ited Nations 937th IENERAL PLEHARY MEE'risG

ASSEMBLY Tuesday, 6 December 1960, at 3 p.m. vivr ENr" SESSWN OSdal Records NEW YORK

CONTENTS matter, it is hardly for the Honduran delegation to Page supply the panacea--the solution to this problemÿby Agenda item 87: defining which territorieÿ are still colonies. This As- Declaration on the granting of independence to sembly has not been able to define exactly what con= colonial countries and !Seoples (continued) 1157 stitutes aggression either. Nevertheless, if pressed sufficiently, we might hazard the following definition: colonies are all those groups or peoples that do not yet p_zesident: Mr. Frederick H. B()LAND (Ireland). govern themselves and cannot choose their rulers by democratic means. AGENDA ITEM 87 6. In the fourth place, we have been told that the ecru= mission proposed by Honduras would solve nothing and Declaration on the granting of independence to colonial would merely delay matters. We do not agree. The commission can do a great service; it can chart the countries and peoples (continuecO course for the peoples that are still seeking indepen- 1. The PRESIDENT: Before coming to the first dence. Again, the argument that visiting commissions speaker inscribed for this afternoon, I give the floor to should not be sanctioned, because they are notallowed to enter the territories concerned, is no reason for the representative of Honduras in exercise of his right rejecting the draft resolution, ÿor such a situation is of reply. not new to this Assembly. Four years have passed 2. Mr. MILLA BERMUDEZ (Honduras) (translated since the establishment of the Special Committee on the from Spanish): In exercising its right of reply, my dele- Problem of Hungary, and Sir Leslie Munro, a former gation wishes also to take this opportunity to clarify, President of this Assembly, has just submitted another as requested, some points in its draft resolution (A/ report [A/4606] to us without setting foot on Hungarian L.324). soil. 3, In the first place, the Honduran proposal is in no 7. To sum up: the Honduran draft resolution supplies sense an alternative to the African-Asian draft resolu- the African-Asian group's proposal with a means of tion. On the contrary, itis a supplementwhich we con- carrying out the liberation process. sider necessary for the implementation of the latter proposal. What is more, my delegation will vote in 8. Mr. WADSWORTH (United States of America): favour of the African-Asian draft resolution [A/Lo323 Through all its life, the United Nations has been deeply and Add.l-5]. The Honduran proposal, then, is designed concerned with the progress of dependent peoples ÿ// merely to help in solving the problem of ways and towards seif-government and independence. That pro-- t-oÿ means, of the proper implementation of the African- gress has embraced nearly 800 million people. It has j/ \ Asian draft resolution. In other words, we establish a become the greatest ÿide of political liberation in all :: / right and proper link between the two. I should also . history...... like to make it quite clear that the position of Honduras 9. This year, with the admission of seventeen newly- in this matter, as in any other, is above suspicion, and established nations to our midst, the independence that we shall never lend ourselves to manoeuvres on movement has reached a climax. It is well, therefore, either side. in the presence of so many nations which have achieved 4. In the second place, I have been told that no pro- / independence in recent times, that this session of the vision is made foran East European country among the I GeneraLAssembly Should consider the future of this members of the commission. I disagree. The proposal momentous movement. The movement itself is natural, provides for the representation of two Administering just, and irresistible. It is determined not so much by Powers. It is therefore incorrect to call the Honduran what we say here as by historic forces which cannot be proposal inadmissible on the ground that it excludes a reversed. But it seems reasonable to hope that our representative area, for there is nothingtopreventthe deliberations here may help to speedit, andto make it inclusion of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics as more orderly, more peaceful and more just for the an Administering Power. scores of millions whose future is bound up with it. 5. In the third plaee,Ihavebeenaskedto specify what I0. No people supports the idea of freedom and I mean by colonies, or what colonies I have in mind. national independence more eagerly or more proudly This is a more difficult question to answer, for there than the people of the United States. All delegations are disputes pending now before the Assembly, for here are aware of the historical background which led Which no solution has been found in previous years; the founders of my country to make and carry into Algeria is a case in point. We allknow which colonies effect the famous Declaration of Independence, which still exist in the world. But if debate or the interpreta- we celebrate every fourth of July. After one hundred tion of international law has so far failed to produce, or and fifty years of colonial rule , and after the economic if entanglement in the conflict of two worlds and in the and social development of the original Colonies had cold war has so far prevented any agreement on this attained a point where they were able tostand on their 1157 A/PV.937 1158 General__ Assembly__a___ -- Fifteenth ..... Session -- Plenary Meetings ÿ!ÿ own feet, and when repressive acts reached a point 16. Now this success has given a Powerfulimpetust where they were regarded as unendurable, our leaders the drive for independence and full self-government issued this immortal declaration. By it they brought in other countries which are still dependent today and I into being a new nation, founded on certain self-evident which feel themselves to be part of the same great ! iÿ truths: ÿthat all men are created equal, that they are stream of history. It is natural and healthy that this endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable should bo so. The very presence in our midst of a rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit greatly increased number of new nations, all free to of happiness. That to secure these rights governments express their views as they think right, imparts to this are instituted among men, deriving their just powers question a new urgency. from the consent of the governed." 17. It iS equally fitting that, within the context of the 11. Our founders declared, and we still hold, that Charter provisions to which I referred just now, an these truths are not the heritage of any particular race effort should be made to state the sense of the General or any particular nation but of all men. And so it has Assembly in a new declaration which accords withthe proved in fact, for the influence of that Declaration circumstances of 1960. For that task no one among us reverberated around the world and still reverberates is so well qualified as the nations of Africa and Asia, today. to most of whom this question is a matter of first,. hand experience and who are the sponsors of the draft : 12. Tÿaerÿfere ÿhe general sentiment of the American resolution [A/L.323 andAdd.l-5] before the Assembly. people has always been that freedom and independence We of the United States wisht0be in a position to sup- are among the basic natural rights of every people and port their declaration. We hope thatwhatever questions nation. Our public opinion has shown no ambition to of language might remain can still be worked out. We dominate other nations and has had little enthusiasm applaud their initiative and the spirit which animates it. for colonial ventures, whether by ourselves or by 18. In this statement, rather than dissect the draft others. When a former colony emerges as a new nation resolution, I shall try to set forth in broad terms the we instinctively remember our own origin and we point of view of the United States. respond with heartfelt rejoicing. 19. First, let me say what we mean by colonialism. 13. In this\debate; on a subjectwhere somany nations There is no need for a formal definition. We have have greateÿ expeÿenee than we, it would be idle for learned from history certain of its characteristics. It the United Stÿs to tÿy to preach to anybody. Nor shall is the imposition of allen power overapeople, usually we try to ronsa passi6ns by lurid accusations. We are by force, and without the formal and free consent of the more interested; in thÿ%fÿture than in the past. We governed. It is the perpetuation of thaÿpower. It is the believe that the ÿapid progress of the independence denial of the right of self-determination--whether by movement is essential to peace. And in this statement suppressing free expression or by withholding neces- we shall try to set forth some of the broad principles sary educational, economic and social development. by which that progress should be governed. Obviously not all colonial rÿgimes tÿave been the same. • Some have been benevolent and have expended great 14. From its very founding the United Nations con- sums for the benefit of the indigenous people; others ceived of the long-establlshed colonial Governments, have been harsh and repressive. Some have understood which then embraced a major part of the globe, not as the justice and inevitability of progress by the indige- sources of profits to the governing Power but rather as nous people to full self-government and self-deter- a "sacred trust" anda means of progress for dependent mination, and have shaped their policies accordingly; peoples. This was made plain by Article 73 of the others have not. But however importantthese differen- Charter, under Chapter Xi entitled: "Declaration re- ces, the fact remains that colonialism in any form is garding Non-Seÿoverning Territories". That Ar- undestrable.lNeither the most benevolent paternalism ticle makes clear that the Administering Powers have by a rulingÿPower, nor the most grateful acceptance of a responsibility to the community of nations; that the these benefits by indigenous leaders can meet the test interests of the indigenous populations come first; that of the Charter or satisfy the spirit of this age.IIn fact, among those interests are progress toward self- the only colonial rule Which can meet that tgst is that government and free institutions and the realization of which energetically works to turn over full power to :J ,I their "political aspirations"--which, in most cases, the indigenous people and thus seeks to bring itself to has meant independence. The same article also makes an end as soon as possible. Time and again, that test clear that the pace and method of progress must take has been met. The vast areas which, in generations into account the "particalar circumstances of each past, were overseas possessions of Western nations territory and its peoples and their varying stages of have been transformed by the joint efforts of the gov- advancement". erning and the governed, until today the complete end of this traditional colonial era is a certainty. In spite 15. In the fifteen years of the United Nations,Article of inevitable friction and some tragic instances of 73 has been put into effect with greater speed and on a violence, this historic transformation has been largely grander scale than any other provision of the Charter. peaceful; and for that blessing great credit is due to Some thirty-four countries, containing over 775 million statesmen and leaders on both sides. people, have attained independence since 1946.Nearly all are Members of the United Nations with repre- 20. The United States devoutlyliopes thatthe complete sentatives in this hall. In Africa alone no less than ending of the colonial age will be still more peaceful twenty-one States have made this transition, until two and harmonious. That this shouldbe so is manifestly in thirds of the whole of Africa is free and independent. the future interest of all concerned. We cannot help And, as the representative of the United Kingdom remarking on the fact that some speakers who have reminded us in his statement early in this debate taken a prominent partin this debate, andwho maintain [925th meeting], still others will follow in the years that they themselves are all free and independent and just ahead. have no colonies, have outdone all the rest of the 937th meeting-- 6 December 1960 1159

