:
"With few exceptions, the industrialized countries amassed their wealth as true colonial or neo-colonial
Powers. In one way or another, they rely upon exploiting the natural resources of the less developed countries —  whether or not they were politically independent — since they provided cheap raw materials in return for costly manufactured goods." [2117th meeting, para. 84.]
That is a truism, and one hopes that none of us will be driven to bickering and recrimination.
206.	But let us not forget that in our world progress and the well-being of man are not segregated variables; they are an integral part of world peace and international tranquillity. That is not only an incontrovertible proposition; it is a peremptory truth. History points to that with an infinity of examples. So we need peace to develop, to make progress and possibly to surpass ourselves. In our clamour for peace and liberty we are neither trouble-makers nor "noisy riders of great causes", as some would like to think. We are plain and simple fighters for the reconquest of our independence and the affirmation of our dignity, and this we do at a very heavy cost in life and property. Nobody knows that better than people who are conversant with Africa's past and present.
207.	It is in that spirit that I now turn to some events in Africa and the Middle East in this year that marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
208.	The happenings in the Middle East cannot help anybody who is pondering over a formula for restoring peace and stability. I shall deal briefly with three developments that have started to vitiate the air, and even more so since the Security Council's special meetings in June 1973.
209.	First, I would mention the irresponsible talk about occupying the oilfields in the area. It may be loose talk, but it is widespread. We have recently been hearing and reading about an Israeli professor who declared that his country might occupy Kuwait, there being no force capable of standing up to Israeli power. Senator Fulbright must have sensed the folly prevailing when he indicated that it was not unlikely that the United States might go out to control the oilfields through Israel, a militantly potent surrogate. What gives credibility to that sort of plan is Israel's view of itself, brazenly put to American television audiences by Mr. Teddy Kollek in 1967: "You are supporting Israel" — he said — "only because it is in your self-interest to do so and not because you are doing us any favour". One trusts that these voices of insanity will be silenced in time, good time. Let loose, they are not unlikely to get their way. If they do. that "will make Viet-Nam look like a picnic", to use the words of Elmer Bennet.
210.	Second, in spite of all pleas to Israel not to change the face of the land and implement the policy of "creating facts", Israel is planning a $375 million scheme to develop the West Bank — "develop" being a euphemism for "annex". The Israel Land Authority says it will acquire land on the West Bank and in Gaza for new Jewish settlements. It is worth noting that since 1967 some 4,000 Israelis have been settled in territories occupied then. The present plan is to bring in a further 10.000 Jews by the end of the four-year scheme. The idea is prompted by the race for power inside Israel, and not because of any tender-heartedness about the Jews living outside Israel.
211.	With that in his mind and in his heart, Mr. Ariel Eliav commented at the last meeting of the Israeli Labour Party:
"... this programme is brought before us with the lashing of the whip of time and the scourge of haste and panic. There are many in this land whose souls weep in silence because of this document. I will be the voice of the ideological Jewry of silence and never, at any price or in any form, will I ever vote for the document."
Such emotions did not appeal to the Prime Minister and the most eligible contenders to the throne, and Eliav had to be chided and pilloried for entertaining such sentiments.
"I have lived through 50 years of political activities" —  the Prime Minister said to him — "and never before have we had a comrade who set himself up as a Messiah."
The Israel Land Authority, she went on to say, "will acquire land by every effective means". Benjamin Disraeli must have been the mentor. "Damn your principles. Follow your Party", he once said.
212.	In 10 years there will be a different Jerusalem. The sane Israelis can take it or leave it, and the world will have to lump it, along with statements like that made on 3 October, and right here from this rostrum, that Israel's policy "is not unilateral annexation" [2139th meeting, para. 79]. Sanity must live in the shadows, unheard and unseen.