d impetus 1 Sÿeakers here in the violence of their language. They should and must recall that the draft resolution now ..o the impression thattheywouldprefer, for reasons before us quite rightly speaks out against colonialism it st known to themselves, to see the eolonialregimes in all its manffestationsÿ, just as did the hiÿoriO same greatÿ of which they speak brought to an end by violence, with declaration following the Bandung Conference. I return :hy that tÿ the greatest possibte hatred and bitterness on both now, however, to the old colonial system. In the view ' midst of a sides • , of the United States, certain points are clear. • all free to torts to this 1. Now we could describe at thisp0int, ffit would be 25. First, the ending of the colonial era is already far helpful to any suffering people to d0so, a new colonial advanced and its complete end is certain. Thesentiment system_which does not span any oceans but which is of nationalism is one of the strongest and most ir- nonetheless as complete a violation of the rights of resistible forces of modern times. It should not be just now, !:::: mÿn as any that has ever existed. This colonial system thwarted or suppressed--indeed, it cannot be. Modern the General was imposed by force on manypeoples ofmany races, history records many instances of nations whichwere rds withthe : manY of whom had for centuries been free and in.- partitioned or completely extinguished, only to emerge le among dependent States and had been Members of the League again as members of the family of nations. Some of :a and Asia of Nations. Some lost their independence even inform; these are sitting in our midst today; others may be here :er of all of them lost it in fact. This entire system is dis- of the draft tomorrow. In any ease, those who have responsibility : guised by censorship, by ÿthless thought control, and under Chapter XI of the United Nations Charter for the Assembly. an elaborate misuse of words like "democraticn and administration of Non-Self-Governlng Territories Lion to sup.' :i,: ,autonomous% But its ÿaglc reality is attested bythe must realize that their tutelage at best can be only r questions !ÿ: millions who have esqaped from it and by the tens of ked out. We temporary. Any attempt to prolong it by unnecessary :::thousands who have dÿ6d in their vain efforts to shake delays, any failure to prepare for it with all possible • nimates it. / L ii!: it off. speed, will only frustrate the inevitable and sow a ct the draft iÿ22o That is the new colonialism. In the very years harvest of bitterness which will persist long after d terms the : the old, eolonialism was being transformed by the independence has been achieved. endenceÿ movement, the new colonialism was 26. Secondly, it is not enough merely to liquidate the *olonialismÿ iii spreading to still other nations. It is the largest colonial empire in all the world today, yet it seeks to old; it is necessary also to plan soundly for what will replace it. And in this the wishes of the indigenous teristies. : spread still flÿrther under the false banner of"libera- tion". Fortunately, its further spreadhas been checked people must be paramount. Experience shows that a ple, usually/i:ÿ separate independence is usually, but by no means asent of the ÿ!i by the increasing ability of free peoples to understand the reality through the disguise. We are convinced that always, the peopleJs choice. For instaupe, contraryto or. It is the impression left by the declarationwhiehMr. Zorin .whether this new colonial system too will die out--andwe hope and pray i will die peacefully. Its time, perhaps, is read here some weeks ago [925th meeting], the people ding neces, :: of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico donotnow desire velopment:ÿI not yet, but its time ÿ come. Meanwhile, when we the practitioners of this new colonialism launch independence. They are fully self-governing and have m the same::::: freely chosen to be associated with the United States as ended great: ÿi their thunderbolts against the old, we are tempted to recall the old proverb: ÿWhat you do speaks so loud a self-governing commonwealth. There are strong ,ple; otherK:i economic, financial and ether reasons behind their de- , understood ii> that I cannot hear what you sayn. cision. On 8 November last they re-elected Governor 23. The arch practitioner of this new and lethal Munoz Marfu, who is a strong advocate of the common- colonialism demonstrated to us as recently as last wealth solution and in fact one of its chief architects, .c cordinglyiÿ:!ÿ! ÿ Sunday the true colours of its cynical and hypocritical by a clear majority of 58 per center the vote in a free se nakÿre, which it hides under the false banner of liberaÿ election. Perhaps just as significant is the fact that any fornf tion and behind masses of words and slogans expounding another 32 per cent of the voters advocated statehood, freedom from colonial domination and independence for or full political integration with the United States,and ;ceptance peoples of theworld.IknowIdo not need to refresh that means in simple terms that over 90 per cent of the leet memories that it was the Soviet Union which, last voters of Puerto Rico wish to have commonwealth ige. In morning in :the Security Coun¢tl,U vetoed the status or a closerpermanenttiewiththe United States. test is proposing the admission of the recently There are other examples, countries which, on emerg- ill power free and independent Islamic Republic of Mauritania. ing from colonial rule, have freely chosen to join with ing itself This veto, a hare-faced attempt to blackmail the a neighbouring State in a single sovereignty. Solutions in, that Council into accepting a package deal, has like these may also be preferred by other peoples, its full particularly those who live in small and widely scat- rights inthe community ofnattons. I ask you tered islands. Thus Independence is only the most to think about the implications of the Soviet Union's obvious of several possible choices. The essential )replete action on Sunday morning. Particularly consider this point is that the people should choose. ty. In veto on the admission of a sovereign State to the United Nations when the representative of the Soviet Union next 27. My third point is related to this prlnciple of popu- the floor to champion, with his hollow oratory, lar choice. The vital test for the administering au- independence and equal rights of all peoples. thority of every dependent area is the test of free con- sultaÿon with the people through free elections or I have made this short digression to describe the through some equally valid means of selg-determina- colonial systemÿ so that we may not forget the tien. This means more than a ceremony in which the many millions of people who suffer under this Wnew people are permitted to ratify a single predetermined e°lonialismw and whose fate, rightly or wrongly, most decision. It means anactual choice among alternatives. of the General Assembly have chosen not to That is the essence of the principle ofself-deterndna- cs who about at this time. At the same time, I think, we tion of peoples which is included among the Purposes he of the UnRed Nations. It is futile to argue that the Records of the SecuritT Councilt Fifteenth Year, 911th people may make the wrong decision, or a decision rest which may prove to he badfor them.At some moment, ,T

Session-- Plenary Meetings 1160 General Assembly -- Fifteenth and better soon than late, the administering authority nations. It is fitting to recall to ourselves how much must trust in the people's wisdom and put their destiny this movement already owesmand how much it is SUre in their own hands. This has been done with success in to owe in the futureÿto the United Nations. Not only has so many cases that there can be no denying its prao- this Organization, under its Charter, already taken a tical validity. Let more use be made of free elections, substantial and creative interest in the liberatingpro. then, so that peoples everywhere maybe fr. ee to deter- cess itself; the United Nations also provides--andthis ÿ1 ÿ/ may be even a greater service in the long runÿa houseÿi_ mine their own destiny. for the community of nations. And here the world,s Yÿ 28. Now I come to the question of time. How soon shall many independent nations, in all their variety ÿnd de: / "ÿ the remaining deperfdencies become independent or be spite ._all .t.heir discord., can find a sound and strong given the opporkmibj to decide their future? The framewo]rk within which to -dwell in peace. United States believes that steps must be taken im- mediately towards self-government or independence. - 32. This priceless value of the United Nations for the In many cases this process is already far advanced. emerging nations was recognized by PresidentEisen. Where it is not so actvanced, there must be no delay. hower--when he proposed, in his address to the General Certainly no administering authority should maintain Assembly on 22 September [868th meeting], a United the colonial status or relationship one day longer than Nations programme for Africa. Among the points in may be necessary to enable each territory to stand on this programme are an immediate increase inthe size its own feet in the strenuous bonditions of the modern of the United Nations Expanded Programme of Techui. world. Moreover, the determination of a timetable cal Assistance and of the United NationsSpecial Fund; should not be arbitrary but should be the result of expansion and permanent status for the United Nations continuous consultation wlththe iÿdigenous peoples and programme to provide operational and executive per- with their leaders. The Charter makes it clear, in its sonnel to newly developing countries; special attention Declaration regarding Non-Self-Governing Terri- to Africa by the International Bank for Reconstruction tories, that the progressive development of free politi- and Development and the International Monetary Fund; cal institutions is to be carried out according "to the and a new United Nations programme of education, so particular circumstances of each territory and its. that the peoples of Africa can more rapidly acquire peoples and their varying stages of advancement" the mental tools to preserve and develop their free- [Article 73 b]. All Members of the United Nations, in dom. subscribing to the Charter, have accepted this prin- ciple; and its wisdom has been fully demonstrated by 33. We shall develop these proposals further when the experience. If independence is to be real and not merely Assembly considers the item which the United States formal, it must be accompanied by economic, social delegation proposed entitled WAfrica: a United Nations and political growth and stability. Even in the same programme for independence and development" [Item region there may be wide. variations in this regard. 88]. We shall welcome particularly the ideas of the The Trust Territory of Western Samoa, for example, African States on that programme. Already we have which will soon have a plebiscite regarding its future, been greatly interested to hear a number of speakers has a very advanced society compared to the Trust from Africa, during the present debate, emphasize Territory of New Guinea, large parts ofwhichare still their wish that aid to Africa should come as much as unexplored and unknown to the outside world. Thus, to possible through the United NationS. With that attitude deal with both as if they were in comparable stages of we entirely agree. advancement would not ensure to either what the Charter pledges, namely, "their just treatment, and 34. By such steps as these, we sha!1 take the most their protection against abuses". statesmanlike course of all--the course which strengthens the independence of nations and at the 29. We can sum up our views on the matter of timing same time strengthens the world institutions whichbind in this way. Common sense, and the terms of the us together in peace. Only from that unityin diversity Charter as well, make it inescapable that indepen- can a peaceful world community be built. And only in dence-or whatever final result the people may such a community can freedom be achieved, and choose--must be reached in progressive steps. Somÿ securely sustained, for all the peoples of the world, times the remaining road is short; in other cases it is The Presfdent of the United States, in his address to' still long, and a long road should not be attempted in the General Assembly earlier this fall, describedthis one leap. It is a poor service to any people to convert ideal in these words: them overnight from colonial subjection to a paper independence which they are not equipped to sustain. WThis concept of unity in freedom, drawn fromthe The result is certain to be a collapse into chaos and diversity of many racial strains and cultures, we violence--and perhaps an attempt by other stronger would like to see made a reality for all mankind. This Powers to put them under a new yoke. It could be concept should apply within every nation as it does simply jumping from the frying pan into the fire. among nations. We believe that the right of every man to participate, through his or her vote, in self- 30. Yet none of these cautions should be used as an government is as precious as the right of each nation excuse for delay with the urgent business in hando Ad- here represented to vote its own convictions in this ministering authorities should consult with the people AsSembly. I should like to see a universal plebiscite to establish timetables of progress. And the steÿs in which every individual in the world would be given along the way must be immediate. Both the adminis- the opportunity freely and secretly to answer this tering authority and the people must feel an urgent question: 'Do you want this right?' Opposed to the obligation to speed the day of full liberation. That idea of two hostile, embittered worlds in perpetual obligation is imposed upon us by history, and to shirk conflict, we envisage a single world community,.ÿlÿ it would lead only to tragic and needless conflict. yet unrealized but advancing steadily towards fulfi - ment through ourplans, our efforts and our collective 31. We are speaking here of one of the great liberating movements of history--the creation of new sovereign ideas. 937th meeting ÿ 6 December 1960 1161 ks how ,THUS we see, as our goal,nota super-State above their duty to combat it in the eastern seas. That was a lch it is sur tions, but a world community embracing them all, reparation they owed to the peoples they had op- Not only lm oted in law and justice and enhancing the poten- pressed. The activities of European navies againstthe 'eady takeÿ lities and common purposes ofallpeoptes." [868th African slavers were instrumental in suppressing this eratingprÿ eetiag, paras. 84-85] hideous trade, which was ended for good by the Inter- de Sÿand t national Convention for the Suppression of Slavery runÿa In the light of those ideals, we rejoice to see the of colonies pass into history and a host of new adopted by the League of Nations, and signed at Geneva . the on 25 September 1926.3-/ ciety onS emerging into the community of freedom. Let d and great community grow steadily to completion, 41. But, as has been observed, the remnants of slavery all fanatical divisions and groundless am- remain in the form of racial discrimination, which J: bitionS, until it embraces--as one day it surely must.