213.	Third, there is a current rush of propaganda against "the gnomes of Araby", as a senior senator in Washington referred to oil-rich emirs. King Faisal is quoted and misquoted almost daily. The publicist twists both his words and his intentions. I personally detect a deliberate campaign to belittle the importance of the writing on the wall, as well as the man's diplomatic pragmatism and his capacity to influence events. Attributing to him obliquely ideas never put forward by him, some publicists are working hard to create hostility between him and the people of the United States. How far can mischief go? Some want to assume that "the "gnomes of Araby" are an unthinking bunch of tribes, given to histrionics — an image that might lull the untutored into false comfort but would not change the facts which will ultimately determine the settlement.
214.	But what are the facts? David Hurst, whose knowledge of the Middle East cannot be improved upon, put them in a simple way:
"... as a result of the energy crisis, never have America's vital interests in the Arab world seemed so precariously , exposed by its commitment to Israel as they do today —  never has 'bastion Israel' seemed quite the glaring fallacy it is."
215.	These are no dead facts or unfounded views. They need the urgent attention of this Organization. The machinery existing at the moment has not been able to check the wiles of Israel. That is a fact. To wait until it is improved is no intelligent counsel either. Let us admit it. There are Powers that could do more than they say they can. They must move. The United States of America and Europe have the means. If they are intimidated by the hell Israel can raise in face of any State that goes counter to its wishes, as witness the case of Austria, then we have nothing to say to them except "What of the peace on earth that you say you serve?" They would do well to remember the African voices raised yesterday and today by two of our dynamic leaders, prompted by nothing but a sense of justice. I should like us to contrast them with the hollow rhetoric indulged in the other day by Mr. Eban, who did not budge an inch from the position taken after the June 1967 hostilities. I refer to the recurrent theme of "negotiation between the parties". The United States and Western Europe have the means to advice Israel to come out of the quagmire it has drawn itself more and into which it is about to pull the whole world. There is no point in wailing about being alone and outvoted. Israel must produce something other than rhetoric, or must be made to do so. It is no use quoting Al Akhbar and Al Gumhuriya often out of context, deluding itself and tormenting the world.
216.	The African scene is another case of peace thrown to the winds, and barbarity rampant. Three aspects of the tragedy presently played on the scene there need to be brought to the fore: first, the commendable role of the Church in unravelling the brutalities of Portuguese armies in Mozambique; second, the inhuman manner in which hundreds of men and women are languishing in the detainee camps: and third, the indifference of world conscience to the tragic drama played out there by South Africa, Portugal, and Rhodesia.
217.	It is our duty as the voice of the world here to recognize. in some formal manner, the part now being played by many priests, bishops and cardinals of the Catholic Church in Portuguese Territories. Some young men and women not only are bringing the details of massacres to world public opinion, but are also risking their lives: indeed, some of them are in gaol. We shall be failing these brave souls if we do not take up their case seriously, see to it that those in gaol are released, and that those who had to leave their flock go back. I am certain there are ways of achieving this. It is the will that is needed.
218.	The Church has definitely set itself on a new course. Let us contemplate the words of the Roman Catholic Bishop of Umtali, Ms. Donald Lamont, looking into the origins of racism. It is, he says:
"... a pernicious heresy, deep-seated in theological origins and disastrous in the conclusions it could lead to. If the Christian Church were to seem by its silence to give ' its consent to a system of government inspired by racial prejudice, any discrimination against men, or harassment of them on account of their colour, condition of their life, or religion, it would be contrary to the mind of Christ."
Noble words in the true tradition of the sacred books, but never before brought to light as forcefully as this.
219.	Equally forceful in encouraging to men and women in the bush lighting for their freedom is Cardinal Bernard Albrink. He is no less a man than the Archbjshop of Utrecht and, at the same time, the international president of the Pax Christi movement, a man to reckon with. In a letter to Bishop Ferrcira de Silva he calls upon him "to take all necessary measures and probably make a public protest. ...
Wc have a duty to show every African citizen that he can count on our solidarity in securing his right to self- determination". At long last the All-Africa Conference of Churches is not alone. Surely these men are rejuvenating the Church, injecting into it a spirit that centuries ago impelled a few similar souls to petition the Pope to intervene with secular authorities for the purpose of prohibiting slavery. According to press reports, Father Martin Hernandez and Father Alfonso Valverdi have been in gaol since early 1972.
220.	There must be others because several missions have been closed for fear of missionaries informing the world. And inform it of what? I can tell you. Vania's story is too well known now to recount. Zostin's story is too gruesome not to mention. Portuguese soldiers asked Zostin whether she knew the sex of the child inside her. They opened her stomach with knives, violently extracting her entrails, showing her the foetus which throbbed convulsively. They told her that she then knew and were chucking like maniacs. What little Serina, a 13-year-old girl, told reporters about the massacre of her family is as horrifying. Vania, Zostin, and Serina should find their way to sainthood. The hundreds of churchmen we honour, but must not content ourselves with honouring them.
221.	To begin this process, the Sudan joins with those who call for an investigation of the atrocities in Wiriyamu, Mucumbora and other areas. The investigation conducted by Portuguese authorities cannot be convincing. Evidence is in the shaky words of Prime Minister Caetano. Here they are: "The competent authorities will seek those responsible, in order that justice may be done". The result of what he called "rigorous enquiry" is, in his own words, "a total absence of the alleged facts in the places alleged by the accusers".
222.	The second question is that of the fate of the hundreds of detainees in South Africa and Rhodesia. The world knows about Father Sithole and Joshua Nkomo in Rhodesia, Nelson Mandela and Alexander Neville in South Africa, luminaries who have been silenced behind bars for a decade or so. We do not know about the others. We call upon this world community and other international institutions to take up seriously the matter of those men and women whose sole guilt is standing up for their inalienable right to independence and freedom to determine their future. It is also setting a pattern for life under the racist Governments of that region until the day of deliverance comes. The obtaining pattern is desperate and therefore unaware of decisions it takes. Mr. Smith has recently gone so far as to ban churchmen from preaching in their own Church. No one will be surprised if, under strain because of his many political and economic defeats, he locks them up. Some action is needed. In what form? Let us think together. After all, this year we are celebrating the twenty-fifth anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights.
223.	Thirdly, recent developments go to show the near- maniacal eagerness of the white settler regimes to use armed suppression against the African population in order to entrench their rule and prevent the African from participating in government. The murder of Amilcar Cabral, the massacre of 400 defenceless civilians at Wiriyamu, the massacre of African mine workers in Carletonville, illustrate the length to which those minority regimes will go. Yet, despite brutality, African resistance in southern Africa not only has remained undaunted but has risen to unexpected heights. The recent labour strikes in South Africa have gone to prove how prophetic Nelson Mandela was when he said at his Rivonia trial:
"Government violence can do only one thing and that is to breed counter-violence. We have warned repeatedly that if there is no dawning of sanity on the part of the Government the dispute between the Government and my people will finish up by being settled in violence and by force."
224.	It is against this background of terror that Africa has repeatedly pointed to the gathering storm south of the Zambezi, a storm that threatens to engulf the whole of Africa and the world beyond.
225.	But South Africa, Rhodesia, and Portugal are not the ones to read the writing on the wall. Large portions of Mozambique and Angola are already in the hands of freedom fighters. The South West Africa People's Organization [SWAPO] has plunged into the fray with indomitable gusto, after the miserable failure of elections in Ovamboland and the arrest of five of its leaders as the culprits who prevented a turn-out to the election booths. Mr. Smith is sending his bombers, jet fighters and helicopters to subjugate the Tete Province in Mozambique because, according to him and his followers, "the Portuguese have lost the stomach to hunt out FRELIMO guerrillas", as reported by newsmen who managed to get into the area. This is a logic for which we have only infinite scorn. The thickest writing on the wall is the triumph of the Partido Africano da Independencia da Guine e Cabo Verde in announcing the independence of Guinea-Bissau only days ago. That lesson will also be lost on the racists in South Africa, Rhodesia and Portugal. It will not be lost to the Africans. After all, one cardinal point announced by independent Guinea-Bissau is that it will help to liberate other Portuguese Territories.