- rages in at least two countries: the Union of South /i :ations all the members of the family of man. Africa and Israel. sident El AMMOUN (Lebanon) (translated from 42. It is time, high time, thatthese inhuman practices During these memorable days we are writing should cease. The struggle against racial discrimina- rag], a . great page of history, not the history we studied not tion in the United States is proceeding successfully, the 0 long ago about nations andtheir klngs and wars, but albeit slowly and considerably more in the legislative tse in the universal history as it must henceforth be taught: the acts and court decisions than in popular practices and me of Te istory of manldnd, of its progress andachievements. reactions, but so far little progress has been made in The history of mankind is a history of continuous South Africa despite repeated United Nations inter- liberation--liberation from domination of manby man, vention. The policy of "apartheid", whichwe have con- / whether it involved individuals, communities or demned more than once, remains an open sore in the peoples, ÿhat is to say, liberation from slavery and side of mankind. How long will the United Nations colonialism. tolerate this affront to its most noble and lofty prin- i 37. But before we reached our present stage, how ciples? The draft resolution before us [A/L.323 and much Suffering was inflicted, how much blood and tears Add.l-5], and on which we are called upon to vote, condemns once and for all this policy which violates "1 p their shed' And also, how many failures, set-backs and pain- ful new beginnings! At each turning in this tortuous both moral law and the precepts of religion, of all ::r0ad a bright summit has emerged like the peak of religions. Will the Government of the Union of South Sinai. Once itwas the great Phoenician invention Africa withhold its vote from this draft resolution? it United the alphabet, then, closer to our time, paper iin- is being offered an opportunity to reconsider its policy, ported into Europe from China by the Arabs, then which is as disastrous for the community which it defends as for the one which is its wretched victim. )pment" Gutenberg's printing press and finally the newspaper-- 1 ,ÿ ideas :all stages in the extension of knowledge and the Hbera- 43. As to Israel, there have been many denunciations .ÿeady we tim of thought and hence the liberation of man. The • of its poliCy, a State policy whichhas racial discrimi- I Lr flowering of democracy in Great Britain and its exten- nation as one of its corner-stones. The very Constitu- to other parts of the world was to be one of the tion of Israel, a theocratic State, is based on the notion le as ences of that process of liberationwhich that only the Jew is a real citizen, the non-Jew being a a today enshrined in the democratic principles of the second class subject. Racial discrimination results Nations Charter. from the existence of a racist State. It appears there as an institution of the State itselL Whether in the form take the Today the subjugation of individuals by slavery is of segregation imposed on the Arabs under the pretext to an end. Nevertheless it has not completely ,*ourse of national security, or of inequality before the State Remnants of it remain in racial discrimina- I as and and the public authorities, it constitutes one of the serfdom and forced labour. fundamental laws of the State. The censure incurredby tyin Until the beginning of the Christian era there was the Union of South Africa is merited to an even greater It. And sporadic struggle against this endemic eviland extent by Israel. How long will people close their eyes achieved which were speedily repressed. In the eyes of to this anomaly, to this monstrosity ofracistpolicy in of the contemporaries Spartaons was a rebel to be an anachronistic State, and of the Zionism which his a rebel against an established institution, a nourishes it7 described4 to one of the foundations of the civilization of the 44. Slavery in all its forms, as the League of Nÿtions declared, slavery in its most diverse shapes and with [rRwn *. With the advent of Christianity, the legitimacy of all its hideous remnants, must finally give way to real [ was called in question. After it had been equality between men of all races and colours, and to mankind. in Europe it still subsisted in CzaristRussla respect for the human dignity of each and every person. tion as it milder form of serfdom, despite repeated at- t of every: 45. Even before voting on the resolution condemning at liberation and the two great revolutions in the racial discrimination, we should like to believe that this Vote, in States and France, together with the Declara- resolution will not, like so many other United Nations L of each of the Rights of Man which they brought forth in rictionS resolutions, remain a dead letter. A people whose But it needed an Abraham Lincoln and a Civil War actions violate the principles of the Charter and the slavery to be abolished in the United States, and the i) wou.ldbe provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human of the Brussels Conference relative to the Rights, whether it be Israel or any other country, must to answer Slave Trade of 18902-/for it to be condemned henceforth incur not only moral penalties in the form of Opposed in Asia and Africa. The Powers thathad officially ]sin United Nations censure, but the legalpenalties attach- i the slave trade on the Atlantic Ocean made it ing to the violation of the rules of conduct for peoples

of the Brussels Conference relati,/e to the African signed atBrussels on 2July 1890, British and Foreign State 3_/Sale Publications of the League of Nations, VI.B.Slavery, 1926. 1889-1890, vol; LXXXll (London, H.M. Stationery Office). V1.B.7. (document C.586.M.223.1926. V1.). - ÿTI

General Assembly- Fifteenth Session- Plenary Meetings i: 1162 state itself. By occupying a part of Arab Palestine, / and indivlduals. We hope that the world, which has seen the advent of independence for so many peoples, will in Zionism has violated both the sovereignty of the people the near future see the advent of universal law and it expelled from their homes and the integrity of the national territory. While pretending to assert a right, justice for all. i it violates with impunity the most elementary prin- J 46. A last word before turning from racialdiscrimi- ciples of good faith. ! nation, which besets the individual, to colonialism, which affects entire peoples. For the common good,we 50. Without a doubt, the colonial Powers have spread hope that racial discrimination willnot springup again their civilization in the colonized countries, to a in the relations between the newly emancipated peoples, greater or lesser extent. This cultural expansion was or those soon to be freed, and their former masters. at times attended by violence. It was imposed rather i We entreat these long-suffering peoples to rise above than accepted. It may be that without this culÿ_re and malice and vengeance. At stake are their own interests, without this violence, the colonized countries wouldnot which can be fulfilled only through co-operation on an have awakened so quickly to independence and freedom. equal footing, in an atmosphere of mutual confidence This has happened at various times in history. In antiquity, in the Middle Ages and in modern times the among all men and peoples. i currents of culture sweeping through the world, some. 47. The draft resolution before us states that the times from East to West and sometimes fromWest to liberation of peoples is an irreversible process. What- EaSt, were not always peaceful currents. Far fromit. ever anyone may say, international morality is winning But this no longer holds true today. The book can dis- a victory. It will be one of the greatest achievements pense with the sword and the rifle. Economic develop- of the United Nations, if not the greatest of all, to have ment must no longer mean exploitation, as it often taken part in this regeneration of the worldby helping meant in times gone by, in all eras and under all , all peoples still in bondage in their struggle for in- skies-.exploitation of natural resources as well as of dependence. What the League of Nations didto free the men. individual from slavery, the United Nations is in the process of doing to liberate allpeoples fromthe bonds 51. Our age is one of co-operation among free and equal peoples and men. More stQ1, it is an age of of servitude, human brotherhood, associationand mutual assistance. 48. We do not wish to deny tothe colonial Powers, or This mutual assistance is more particularlynecessary at least some of them, the merit of having understood since justice--economic and social justice--did not I this movement and of having risen to the heights of this always in the past govern the relations between nations. morality, yielding to the pressure of peoples striving The economic and technical development of some for freedom. In the past two decades the United King- peoples was sometimes achieved at the expense of dom, France and Italy have cut thebonds of subjection others. placed on more than thirty nations inhabited by more 52. The proposal for assistance to African countries than a thousand million people. This Organization and these Powers are today insistently urged to extend to which have attained independence, submitted by the all the peoples of the earth, onwhatever continent they United States [868th meeting], comes at a timely live, and whether they are black or white, the blessings moment. It springs from the new spirit. Itwill be wel- of freedom and dignity. Let them put a speedy end to come, as will also be any assistance which the coun- tries of western Europe may propose to give to the bloodshed in the countries where the struggle is con- States they once administered. The same may be said tinuing. Let the territories taken away from sovereign ()f the decision of the Soviet Union, announced in the nations be restored to them, for parts of their flesh and Second Co--tree,4-/to increase its contribution tothe blood in Asia and Africa remain in the hands of occupy- programme of assistance to newly independent States. ing Powers and forces. 53. This assistance has already been the subject of 49. Special mention shouldbe made of a land, the most two important resolutions of the Second C ommittee, one holy of lands, which a rapacious colonialism, Zionism, on assistance to newly independent States [A/4649, has usurped and occupied in defiance of human laws draft resolution I] andthe other on concerted action for and, I may add, of Divine Law, since this is the land of the economic development of all peoples [A/4648, the Holy Places and the Holy City. While the whole draft resolution I]. These two resolutions underline the world acknowledges that the age of conquest and co- duty of the United Nations topromote the economic and lonialism is past and while dozens of nations are hold- social advancement of all the less developed peoples. !;i i ing up their heads and advancing towards freedom and They complement the draft resolution which is now I'-r i light, colonialist Zionism is clinging desperately to the before you. They constitute the economic charter of a alleged rights of conquest so as to dispossess a people new world in which all peoples must work together. of its ancestral fatherland and open the land for colonization. Palestineÿthe land of Canaanÿwas not a 54. If this assistance is accompanied by respect for ii¸ !i Sahara, an uninhabited desert. It was, in the words of the independence and sovereignty of young States, as [[ÿ the Bible, a land flowing with milk and honey, a land required by the draft resolution on concerted action bearing huge bunches of grapes that astonished the for economic development, if the recipient Sÿates are nomadic Israelites. It was conquered in the time of not drawn into the conflicts and rivalries of the Great Powers and are enabled to develop in peace and tran- i i/ii Joshua, and conquered again three thousand years lateÿ in' a no less cruel fashion, under the very eyes of the quillity, an effective contribution will indeedhave been il'jÿi United Nations and in spite of and in violation of its made to human progress and universal harmonyinthe principles and its most solemn resolution. Israel, in world. Let us not regard this as a vision or as a fig- defiance of logic anddecency, masks this new colonial- ment of the imagination. It will be the reality of our ism under a screen of principles proclaiming freedom, time, and of the years to come, dietatedby the sequence ill, .ÿ il i but the United Nations must be true to itself by un- masking this deception, by exposing and hunting down 4/Official Records of the General Ass:mbly, fifteenth sessiÿ wherever it seeks to perpetuate or rein- Commiÿe_.ÿ.,e 698th meeting. 937th meeting -- 6 December 1960 1163