226.	We of the OAU shall, of course, soon take steps to help Guinea-Bissau to stand on its feet by making available to it whatever resources every single member of us can afford — and that apart from what the rest of the world can do at this stage.
227.	It is useful to note that we have voted into our community some 130 million people in this particular year when we are seriously grappling with the improvement of the United Nations. To the representatives of those peoples, the German Democratic Republic, the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Commonwealth of the Bahamas, I bring the congratulations of my country and its people. Our work in this Organization is incomplete without their industry and inventiveness. They will bring in a breath of fresh air, I hope. Some of those who have been at it for a long time have taken positions in the light of their own national interests, I am afraid. The steely muscles of the Organization need oiling. Some of us preach a "don't-rock-the-boat" philosophy: a conservative view that hopes to keep the status quo. Some preach the dismantling of the whole edifice as un- suited to our current needs and the construction of another that would be in tune with the times — a radical view that fails to take stock of the realities of international life. The dialogue started by the Secretary-General's notes and your own remarks, Sir, should end up in a serious endeavour to look into the matter and present recommendations to our next session.
228.	Those remarks and particularly your views of the General Assembly, so perceptively outlined, Mr. President, cannot be served by Olympian aloofness. These are not times for any one of us in a position of authority to shy away from creative leadership. To halt the tendency "to underrate the powers of the General Assembly" you need daring souls on your side. Many of us demonstrated this morning that we are ready to do so.
229.	We appeal to you, Mr. President, not to be hemmed in by the stern rules and practices that have reduced the highest office of the General Assembly, our collective voice, into an honorific position. Worse still — they have even led us into the contented acquiescence in and acceptance of the presence in our midst of such political obscenities as the spokesmen of apartheid.
c
230.	The social and economic establishment of the United Nations cannot be left unchanged either. The United Nations can pride itself on many of its economic assistance programmes where differences among States have been effectively conciliated in the pursuit of common goals. Such programmes can materialize in limitless benefits if the necessary requirements for successful performance are made available.
231.	Apart from the primordial requirement of resources there is a need to increase the efficiency, effectiveness, and economy of the United Nations economic programmes. The implementation of those programmes demands a degree of emotional commitment beyond what is normally acceptable. And for such a change to be effective, all partners in the process of multilateral co-operation — and more particularly the recipients — should take part in the rationalization of procedures and modes of operation. What is needed in the prevailing conditions of international co-operation for development is a forward-looking perspective to development assistance and a dedicated spirit of performance at all levels. Nothing less will meet the pressing needs of the developing countries.
232.	The Assembly had a taste of this from President' Mobutu of Zaire [2140th meeting]. His was a message of Africa pure and simple, freed from the trimmings of diplomatic niceties, and armed with the philosophy of his ancient land. His concept of aid is our concept — and not on the abstract level either. His country's experience of Chinese co-operation happens to be my country's experience too. It is the possible ideal of aid. I could go on and tell an identical story. The President's words were clear enough, yet one would like the "better-equipped" countries, as he prefers to call the richer members of the international community, to draw the moral. In my humble thinking, he was calling upon this Organization and upon the rich of the world to reconsider ways of co-operation witt us, in the light of the Chinese experience our two countries have, and to improve on it. Why not?
233.	It is in that light that we say there is a need to review the Charter, to infuse the rules of procedure with a breath of life, to modify antiquated modes of operation, and to rejuvenate the administration with a timely blood transfusion. The Charter of the United Nations is not Holy Writ, however revered. It is a document reflecting the consensus of nations at a certain juncture of history. It will have to change with the changing times. The Organization is not an oracle. It is a political institution. And political institutions that tend to perpetuate themselves become reactionary. What use is a reactionary United Nations?