its and the course of history. The United Nations divorcement of political action from ethical action; in the seal of its approval by adopting the draft an age which still held man to be fully responsible for olution sponsored by forty-two States [A/L.323 and his every action. 1-5]. This resolution will be the new charter pro- 61. Spain may have made many mistakes in the the freedom of peoples andthe dignity of man. American Indies. Indeed, its very conception of the enterprise of colonization--as a gigantic effort to lift Mr. Nesbitt (Canada), Vice-President, took the the conquered countries to what it considered a higher ¢ÿir. plane of morality and living--may have been a mistake. 55. Mr. VEIÿZQUEZ (Uruguay) (translated from It may have been a mistake from beginning to end; and ,anish): The aemgation of Uruguay is taking part in yet, for all the fire and passion which we put into our culture s debate in full awareness of the importance of the struggle for independence, that mistake does notblind ies would matter before us. us to the beauty and transeendeney of the conception. With all its faults and crnelties--thoughthe latter seem i There are still many millions of people in Asia, 1 innocuous in comparison with the methods of mass ca and even our own America for whom the words rI1 times extermination used in our century--it was an enter- speak here have special significance. There are prise of high civilization. It was the Spanish moralists, ( millions of people whose eyes are fixed on the from West] jurists and theologians who proclaimed before the Far united Nations at this moment, and who await from us world that justice was the source of all law, and that )ook can a word to hearten them in their struggle, a word of reason and morality prevailed above the absolute will mic encouragement to help them to endure their ceaseless of monarchs. It was they who drafted the admirable , as it sufferings, a word of hope in their dejection. pages of the Code oftheIndiesthatgoverned the life of nd under 57. This lends particular gravityto our discussionand the American communities for three hundred years. as well as::: €0repels us to approach the subject with the honest 62. Spain's work in America is presenthere today; we intention of working only for the objective which we ourselves are that work--we who, for a century and a rang have set ourselves. Wedo not want this debate to be half, have been dealing with the mother country on a is an age used as a cold weapon in a cold war, much less as an footing of equality, with no misgivings, suspicions or instrument of propaganda for an ideology which has fears. Even without our presence to testify to its con- itself proved to be a modernversion of colonialism--of tinuity, the earth and flesh of America would still tice--did colonialism that is implacable, rigid and inhuman. abound with evidence of its prodigious labour of civili- lÿly delegation has therefore been glad to note the zation, to which these lines from Quevedo's moving Lent of and deliberation which have characterized sonnet could well be applied: "They will abandon their [e the statements of many countries that in recent times bodies, but not their care. They willbe ashes, but will have fought most fiercely against the colonial system. have feeling. They will be dust, but loving dust., peoples of Asia and Africa, more immediately can cted than ourselves by whatever is said or done in 63. I said that we should be unfair if we simplified mitted this Assembly, have shown an admirable prudence. We historical fact by attaching the same label or applying at a this fact as a favourable augury for the future of the same yardstick to all colonialism. To be fair, we It wil! be Nations. must now recognize that it was the West itself which, ich in the context of the modern age, took a tragically to give 58. Uruguay, like its fellow nations of Spanish and wrong turning. It was Western ÿought that questioned e may America, can claim a special justification for the existence of those supreme and objective values of intervening in this debate. Our independence, like that justice and morality which could and did give meaning fellows, was attained at the cost of great sacri- to the Spanish enterprise of colonization. That scep- The war of independence in South America lasted ticism, rooted deep in history, had enormous explosive years and, even after the Battle of Ayacueho, force. If there was nolawbutthatimposed on the com- set the final seal on America's destiny, we had munity by the monarch; if it was will, and not reason, fight on for another five years. For then we had no tes that made the legal rules; if in so doing, that will was Nations. There was no chapter XIandno Trus- not enlightened by the law of understanding and the There was only an indomitable will to )pies objective nature of things; if force was not measured Independence didnot come to us as a gift. and regulated by a higher law, bythatlaw whose edicts s was it an act of justice on our behalf by a third E in the fine words of Sophocles' heroine Antigone, "are Independence was the exercise era right; but the doped not of yesterday or today, but everlasting, though where exercised through sacrifice and pain. which is they came from, none of us can tell"; then is it any ic It is true that the circumstances thenwerenot the wÿnder that crime should now be rewarded and trans- rk as those which came to prevail in the countries gression praised7 If whatever is good and just is not by the typical colonialism of the nineteenth good and just of itself, but only because an omniscient by We should be unfair,andwe shouldbe simpli- and omnipotent ruler willed it so, then in the name of )ung historical fact to the point of distortion, if we what logic, that we shall never succeed in under- mcerted to distinguish between the colonialism against standing, has our conscience the right to revoltagainst we rose and the colonialism of more recent the daily spectacle of injustice and disorder7 1 do not 3s of the particularly in ÿhe ruthless forms which know whether they were many or few who perceived at eace and it at least until the end of the First the time the danger that lurked in this philosophy. I know only that we have here the rightful fruits of that philosophy: the grave of Katyn, the gas chambers of For out part--and this point has already been made Con or as Dachau, the fiery mushroom over Hiroshima, the representatives of Spanish America--we must millions of human beings who still live in fear, :angu£ah Spanish venture began in an age y the and slavery. values and standards higher than the capricious of men were still acknowledged; in an age still 64. It was colonialism conceived in the shadow of that enough in Christian tradition to resist the sceptical and therefore materialistic philosophy; it was 1164 General Assembly -- Fifteenth Session -- Plenary Meetings

colonialism born beneath the sign of the spirit of gain; to further interests foreign to the legitimate interests it was colonialism as the legitimate child of the capi- of the nation. talistic spirit, which was responsible for the sad 67. It would, however, be naive to think that political reality of the colonial empires, the exploitation of independence can be maintained without breaking the peoples, and ,the stupid myth of racial superiority. It bonds of economic colonialism. I neither mean nor is this cold, calculating, unfeeling colonialism thatwe claim that such bonds can be broken overnight once are going to condemn in this Assembly irÿ the name of freedom is won. We know alltoowelithat the intricate the essentÿl equality of men and peoples, inthe name network of interests in which the world is, to sonde of that common ancestry of the human race which extent, held prisoner cannot be broken so easily. Again makes us but a single community and a single family. it has never, perhaps, been the part of political wisdoM. to make an abrupt break; whether we like it or not, we 65. To be completely fair--and, I repeat, we have have to reckon with world realities. What is important heard much that was just and sensible said in this is to fight on resolutely and with a true sense of debate--we must obviously be extremely cautious when patriotism. Let there be an end to the paradox of it comes to judging or condemning any specific colonial political independence and economic dependence. At a situation. The responsibility of the colonial Powers is time when the end of colonialism is already a fact, not always seLf-evident, nor oanwe affirmapriori that perhaps our main concern should be, not so much to the Gevernments of those Powers must in all cases be issue a declaration which in the last analysis merely held answerable for the acts of their nationals. Many takes note of that fact, as toissuea warning that there noble efforts to guide social conduct along more will be no real end to colonialism while the peoples rational paths come up ags:inst indifference, prejudice enjoy no genuine and authentic freedom to dispose of or selfishness. Moreover, we are bound to say, not and exploit their natural wealth and resources for the everything stems from foreign oppression. Since benefit of their communities; while we must restcon. colonialism, in the sense of exploitation of human tent with the role of mere providers of raw materials beings, is a state of mind, there is national colonialism for the industrial Powers, and while we lack that as well as foreign colonialism. The exploitation of our minimum of seLf-sufficiency which, within the natural i h peoples by men of the same stock, by groups indifferent interdependence of nations, is the truest sign of full and to the requirements of the common good, is a moral genuine independence. and adverse fact, as adverse as colonialism itseLf; and, i( Iÿ be it said in passing, that situation of privilege and 68. An understanding of these truths, a generous atti- if:, i I: I injustice has always been the most effective ally of tude on the part of those who until yesterday were the :i: ! iI foreign interests in reducing the sovereignty of weak masters--by what right we need not consider nowmof and small nations to thraldom. the fate and wealth of vast areas of the world, is not iÿ !(i/I merely an attitude which moralitydictates butperhaps 66. Although independence and seLf-government rep- the one factor upon which, in the long run, the fate of i:l i i:I: resent the first objectives to be attained inthe process the free world depends. Whenever the free world !Iÿ iÿ of gaining freedom and eradicating colonialism, they clashes within itseLf, whenever the West betrays the are not the ultimate goal. The ultimate goal is indepen- great and imperishable principles which have sealed dence in the fullest sense of the word, independence the greatness of its culture, the West loses a battle; and which really makes us masters of our fate, indepen- every battle lost by the West is a battle lost for man; dence in each and every activity of the political com- for the values of the West-the freedom which Greece munity to which we belong. I readily acknowledge that bequeathed to us, the sense of law and order con- political independence may be a sine qua non for the tributÿd by the genius of Rome, the grace whereby achievement of this other independence; but itis not in Christianity transformed the temporal meaning of our itseLf enough, We, the peoples of Spanish America, know life--are, in one way or another, the values of mankind, a great deal about this. At any rate we know--and which are now threatened by atheistic and totalitarian perhaps our experience may be of some use in this reaction. If the West understands, there is nothing to debate-that political independence and the establish- fear, whatever triumphs the adversary may seem to ment of a country's own Government presuppose an gain. If the West does not understand, that lack of intelligent adaptation of legal forms to the sociological understanding, and not nuclear war, will be the real realities of that country. Speaking for a countrywhich, self-deStruction of mankind. like its fellows in America,was in the past perpetually 69. Mr. MARTINO (Italy) (translated from French): torn between ideal constitutions and real constitutions, The problem of the independence of Non-Self-Govern- between written constitutions and sociological con- ing Territories and colonial peoples has already, in the stitutions--happily, the conflict was settled in Uruguay past, been the subject of lively debate in which many more than fifty years ago--we can appreciate how im- contrasting views have been expressed. That is quite portant it is that the formulas through which free in- ill logical, for it is no accident that one of the main pur- i!:/i stitutions develop should be made to fit-not like a poses of this Organization, since it was established, has ready-made suit, but like one made to measure--the been to urge and to help Member States to lead the always complex conditions in which the Government is territories which they administer, and which have not ,ÿ (!ii! to function. Every country must, of course, experiment yet gained their independence, to the gradual aehieve- i J I with formulas for itself; but the goal must be the same" ment of that supreme aspiration of mankind. for all: to ensure that--subject to those basic princi- i i /ÿ ples, such as the sovereignty of the people and respect 70. The freedom of peoples is now the central pre- for fundamental human rights, which have absolute occupation of the human race. We live in an age marked validity regardless of the situation--the institutions are by continual changes in the relations between peoples- adaptedto the real structure of the country. Otherwise These changes are partly the effect of extraordinarY independence leads to chaos, and chaos reverts to technical progress, but it is not only technical progreSS colonialism or to spurious forms of political govern- which unites the thoughts and interests of men ann ment which, as experience has shown,are always used which now allows no man to live separate from his §37th meeting i 6 December 1960 1165

Technical progress is a creation of the human historical reality of the hour and the true meaning and and its inventions are the fruit of ideals. Teeh- responsibilities of their mission. Within this veryAs- is therefore bound to obey moral and sembly, several representatives of territories which demands. were until recently non-seN-governing, have acknowl- edged this fact and have openly declared themselves Whatever may be the motives which have led a of the Assembly to request this debate, we satisfied with the work done by the administering the initiative as a useful one. It further demon- countries, with which, in several cases, the new coun- tries have relations of close co-operation. A few the importance which this problem has acquired ld is, to moments ago I referred to the concern which this ce- the urgent need to seek a solution. The present, has its roots in the past, is dominated by a operation may cause. Yet, although we recognize that such a concern is legitimate in certain cases, we can m it unifying force. We are moving towards unity. only consider the tendency to oppose such co-operation at is i Italy is convinced that, because of its recent ex- as the most serious threat to the development of the true its awareness of present problems and the Lhe former colonial peoples. These peoples feela deep de- .oval of its action in the territories it once sire for renewalma desire which shouldnotbea cause pendenee it is in a position to speak objectively, to .of separation and inevitable conflict, but should, as a Llready a passions and to make a fair assessment of the rule, lead to closer understanding and more fruitful aot so aspects of the problem, without any attempt at and lasting co-operation. If there is to be such an lalysis exaltation or ideological or political ex- understanding, it is essential that both sides should aing that I believe I can say truly that the Italian quickly free themselves of all remnants of resentment [le the pec to its own great satisfaction, playeda part and regret. to the development of the countries for whose govern- ourees for. and administration it was responsible. This is 76. When we speak of colonization, it is necessaryto must out by the cordial relations of trust and cc- emphasize, not only its executive aspects, but also the raw that have been established with the States spiritual values and forces which it eventually suc- .ÿ we lack were once under Italian trusteeship or which ceeded in releasing. This is exactly what the dis- bin Italian colonies, tinguished representative of Uruguay did a few mo- ments ago. K. M. Panikkar, the Indian author of Asia We are also convinced that nothing is more likely and Western Dominance, which is regarded as the lead to useful results, in the best interests of all sternest indictment of the colonizingWest, once, in the than sincere technical and economic co- course of a lecture emphasizedIndia's debttothe West nsider Some are strongly critical of such c o-operaÿ in terms which may perhaps apply to all former e world, between countries which have just gained their colonial peoples. He said tlmt social reform in Hindu and their former administrators. They society, the raising of the untouchables and the pro- un, the of nec-colonialism, condemning it as a sequel to foundly significant purification of Hinduism, all of he free substitute for past colonial exploitation. Even if we which were greater and more lasting things than even 3st understand and appreciate the reasons the independence of India, were reflections of that ch have these charges, we should resist the temptation to country's western heritage. The organization of the them indiscriminately. Such a generalization democratic and secular State, the structure of its in- lost for only be completely unjustified, it wouldalso stitutions and the political principles on which it was t which dangerous. It might be used as a pretext by those based were essentially European in inspiration. md order are in no way concerned lest such co-operation 77. As in all human history, goodis inseparable from grace hinder peaceful progress towards the indepen- meaning of the former colonial countries, but who are evil and must always combat it. It is to be hoped that zes of and afraid that such co-operation might be the countries whichhave gained their independence will md obstacle to the euslavement and ideoIogieal domina- find in themselves the strength to rejectboththe bond- re is of these peoples-.by those who fan the flames of age of their recent past, whichstillbears the germs of pride, in the hope that thework of re- distrust and resentmentÿ and the repeated and tempting take the form of an anti-western movement incitements of those who would gain by their isolation ill be an attack on certain ways of life, rather than on which would place them more completely at their peoples. mercy. But it is also desirable that the peoples of the West should understand that their task does not end from This shows the delicate nature and the imporimnce where the independence of colonial countries begins. question we are discussing today. The Italian The assistance Which the more advanced countries firmly convinced that every possible ef- should give to the less developednations isnot a com- be madeto ensure that the debate will lead to plete moral and political solution. The peoples of the . It can obvious ly have West must play a part in the creative efforts of the objective, the ending in all continents, of all newly self-governing countries, to their full capacity of rule over one people by another; no other and with a firm resolve to understand the full meaning would be justified. But, ff we are to achieve of those efforts and to further them with a view to by the most suitable means, we must making joint progress. assess what "Tÿas been done in the past to the lndo, end, and we must then look towards the future, 78. In this survey of the problem before us , we cannot made a correct and intelligent assessment of forget the part which the United Nations, through its he central: organs, has played in this emancipation process,par- an age ticularly at the moment of accession to independence. believe that several forces have helped to de- The Trusteeship Council has certainly done excellent and to accelerate the emancipation of colonial work from every point of view. The work of the Com- true,as the representative of Lebanon mittee on Information from Non-Self-Governing Ter- Said, that this process was helped and furthered by ritories has increased our understanding of many of those countries which understood the situations, especially in the economic, social and oul- 1166 General Assembly -- Fifteenth Session -- Plenary Meetings

tural sectors and with regard to the rate of develop- 81. There is no need for me to recall the principles ment towards political independence. In this con- enunciated in Chapters XI and XII of the Charter, but I nexion may we also point out that, if we consider the think it may be useful to point out that these principles various fields of international co-operation provided set two essential tasks for the United Nations. for in the Charter of the United Nations, we will find 82. The first is to encourage and promote inthe best that the same results and the same progress have not possible way the further development of Non-Self. been achieved in each of these sectors in the fifteen Governing or Trust Territories whichhavenotreached r years of our Organization's life. However, as far as the the finaI stage of their political development. This does fi Non-Self-Governing Territories and the trusteeship not mean, however, that attainment of this objective C system are concerned, remarkable progress has been necessarily entails the creation of new national en- Y made, possibly even exceeding the initial expectations. tities. Certain territoriesmit is true--because of their 8 I shall not pause here to repeat the list of admittedly limited size or population, do not have the necessary extraordinary achievements which the representative resources to become independent States. However, in of the United Kingdom [925th meeting] quoted to us on such cases, it is necessary at least to provide for the first day of our debate. Those facts and figures are special forms of self-government, in association with in any case well known to all Members of the United the metropolitan country or with other adjoining coun- Nations. The number and population of the Non-Self- tries. Such forms of government are in keeping with Governing Territories are today a very small fraction the United Nations Charter, which envisaged them as a of what they were in 1945. The progress made hi the natural conclusion of the development of Non-Self. Trust Territories has been no less rapid anddecisive. Governing Territories. It seems to us indisputable, after what I have just said, that the Non-Self-Governing Territories have come a 83. The second task facing the United Nations todayis that of selecting the best means ofhelpingthose coun- ,/,( ,, long way in the last fifteen years. The United Nations must take the credit for this development, especially tries which have only recently become independent for the gradual and orderly way in which it has been because, as I said before, political independence is 1 achieved. Experience has shown that the principles only one stage in the present complex process of devel- enunciated in Chapters XI, XII and XIII of the Charter opment. Forms of economic co-operation with these were inspired by very wise and wellbalancedviews. It countries will become increasingly necessary, as will is those principles that have guided our action, and we also forms of political co-operation, which may fre- feel flint it is in thatwe should seek inspiration for the quently prove effective in a regional framework. Co- decisions we must take in this debate. operation on a basis of trust, between the more developed and industrialized countries and the less 79. We also believe that our most important task is developed ones may be the best means of furthering to look beyond the simple question of independence. The development in the political field. This co-operation achievement of political independence by the new coun- may be based on technical assistance, commercial tries should be a stage rather than a goal, although it interests and economic co-operation. As well as eco- is, of course, a very important stage. Independence nomic relations, cultural relations can also make a should not give rise to disorder and chaos. It should considerable contribution to a later development not mean political and economic isolation. It shouldnot towards more perfect forms of political self-govern- cause sudden imbalances and, above all, it should not ment. provide an occasion for friction or controversy. I said 84. We have heard in this Assembly of the cultural that the emancipation of peoples still ruledby or under enslavement of colonial peoples. I should like to point trusteeship of another country was the main goalwhich out that culture is an end and not a means. Political we should set ourselves. But that task, arduous and institutions, as the poet T. S. Eliot says, are the things ambitious though it may be, does not exhaust the role that are built, but culture is something that grows. It the United Nations has to play. The essential task of is not possible to build it, just as it is not possible to the Organization is to defend peace and put an end to build a tree. Hence there can be no true cultural en- war as a means of setÿling disputes between peoples. slavement. Only people deprived of their freedom can To this end, we must fightthe causes of war, which are take what is often called unilateral education to be poverty, slavery and ignorance. It is essential to es- culture. The life of the mind is a perpetual synthesis, tablish living conditions which are by nature peaceful, bringing together and developing various ideas, and and forces for peace. It is therefore indispensable to conditions of fredom are necessary to this synthesis. create, in the social structure of the various peoples, If such conditions do not exist, we maytruly say there conditions more conducive to understanding and co- is enslavement; but we cannot speak of culture. operation, to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights and in the dignity and worth of the human person, 85. AS I mentioned atthe openingofmystatement, the and to promote social progress andbetter standards of forces which have encouraged the process of develop- life in larger freedom. ment that has already taken place in a large number of countries, and which are the ones that will inevitably 80. The circmnstances of eachpeople being different, determine future progress, have not affected all geo- so also is their capacity to participate in the common graphical areas in the same degree. These signs of effort needed to establish peace as a part of civiliza- development, in whichwe take pride, and which have led tion. All peoples, however, have a dutyto contribute to to the formation of new States whiehare now Members the best of their ability. That is why the new idea of of the United Nations, have not appeared in certain collective solidarity, which is reflected in the United areas. In certain cases we have even seen movementS Nations Charter and replaces the earlier antagonism in the opposite direction, towards the enslavementand created when the more advancednations took control of foreign domination of peoples who once were free. It is the less-developed countries, is an essential part of clear that the historic expansion known as colonialism, our Organization's activity and one of the most suitable which occurred essentially in the eighteenth andnine" instruments for the maintenance of world peace. teenth centuries, was not confined to the countries of 937th meeting ÿ 6 December 1960 1167