234.	The resolutions of the non-aligned summit Conference at Algiers on the reorganization of the United Nations [see A/9330 and Corr.I] should not be passed over in silence, even by those who have a vested interest in the status quo. The change is necessary if the United Nations is to beat all efficient, efficacious, and truly representative of the infinite diversity of the world's culture and beliefs.
235.	In order to achieve that change, we do not intend to fly in the face of prevailing facts. That does not do the job of strengthening this world forum. To be their prisoner, if they prove to stand in the way of new ideas, does not do the job either. There will have to be a golden mean between realism and idealism. To discard one or the other is to invite paralysis. It is not beyond our intelligence to be pragmatic idealists.
236.	Africa is keen and willing to put its genius at the service of a machinery of reform. That is the meaning of the presence of four of our leaders here, one of them the current President of the OAU, General Gowon, who devoted a substantial part of his address [2141st meeting] to this question. It is not that they need the Organization more than any other continent in the world; it is that they realize only too well that Africa is the hope of peace and equitable distribution of the resources of the world. Africa is young and has not yet accumulated the cynicism that comes with old age and flabby wrinkles. Africa sees less of the seamy side of man and can speak up as the leaders you have heard this morning and yesterday did.


197.	Mr. President, the delegation of Guatemala considers that the General Assembly was well advised to appoint you, since this appointment also represents twofold recognition of your standing as a jurist and of the personal qualifications that you have brought to the service of the United Nations, helping to maintain trust and to increase faith in the unchangeable principles and vital objectives of the world Organization. Our admiration and respect bespeak your success and guarantee you the whole-hearted co-operation of the delegations present here.
198.	I wish to thank you also for the special tribute that you paid to the memory of the late Guatemalan internationalist, Emilio Arenales Catalan, who preceded you in your high office.
199.	I should like also to mention the ties and similar deep historic roots that link Ecuador and Guatemala. And I might refer to the fact that the greatest Latin American writer of fables, Rafael Garcia Goyena, as a child, left his native city of Quito and while in my own country he contributed to the emerging national awareness and served the cause of the political emancipation of Central America through the press that he edited and that supported independence.
200.	I must express the concern of my delegation at the exacerbation of the conflict in the Middle East.
201.	This regular session of the General Assembly began with the promising prospect that the relaxation of great political differences and ideological controversies all over the world would make the road to the maintenance of international peace and security easier to traverse.
202.	Such prospects have been seriously upset by the conflict in the Middle East. Since the United Nations was born out of the need of humanity for peace and for guarantees of the security of peoples, safeguarding mankind from the untold sufferings of war as our basic and primary objective, this conflict once again puts the United Nations on its mettle. It is a challenge to the political will of Member States to achieve a solution to the conflict and to follow up that solution in order to ensure peace throughout the region. We trust that the United Nations will live up to that mission.
203.	It would be almost redundant for me to reiterate the adherence of Guatemala to the United Nations or even to try to list the fruitful achievements of the Organization. We should be better advised to consider the balance-sheet and then answer criticisms that have been made — some of them well-founded — which are the result of impatience and eagerness of many to revitalize the United Nations at a time when its purposes and directives have matured sufficiently to require greater achievements.
204.	We are gratified that the application of the principle of universality is gaining ground and our international Organization is expanding and becoming stronger. We are happy to welcome cordially the representatives of the beautiful archipelago of the Bahamas and the admission of the two German States, whose renewed contact promises convergence in this climate of political detente, a convergence that Einstein entrusted to time, space and distance; this does not satisfy fully those of us who wish for a world that is united, yet this convergence will help us towards coexistence and human understanding. There are some very promising indications contained in the statements made by a number of Powers in this forum, confirming the fact that the United Nations inspires trust and leads to agreements. Thus, for example, the Soviet Union has revived, in concrete terms, a proposal, which the representative of the United Kingdom recalled here, on the reduction of military budgets in order that the resources thus saved might be diverted to international co-operation and to meeting the priority needs of the developing countries [A/9191].