Europe. Other countries played their part in it, inter-ocean canal in Latin America and its economic Tsarist Russia which extepded its power be- policy towards the Latin-American nations is in its to the frontiers of China, into the very nature, structure and objectives, typically colonialist. )f widely different territories and peoples. Even If we proclaimed the abolition of all vassal status in in the centre of Asia, we have witnessed ex- all continents where it survives in one form or another, e inthe best:: moves with all the Painful oppression and the Year of Africa might reach a glorious culmination ff Non-Self,: sion they entail, which have been made in de- as the Year of the Liberation of Humanity. This is not not reached of the traditional freedoms of the Tibetan people. a flight of fantasy. Sueha proelamationwouldbe an act nt. This does states of eastern and northern Europe, which of free will depending exclusively on the representa- fis objective were still free, have now losttheir freedom. tives of the peoples of the United Nations. national ezi.,iÿI ause oÿ their !: We cannot remain indifferent to the fate of these 91. Colonialism is the most shameful survival of a Any declaration or resolution whichwe are to e rÿgime of mercantile expansion and of a geographical However,! cannot concern only some other continent; it shift of political power spurred on first and foremost provide be regarded as being equally valid in every by the prospect of boundless wealth. This rÿgime and ciation, of the earth, where peoples stillllveunder any the remaining vestiges of it have now come into funda- boining coup. of foreign oppression, even if such oppression is mental contradiction with contemporary society's need or consists only of a Hm_itation of their in- keeping with: for development and progress. They are dying before ed themÿ dependence. our very eyes. They are doomed to destruction. Even f 87. The Italian delegation hopes that this debate will though mortally wounded, however, the Leviathan that to an agreement which is the result of enlightened is colonialism still possesses sufficient strength and ecb:ve considerations, not of acrimonious at- sufficient means to prolong its last gaspingbreathand ,ÿ those comi. to disturb the atmosphere of international re- its death-threes. It also has before it the alternative independent ii We are bound to distrust the Soviet Union's of peacefully surrendering a degrading but highly pendence i because it is clear that they are designed to profitable dominion which will be snatched away from ssof the hatred and resentment of former colonial it at the eleventh hour by the inexorable laws of history. )n against their previous rulers and to excite This alternative was given to it by the General As- sary, in order to turn their energies to the sembly when by acclamation [903rd meeting] it ap- [ch may of the Soviet Union. Its initiative is too proved the allocation to the plenary meetings of the !ÿework. ( designed to serve Soviet propaganda pur- item "Declaration onthe granting of independence to the n the to be favourably viewed by this Assembly. It is colonial countries and peoples", proposed by the Union and the a clumsy attempt to make the germs of distrust of Soviet Socialist Republics; and in the face of this of in order to separaie the Westfrom the alternative there is no room for compromises or half- who have recently emerged to independence and measures. The time has come for straightforward them under the ideological andpolitical domi- statements, not for circumlocution. The time has come well as of the Soviet Union. to put the finishing touches on the process of eman- also cipation of the peoples, not to retard it. Cuba is utterly On the other hand, my delegation does view with at variance with those who, demagogically donningthe the initiative taken by a gronp of African-Asian Phrygian cap, have tried to light a resplendent candle Which has submitted for our eonsiderationa to the god of colonialism and a feeble one to the devil and constructive draft resolution [A/L.S2S the of anti-doloniallsm. And since iris impossible to serve We sincerely appreciate its aim, even t.f both God and Mammon, what they serve , objectively, is . llke have some doubts regarding the manner in which colonialism and what they are trying to undermine, sub- LBS. points in the declaration are expressed. The jectively, is anti-colonialism. Trying to appear subtle, re the delegation fervently hopes that any final text the they turn out to be heavy-handed. It is understandable hat may approve will mention the results al- t that the instigators and beneficiaries of the colonial achieved and our gratitude to the United Nations system should resort to subterfuge, phantasy and dis- , cultural which have laboured most effectively with sembling; what is not understandable is that those who freedom ( of which we can rightly be proud. in the past have suffered its crudest manifestations, marion to and even those who are still suffering them in dis- Looking ahead, the most important task is to en- guised form, should do so too. ideas, a more rapid development of the Territories Lis still non-self-governing. But this should be 92. The unconditional and immediate abbHtion of uly in an orderly and peaceful manner, in inter- colonialism in all its forms and manifestations--that is ulture. co-operation. This is the goal we must set what Cuba demands of this historic debate. How could in this debate. Cuba take any other stand without betraying itself, the tatement, t tradition of Bolfvar and the peopleswhoare straggling S Mr. ROA (Cuba) (translated from Spanish): This heroically to win self-determination, independence, ge been called, with more than ample justifica- sovereignty and dignity? How could a people which, in 411 the Year of Africa. In the course of 1960, sixteen the flesh and in the spfrit, has suffered without respite cted all countries have attained independence and are tlie colonial system of Spain and the imperialistic hese sharing in the duties and responsibilities of the domination of the United States take any other stand? This year shouldalso be the Year of the LOW of Independence for all colonial cmmtries 93. It is worth placing this on record. Three years d in The majority of the peoples and countries ago, Cuba would not have been able to speak in the subjugated beneath the yoke of colonialism are to straighÿforwardÿ upright manner it uses today. Three found in Africa. There are also countries and years ago, the true voice of Cubawasnot heard in this in colonial status in Asia and Oceania, while universal forum of the nations. The flatulent tones of European Powers still have colonial establish- the docile, muffled and obsequious voice of its official Latin America. The United States has pos- representatives reflected a state of internationalvas- dependencies, leased territories and an salage which gave the lie to the bogus independence and 1168 General Assembly -- Fifteenth Session -- Plenary Meetings

sovereignty of the Cuban State. According to its of- its desire for domination. The questioning spirit,held ficial political and juridical structure, Cuba was a back for ten centuries by the brake of sc.holasticisaÿ republic and possessed the formal attributes of in- thrust forward into all fields and expanded the horizorÿ dependence and sovereignty: a flag, a shield, an anthem, of scientific knowledge. The clock conquered tirae; the a separate colour on the map, and a seat in inter- tele s eope, space; the experimental method, nature; the national organizations. But its voice in those organiza- compass, the sea; the machine,production; rationalist tions was mere mlmicry, an echo pure and simple of philosophy, the conscience of man. The acquisitive the political, economic, military and diplomatic in- J spirit and the lust for expansion, spurred on by this terests of a foreign Power. Its voice sounded with extraordinary adventure of the mind and impelled by borrowed accents. It was not Cuba which spoke, but the beckoning gleam of precious metals, was soon imperialism. Colonies, where they are officially crystallized in commercial operations, mercantile acknowledged, have nothing to say. Where they exist in enterprises and agencies for exploiting the ÿrr__rÿ_ÿa ÿ. disguise, they speak with a voice not their own. And coÿ which was taken over by the great maritime now, because Cuba has for ever ceased to be a colony Powers of the time, especiallySpain, England, Holland, and effectively exercises its own self-determination Portugal and France, by a process similar to the trans. and sovereignty, the voice of its official representa- formation of territorial revenues into monetarywealth. tives is the clear, full, deep voiceofits people and its Government, merged for the first time in our history, 97. The main source of the political power and eco. in a dynamic community of thought and action. Since the nomic potential of the rising merchant class was its fourteenth regular session, which coincided with the huge profits derived from the pillaging of the colonies, glorious year of its Hberation,thisnew Cuba has given from mass slavery and from the systematic depletion clear and firm proof of the independence of its foreign of the soil and sub-soil of the territories which had policy. Cubaÿlet it be said at once--supports allparts been discovered, conquered and subjugated. "We have of the draft declaration submitted by the Soviet Union become rich", wrote Werner Sombart, "because whole [A/4502]. peoples and races have died on our account; on our account, whole continents have been decimated., Here 94. At this stage of the debate, itwouldbe idle to enter in a few words is summed up the real essence of into the history of colonialism or to refer to its de- colonialism, which had, and still has, its theoreticians predations, its perfidies, its outrages and its oppor- and its apologists skilled in the art of making "spiritual tunism. The task of refreshing the memory of those who values" tally with highly lucrative necessities. Lang- find it convenient to disguise themselves as innocent uage and religion, education and culture were tools angels has already been undertaken in a dramatic used to twist the minds of the subjugated peoples, recital of injuries and facts andflgures byrepresenta- psychological devices for castrating any urge tobreak tires of peoples whose backs, torn by the claws of away, just as highways and hospitals, railways and colonial exploitation, still bear mute witness to their factories tended and still tend to increase the produc- wounds, suffering and brutal treatment. But what we tivity of forced labour and total returns. This was and must not fail to emphasize is the true nature, the real is the total achievement of the "civilizing mission" of motives and the specific aims of the colonial system. the colonialandadministering Powers. Their education Cuba has lived in the monsterrs maw, and it has a and indoctrination is for slavery,not for freedom; they moral obligation to reveal it to the world. exploit the resources and wealth of other people for themselves, not for the peoples who produce them in 95. Colonialism is the legitimate child oftheprofound labour, sweatand poverty. and sweeping changes that took place in the economic structure of European society during the fifteenth, 98. In this respect, Cuba the Spanish eolony, andCuba sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and of their con- the American colony, nurses bitter experience in comitant repercussions on political, juridical, social, plenty. But it has always been able to keep the social religious and cultural life. Renaissance humanism--the root of the crime and the historical background of the evocation of the uomo singolare in a society rent in- oppression separate from the people in whose name ternally-is the fine flower of the tempestuous advent and on whose behalf they were committed. Thus,when of modern capitalism, and the spring-like flowering of it took its stand against the colonial domination of ideal societies that went with it, starting with Thomas Spain, it stated clearly that the war was against Spanish Morets Utopia, was a denunciation in advance of its "domination and not against the Spanish people, just as miseries, degradations, inequalities, performances, it has established, with equal clarity, that its struggle eonfflcts, wars and revolutions. This new societywhich for emancipation from the colonial domination of the rose victorious from the crackling embers of feudal- United States is directed against the instigators,bene- ism, rested on the more and more pronounced pre- ficiaries and agents, and not against the American dominance of merchants, money-lenders, bankers, people, despite the fact that their wealth, power and entrepreneurs, and ship-owners. Its emblem was the standard of living are in large measure based on class system; its instrument, the Graeco-Roman cul- colonialist and imperialistic exploitation. In the last tnre; its oracle, nature; its Archimedean lever, tech- analysis, the people do not share the responsibilities nology; its desire, the chimera of gold; its cry, liberty; contracted by their governing castes towards the in- its fetish, trade; and its criterion of truth, quantitative exorable justice of history. This principle affords evaluation. ample ground for fruitful co-operation in the future between the former colonial peoples and the former 96. The dynamics ofthenewconstellationofeconomic colonialist peoples on the basis of mutual respects interests, social relations, political forms and tables mutual benefit and absolute equality. The daywill come of ethical values which accompanied this prodigious when both, prompted by identity of interests, needs, upheaval required, before it could take root and grow, values and aspirations in a world in which the free the freedom of labour, of markets and of expansion, development of each is the condition for the free devel- and also the unlimited assistance of science andtech- opment of all, will consider colonialism, imperialism nology to stimulate its rate of development and satisfy and thermo-nuclear war as the most abhorrent and 937th meeting ÿ 6 December 1960 1169 f of harassment, intrigue, compulsion, threats, sub- : spiritlhed primitive form of life in the days before the advent of olasticisÿ t, bunÿn coexistence. version and aggression waged by the U.S. Department the horizoI S of State, the Pentagon and the American monopolies I must stress this point. The peoples who have red time; tl e with the crude aim of breaking the Cuban people by subjugated and exploited in the name of civiliza- [, nature; tl e force and making them surrender through hunger. And tion were just as civilized in the sociological meaning L; rationaliÿ it if this is not proof enough, youhave only to look at the of the word as their self-appointed tutors--and in some acquisitiÿ e Congo which was for a time a former Belgian colony important aspects, far more so. Some were the reposi- d on by ÿ s and is today the coveted prey fought over by those in tories of ancient and lofty cultures, like China and impelled I y temporary allianceÿits former colonizers and neo- India. When the ancestors of the English were still 3, was so( ll colonialism whose main driving force is American climbing trees--as Julius Caesar records inhis Com- mercantile imperialism. mentaries-the Chinese were already living in cities, he ÿ. st maritime were politically organized in an empire, had dis- 102. The plot against the self-determination, in- rid, Holland, covered gunpowder and couldprint the writings of their dependence and sovereignty of the Congo, towhich this ;o the trans: philosophers, poets and statesmen. Yet that same Organization is unfortunately no stranger, is an un- china, which set standards for the world and today, 'tarywealth. equivocal sign of eoloniaHsm's stubborness in continu- rejuvenated, is waging a bitter struggle for self- ing by other means the economic exploitation and er and eco. determination, independence and unity, is denied its political domination of the territories and peoples lass was its rightful place in this Assembly throughthe pressure of which have apparently been freed. Colonialism is mori- the colonies, the colonial Powers which in former times usurpedits bund; but even so, like Proteus, it can assume new tie depletion wealth. forms and overtly or covertly reconquer its privileges s which had and reimpose its exactions. Before our very eyes, the d. "We have 100. In India, religion and culture had reached re- neocolonialists and imperialists have destroyed the le levels centuries before Socrates broughthis .ÿeause whole constitutional structure of the Congo, deposed penetrating wisdom to the market.places of Athens and ount; on our Lumumba, conferred autocratic powers on Mobutu, before Jesus and his disciples, in persecution and luted,n Here recognized the secession of Tshombe and given its full 1 essence of poverty, had founded Christianity. Ceylon, Indonesia support to Kasa-Vubu after the latter had capitulated to and Burma, like many other Asian nations, have an eoretieians their evil designs. Neocolonialism and imperialism eminent position in the history of human culture. Egypt, tg "spiritual have again planted the boot on the Congo. At this the age-old cradle of a complex and makuÿe civiliza- ities. Lang. moment, the Congo is the victim of intervention. The tion, made a decisive contribution, through the Minoan were tools self-determination, independence, sovereignty, unity, civilization, to the advent of that ever-glorious triumph Led peoples, security and peace of Africa are in danger; and inter- d the human spirit, the "Greek miracle% The Arabs, urge to break national peace and security is also in danger. The who created a unique civilization and preserved the ailways and arrest, derision and abuse of Lumumba by Mobutu's wisdom of Greece and Rome, revivified and enriched the pr oduc: Praetorian guard and his probable execution at the with priceless contributions the apathetic and turbid Vhis was and bidding of neocolonialism and imperialism constitute a currents of Western thought. Its imprint on Spanish missionw of flagrant attack on the right of peoples anda portent of culture and on the Renaissance still sheds a brilliant ;Jr education tragic times to come. The life of Lumumba,the right- light. Preserved in the sub-soil of the plains of Black • eedom; they ful Prime Minister of the Congo and the indomitable Africa there are vestiges of ancient and highly- r people for leader of the Congolese people, hangs by a thread and developed cultures which have been mysteriously lost [uce them in the responsibility for saving it rests upon the United or have disappeared; and that continentmaywellboast Nations. The Revolutionary Government of Cuba has of its vivid folklore, its rich patrimony of art forms, given me express instructions to press for rapid, ny, and Cuba its priceless contribution to the universal culture,and energetic and effective action before it is too late. perience in above all, its burning passion for liberty, whichis the 'p the social highest possible form of cultural expression when 103. Some representatives have deplored the scant round of the slavery is the mode of life. Cuba, though geographically attention that has been paid in this debate to the vesti- whose name located in the Western hemisphere and a Spanish- ges and methods of colonialism in Latin America; but , Thus, when speaking country, prides itself on the African sap which I have been surprised to see that in their indictments ,mination of strengthens and colours its folklore, its art, its culture, the majority have merely asked for the abolition of the inst Spanish its religion and its national development. European colonies and have omitted mention of the pÿe, just ae colonial dependencies of the United States and its its struggle 101. The international landmarks of the "civilizing colonialist policy in our hemisphere. They have also ation of the missionw of colonialism and imperialism--the same forgotten the Panama Canal, the Guantÿnamo Naval ators, bene- process of economic exploitationandpolitiealdomina- Base and the Swan Islands. I should like to give this e American tion carried one stage further--are called by sadly subject the urgent attention it deserves. t, power and familiar names: Overseas provinces, Holy Alliance, re based on Ionroe doctrine, Manifest destiny, Platt Amendment, Mr. Boland (Ireland) resumed the Chair. . In the last Spheres of influence, Reciprocal agreements, Open- onsibilities; door policyÿ Dollar diplomacy, War debts, Pro., 104. The PRESIDENT: I am sorry to interrupt the ards the in- ctorates, Quota system, Tariffprivileges, Mandates, Foreign Minister of Cuba, but a point of order has been iple affords Private investments, Associated free State, Dumping, ..raised from the floor. I calluponthe representative of n the futÿ Guantfmamo Naval base, Trusts, North Atlantic Treaty Honduras, on a point of order. [ the former Organization, South-East Asia Treaty Organization, al respect,: 3entral Intelligence Agency. These landmarkS have 105. Mr. MILLA BERMUDEZ (Honduras) (translated aywill come a source of friction, violence, rapine, and wars from Spanish): I protest at the implication that the Islas ests imperialists. They are at present the major del Cisne, or Swan Islands, are a United States colony. [ch the flee :: Obstacles to the independent development of the eman- The fact of the matter is that these islands are Hon- free devel- Cipated peoples, the launching-platforms for neo- duran territory. They have been illegally and ar- Colonialism and the worst enemies of international bitrarily occupied by the United States, but Iwill never horrent Peace and security. A good proof of this is the policy tolerate their being described as a United States colony. 1170 General Assembly ÿ Fifteenth Session ÿ Plenary Meetings

106. The PRESIDENT: I would ask Members of the lution, and there is nothing to add. I do propose, howÿ Assembly, when they ask for the floor on a point of ever, to make a few comments on the Guantÿnalno order, to do so only when the point they have to raise Naval Base. It is true that the territory on Which the is one of order. Other points maybedealt with by way Base is situated was leasedtothe United States for the of the right of reply; but the right to intervene on a incredible sum of ÿo thousand dollars a year, Under point of order exists only where there is a point of article VIH of the Platt Amendment, the Treaty of order involved. Relations and the agreements signed in 1903. It is equally true, however, that no civil contract or inter. 107. I ask the Foreign Minister of Cuba to be good national treaty is complete unless the parties thereto , enough to resume. negotiate on an equal footing and are allowed free ex- 108. Mr. ROA (Cuba) (tÿanslated from Spanish): I pression of their wishes. The Platt Amendment was a should like to point out to the representative of Hon- law approved by the United States Congress and ira. duras that I fully share his point ofview. As far as we posed on the Cuban Constituent Convention in a terri. are concerned, the Swan Islands belong to Honduras, tory under military occupation: The lease first granted but they are occupied arbitrarily by the United States , under article VIH of that Amendment is therefore null which considers them as a colony, and that is a dif- and void under international law. The Naval Base, the ferent matter. outcQme of the most outrageous chicanery, undermines the territorial integrity of the Cuban State and consti. 109. To define the United States as an imperialist tutes a threat to the security of the island, placing it at power is tautology indeed, since in this case what is the mercy of the warlike adventures and disputes of the defined constitutes the definition. The history of the United States. Furthermore, it is today a focus of United States is, for the mostpart, the history of its conspiracy, provocation and subversion against the territorial expansion at the expense of Spainand Latin Government and people of Cuba. America and of its exploitation of the natural re- sources of peoples living between the Rio Grande and 112. It should not surprise us that the United States Patagonia. This ambitious design of expansion and Government considers as its own property a territory supremacy was conceived in the very earliest days of which it usurped fraudulently and which therefore does the independence of the thirteen colonies. Jefferson, not belong to it. imperialist countries think that wher. Madison and John Quincy Adams were its first prophets ever they set foot the soil belongs to them. They be- and exponents. From Adams came the theory of the lieve, too, that they can utilize the air space of other ripe fruit--according to the law of political gravity, nations as though it were their own preserve without Cuba must inevitably fall into the lap of the Union; and exposing the inhabitants of their own country to the likewise from Adams, who imitated the Englishman danger and destruction that might result from the Canning while thwarting his cunning, came the Monroe explosion of their erratic missiles over the territory doctrine, which may be summed up in the motto: ÿRest of others, as has just happened in the eastern region of of the world, hands off America; free hand for the Cuba. Nor is it surprising that President Eisenhower United States.n This unilateral doctrine, ostensibly finally threw off the mask before world public opinion, directed against hypothetical reeonquests by the Holy and from the "bag of stinging adders" kept by the Alliance, and in fact applied to prevent Cuba from United States Government to combat democracy, anti- liberating itself from Spain ff it was not acquired or colonialism and socialism produced $1 milliontosub- annexed by the United States, converted the whole of sidize the subversive activities of Cubanwar criminals Latin America, without its consent and to the detriment and counter-revointionaries, in defiance and disregard of its unity, development and emancipation, into a of the United Nations Charter and of international sphere of North American influence, thanks to the use, juridical order in the Americas. as a political weapon with an obvious purpose, of dollar diplomacy, hemispheric isolation, and international 113. The Revolutionary Government of Cuba solemnly intimidation. Under the protection of this colonialist repeats to the United Nations GeneralAssemblythatit doctrine and its imperialist corollaries the Govern- has not intendedand does not intend to reclaim by force ment of the United States, with the close co-operation that part of its national territory occupied by the Guantÿnamo Naval Base. It also repeats, howeve r, with of Latin-American dictators and oligarchies, opened up the way for its merchants,bankers and corporations equal solemnity that it intends to usk for the return of ] in their economic exploitation of our under-developed, the Base, when it deems the time appropriate, under the I rules of international law. Consequently and for the unarmed and disunited peoples. time being it considers that claim tobe covered by the 110. Among these corollaries may be mentioned in declaration proposed by the Union of Soviet Socialist connexion with Cuba the Platt Amendment, the Treaty Republics [A/4502] and by the draft resolution sub- defining the relations between the United States and mitred by a number of African-Asian countries (A/ Cuba, the compulsory lease of the Guantÿnamo Naval L.323 and Add.l-5]. Base, treaties of reciprocal aid, the sugar agreement, 114. For four centuries Puerto Rico was under the public service monopolies andmining concessions; and Spanish yoke. For more than halfa eenturyit has been in connexion with Lal2n America the occupation of under United States domination. Puerto Rico, the smal- Puerto Rico, the control of the Panama Canal zone and lest island of the Greater Antilles, a stable country with the exploitation of natural resources, the control of a cultural tradition, a history, a seasoned personality marketS, leonine leans and investments of the colonial and a national consciousness all its own, has not yet type, throughout Latin America. been able to take its place among the American States. 