205.	The Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, Mr. Willy Brandt, agreed in condemning violence in any form and, furthermore, he denounced that defeatism which is confined to a bitter criticism of "an almost jubilant pessimism" in the face of the present complex problems, when people are dying of hunger as earlier they died in war [2128th meeting]. Therefore, as we seek peace we must revitalize the instruments of international cooperation and improve the living conditions of many peoples whose backwardness or poverty are the ingredients of domestic upheaval and threats to international security.
206.	Surely this new atmosphere will be encouraged and promoted by the United Nations. It may be created by a convergence of fear and the memory of untold sufferings, but it is a climate which might be conducive to a disarmament movement or a change in individual and collective conduct that will turn sterile struggles into useful compromises, and to a search for peace and security through mutual understanding and co-operation.
207.	My country does not need to reaffirm its traditional belief in the peaceful settlement of international disputes, which already in 1825 was the principle underlying the instructions that our delegates, Molina and Larrazabal, carried with them to the First Inter-American Conference in Panama, and that contribution to the rule of international law leads us today to advocate disarmament, and to condemn unreservedly the proliferation of nuclear weapons and nuclear tests that might shatter the radiation balance and be a grave danger to mankind. We are proud, in the Western Hemisphere, that the Treaty of Tlatelolco was created and signed by us.
208.	In Guatemala our concern for development has been directed towards an over-all plan with a deep humanist underlying condition that calls for better standards of health, training and cultural activity so that, at least the greater number of our inhabitants, if not all, shall participate actively in the social and economic welfare and thus meet the imperative that "peace is the fruit of justice". This is a guiding principle that has a deeply rooted tradition in the Guatemalans because in the Popol Vuh, the most important of pre-Columbian books, it was stated as follows: "Let all rise. Let all be called. Let there be no group, no two groups, among us that is left behind the others."
209.	The search for basic social justice as a means of promoting peace, security and the welfare of the nation is a matter for all of us, and our President, General Carlos Arana Osorio, has made appeals that go beyond party interests and elite groups, that we should all work together devotedly, sharing the sowing and the harvest and the enjoyment of the benefits, under the egalitarian inspiration of the Sacred Book of the Maya-Quiches in Guatemala:
"All the tribes climbed the mountain together to see the sun rise. They took with them their idols and their animals, their wives and their children, their chiefs and their servants; and the sun rose. And the tribes were not counted, nor the idols, nor the animals, nor the strong, nor the weak. The sun shone brightly on all."
210.	We have stressed the great responsibility for a national effort to achieve over-all development, but we do not in any way underestimate bilateral, regional and international co-operation freely agreed upon; at the same time, however, we must obey the integrationist mission of the Central American isthmus, which is geographically, historically, ecologically and culturally intended to combine natural and human resources to meet the requirements of a single, common destiny, as provided in the restructuring of the common market and in other aspects of the regional plan, aimed at benefiting the peoples of the region. A number of organs are working along those lines and important programmes are under way. If there were difficulties in the Mercomun —  the common market — if a dispute has endangered the plan, the situation has now improved and the prospects for the coming year are eminently promising.
211.	We know that the United Nations will through its specialized agencies give the necessary support, on conditions appropriate to our circumstances, within the framework of our own institutions.
212.	With regard to the efforts being made by the Central American Governments to speed up the economic development, we believe it is indispensable for all developing nations to define the economic rights and duties of States in a charter in keeping with present ideas, but flexible enough to be adapted to future situations. The prompt adoption of such a charter by the international community would set the stage for an era of constructive calm.
213.	Despite the fact that in 1970 the General Assembly adopted the International Development Strategy for the Second United Nations Development Decade, many policy measures included in the Strategy have not been implemented. Furthermore, the world economy has suffered a series of grave upheavals, with particularly unfavourable repercussions on the developing countries. That situation surely calls for political will on the part of the developed countries to implement new forms of international co-operation that will cover global interests and treat common problems, without distinction, in the light of interdependence.
214.	The United Nations and its specialized agencies, without doubt, in specific fields falling within their competence, have done praiseworthy work on the development of the less advanced nations, and yet bureaucratic and administrative problems hinder implementation of the United Nations Development Programme in some regions. In this connexion, it is suggested that international co-operation should make better use of available resources, since the balance-sheet of the first two years of the Second Development Decade shows that many problems persist. Some have become aggravated to the point where they even show signs of retrogression.
215.	Trade negotiations started in Tokyo within the framework of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade also call for preferential treatment to be given to the developing nations. If this goal is lost sight of, and if multilateral negotiations are to be made subject to the interests of the economic Powers, or if they are limited merely to solving their own problems, then irrecoverable ground will be lost in international relations.
216.	Development is also linked closely to the problem of population. At round tables and seminars, in studies and speeches at national and regional levels, a preventive policy regarding the balance between population and natural resources is discussed and examined. We must recall the warnings of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations but must not go back to the simplistic Malthusian theory regarding world supply of food-stuffs. We must rather take into account the complexity of the socio-economic concept in which man is at present developing, since his destiny depends primarily on the family milieu. It is in order to ensure that every man has better and more resources, and can thus more effectively contribute to the collective welfare, that the United Nations has stressed the importance of population problems and has created a specific department to gather and disseminate information and, we might also say, keep its finger on the pulse of each country regarding reactions to the problem.
217.	In my own country the demographic problem is not the determining factor governing under-development, nor is it of an alarming nature. Far from it; however, the authorities and society have both taken it into account and thus encouraged study of the problem and discussion of programmes for family planning. We can bring some of our experiences and experiments to the World Population Conference planned by the United Nations for 1974.
218.	In a different context, we admit that the United Nations has been more than ready to assist areas affected by natural disasters. Thus, my delegation would be ready to advocate and sponsor the creation of a standing United Nations body, ready to give assistance and help to countries suffering natural catastrophes or calamities, which almost constantly beset one region or another of the world and which call for timely and ample assistance.
219.	During 1974 the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea is to be held. At that time, difficult problems will be raised, such as the different delimitations of the sea, especially as regards the utilization of natural resources as yet unassessed but whose importance is already known and planned on as vital sources and reserves for the economies of our peoples.
220.	Some formula will have to be found that will guarantee the rational exploitation of the sea-bed without disregarding the preferential rights of the coastal States, linking the interests of more than 130 nations whose situations are very different. It will be a challenge to the negotiating capacity of diplomacy, it is true, but scientific precision and technical advice, as well as the new concepts of international law, must prevail. Thus it might be helpful if prior and wide dissemination were made by the United Nations of any information and data that will allow those problems to be placed within the framework of the coastal rights of peoples and nations and in the emerging interests of future generations.
221.	Finally, this year the United Nations will celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, with world-wide repercussions. In this matter the Government of Guatemala, whose Constitution includes each and every one of the human rights proclaimed in the Universal Declaration, apart from having presided over the formation and development of our own Republic and being soundly rooted in the people, has adopted measures to ensure the widest publicity in which schools at all levels and many cultural institutions will enthusiastically participate.
222.	This General Assembly has before it the problem of devising the programme for the Decade for Action to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination. Guatemala agrees openly with the objectives of that Decade and we are ready to support the elimination of any form of discrimination by following a crusade to defend the right which goes hand in hand with the very right to life, and that is life with dignity.
223.	We believe that this readiness, which is unanimous in the Assembly, is the best framework in which to celebrate the anniversary of the Declaration of Human Rights, and our hopes are that the awareness of those rights and respect for their tenets will not only be set forth in a declaration but will be part of the mentality of future generations and be brought out in their conduct and in their acts.