111. So far as Cuba is concerned, Prime Minister Endowed with all the attributes of a nation, the people Fidel Castro made a very acute and shrewd analysis of whom Josÿ Martf helped to gain their freedom to- the devastating consequences of the political domina- gether with ours are the only American people of iron and economic exploiSatiun of the country by the Spanish origin who, in spite of their unshakable will for United States uptothe time of the trtumph of our Revo- independence, have never been free. That is there 937th meeting -- 6 I3ecember 1960 1171 monwcalth of Puerto Rico approved by the United bse, ]low. ; oln'ÿ,nartieularly a drama by shared those by who all nationslive in the of our area America of the States Congress. When the matter was brought before 1ÿe.ÿ The catastrophic fall of Josÿ Martf and the it the Fourth Committee decided by 22 votes to 18, hieh the !ÿ-ÿ:ÿntion of the United States in the Spanish-Cuban with 19 abstentions to refer it to the General Asÿ s for the ;iwhen the liberators of my eountrywere already at sembly.ÿ When the item was before the General As- r, Rlldeÿ ,ÿ gates of the capital of the colony and the Spanish sembly the United States representative made an of_ treaty oÿ nY was practically routed, changed the destiny of ficial declarationÿ-/guaranteeing that ff at any time the 03. It is : ÿa and Puerto Rico. On 25 July1898 the vanguard of Legislative Assembly of Puerto Rico adopted a resolu- or.llltelÿ C occupation army landed at Guÿnlca. General Nelson tion in favour of independence the Executive would s thereto iles, Commander-in-Chief of the expeditionary immediately thereafter recommend to Congress that free ex. 0tees, declared emp]mtically that the people of the such independence be granted. The General Assembly snt Was a niÿed States had come to Puerto Rico in the name of was favourably impressed by that declaration and andS. uÿnity and justice, bearing the banner of freedom agreed [resolution 748 (VIII)] to relieve the United = a terÿi. States of the obligation to submit annual information in d inspired by a noble purpose. And the joint resolu- i: it granted accordance with Article 73 e of the Charter. The under- 0n of the United States Congress proclaimed thatthe (i sforenull taking was violated, in connivance with the United ,? Base, the people of Cuba were and had the right to be free and dependent. In spite of that emphatic Statement and the States Government, by the Legislative Assembly of i dermines undertaking of the joint resolution, Cuba was Puerto Rico and, against the sovereign will of its Id consti. ken over temporarily and the Platt Amendment was people, the smallest of the Great Antilles is today a oclng it at posed. And Puerto Rico was handed over as the dependent territory. Ltes of ÿe Bpoils of war to the United States Government and sub- focus of 117. Like every colonial nation, the people of Puerto .ÿinst the jested to an absolutlst r6gime which was to convert it Rico have no power to speak for themselves in inter- t0 a military outpost and'an area of dispute. national bodies. Those who speak officially on their The mask of the neivilizing missionÿ was of behalf do not and cannot represent them. The Cuban Led States 0urse intended to cover UP the real aim of nascent delegation, in renewal of the pact of Josÿ Martf, in- territory united States imperialism. The Puerto Ricans, as in terprets the voice and spirit of Puerto Rico and re- fore does rlier times the Indians, the Chinese, the Egyptians, quests the General Assembly in its name and on its ,hatwher. the Arabs, the Sudanese, the Nigerians, the Ghanaians, behalf to uphold the just claim and right of Puerto Rico They be. e Burmese, the Ceylonese, the Indonesians, the to be a constituent nation by granting it absolute self- s of other Gÿlueans and the Congolese, were not yet ready for determination, independence and sovereignty. fe without elf-government and the exercise of their sovereignty. 118. At this critical juncture in the history of the try to the They needed a prolonged paternalistic education, to United Nations Cuba reaffirms emphatically its anti- / from the forget their past, to deny their culture,to debase their territory colonialist position. My delegation will vote without nguage and toaccept joyfully as a promise of future reservations in favour of the memorable declaration region of bass, the self-righteous trusteeship of their generous submitted by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics isenhower redeemers. Beveridge said as much when he stated and will carefully study the draftresotution}ÿponsored e opinion, t the United States war against Spain was the great pt bythe by a number ef Afrlÿan-Asian emmtrleÿ.,reÿervtugltÿ purpose of Godmanifested in the instincts of the Anglc- right to make at ,the appropriate tlme the serious conÿ- aey, anti- xon race; its immediate phase representedpersonal ments which it deserves. [ on to sub- gain, but the final end was the ehrlstianization of ! criminals humanity. It had to be so, since theywere dealing with 119. Interpreting the feeling of peoples and countries disregard a nraeinlly inferiors people, of different culture, pro- which desire but have not yet been able to secure srnational riding cheap labour and able to produce sugar plenti- freedom, ÿud especially the spirit of the intrepid, self- Mly at low cost. To be a colony of plantations and the less and invincible warriors of Algeria, brothers in bLÿek market of imperialism was the manifest destiny courage and ideals of the Cuban guerrillas of the Sierra t solemnly Maestra, my delegation proposes thatwe de not abandon ably that it of Puerto Rico. It became apparent that the Puerto ican people had simply changed masters; and the new this debate until we have broken the last links in the a by force' chain of colonialism. i l .ed by ..the roster was still more hateful than the old because he ever, with brought enslavement in the name of freedom. AS was 120. Mr. JAWAD (Iraq): This is indeed a historic and return of 0nly natural, from bewilderment they passed abruptly momentous occasion. At long last, the General As- under the b perplexity, from perplexity to confusion, from con- sembly has been given the opportunity to consider and Ii nd for the fusion to scepticism, from scepticism to desperation, to pi-onounce its opinion clearly and unequivocally on from desperation to rebellion and then from rebellion red by the the most important issue of our time: that of freedom t Socialist the organization of the independence movement ÿl- from colonial rule and domination. The present debate consecrated with the blood of heroes and ution sub" on colonialism is, therefore, one of the most historic mrtyrs. :tries ,(A/ and far-reaching ever held by this General Assembly ii ; or any other international body. We are most grateful, 116. Sevonty-two years after the United States Gov- therefore, for the initiative ofthe Soviet Union in bring- ;! ernment undertook, in article IX of the Peace Treaty under the ing this urgent and important problem to the attention t has been between Spain and the United States, signed in Paris of the United Nations at a moment when the fuiÿu'e of !/i on 10 December 1898, to settle the problem Of its , the smal- civijtzation is in danger and when colonialism sÿll unity with Wereignty, Puerto Rico, a freely associated State on keeps in bondage many millions of people all over the paper, is still a dependent territory, placed outside the ersonaliÿy world. The draft declaration presented by the Soviet Uÿisdiction of the United Nations by a clever strata- s not yet Union [A/4502] represents a true appraisal of world gem. In 1953 the United States Government sent a note an Stafÿ, feeling towards colonialism and its adoption would the people [A/AC.35/L.121] to the Secretary-General informing edom tÿ im that from that date no further information on the dependent territory of Puerto Rico wouldbe transmit- people Of 5/Ibld.,eighÿh session, Fourth Comrnitÿee, 355ÿ meeting. )le will for ted since it had ceased to be a dependent territory by t iS there Virtue of provisions in the constitution of the Coin- 6_/Ibid., plenary rneetings; 459th meeting. ÿ • "i 1172 General Assembly -- Fifteenth Session ÿ Plenary Meetings IL provide the world with a basis for positive action in from British occupation, only to be subjected shortly dealing with the problem. thereafter to invasion and war by certain colonial :i Powers in an effort to reimpose once again their 6: 121. The fightagainst colonialism has become one of colonial domination. Libya's struggle against the the most decisive factors shaping the presentÿge. The Italian ivaders took over thirty years, marked by re. peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America, after cen- current rebellions and severe repressions. Only ,Ii turies Of alien domination, have reached a highly ad- recently Morocco and Tunisia were able to achieve vanced stage in their heroic struggle against foreign their freedom and independence, at the cost of con. rule and exploitation. Motivated by their strong desire siderable suffering and sacrifice. to live freely, they have followed the example of many peoples in America, and in Europe itself who, during 126. ,In our area of the Middle East, foreign European the last two centuries, were able to throw off the rule was perpetuated for a long time under the guise shackles of foreign domination. The movements of of the Mandates System, imposed on unwillingpeoples national liberation have spread all over Asia, Africa by the colonial Powers after their countries had been and the Middle East, and the struggle against im- conquered during the First World War. The people of perialism in its various forms has become a major Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine and Jordan never factor in the development of these countries and the accepted the Mandates and wageda relentless struggle establishment of their nati0nal and international status. against this new form of colonialism. In Iraq, the Mandate which was officially terminated in 1932 was 122. The struggle for freedom is as old as civilization itself; in fact, it has always been the propelling force replaced by a new relationship which retained for the former Mandatory Power great influence in the affairs for the progress and development of human society. Ever since human society was organized, man has been of the country. It took another twenty-six years and our eudeavouring to achieve higher levels of liberty and great July Revolution of 1958 for the people of Iraq to justice in order to free himself from the despotism of rid the country finally of the last vestiges of foreign domination and influence. his fellow men and gain contro! over social and natural forces. 127. Our experience of the Mandate-bitter as itwas.. cannot be compared with the tragedy which befell the 123. Man has experienced many types of despotism, people of Palestine. Theywere the victims of the worst but one of the worst and most shameful was that pro- type of colonialism, a type whichhasnoparallel in the duced under the colonial System in its modern form, annals of modern history. The ostensible objective of involving the alien s ubjegation and oppression of the Mandate was to help the peoples liberated from the nations, the exploitation of their human and material rule of the vanquished Powers after the First World resources for the benefit of others, and the denial of War, to stand by themselves. Theoretically, the prin- their right to lead a free and decent life. ciple underlying the whole Mandates System was that 124. With the extension of European domination over the interests and well-being of the people themselves large areas of Asia and Africa, another evilwas added was a sacred trust of the world community. How was to the many evils of colonialism: the evil of racial dis.. this sacred trust carried out in the case of the people eriminatien which is still practised on a large scale of Palestine7 The interests of the Arabs, who con- toward some of the people of Africa. It is hardly stituted over 90 per cent of the population of the coun- necessary to cite in detail the evils of the colonial try at the beginning of the Mandate in 1920, were sub- system and the immeasurable suffering and hardship ordinated to the interests of the Mandatory Power and, it has inflicted upon the people who have fallen under under its protection, to the Zionist immigrant invaders. its domination. Neither is it necessary to explain the In no other colony or Mandated Territory were the way in which the colonial system has restricted the interests of a whole nation so systematically ignored development of the people colonized. These evils are and disregarded. Nowhere were the legitimate as- well known, although they are too many to enumerate. pirations of a whole people so ruthlessly suppressed I must mention, however, some of the examples that we and their basic rights so flagrantly violated. The in the Arab world have experienced. sacred trust became a nightmare of treachery, op- pression and deceit. A whole country Was taken away 125. I do not think that I exaggerate when I say that from its people and given to the foreigners with the en- few nations in the world have suffered as much as the couragement and connivance of the Mandatory Power. Arab nation under colonial rule. Out first experience When Great Britain finally gave up her Mandate and re- of European imperialism in modern times was the linquished her sacred trust, she left behind her in French conquest of Algeria in 1830. This was followed Palestine the shambles of a once proud nation, now by the French occupation of Tunisia in 1881, the destitute refugees living on the charity of the world British occupation of Egypt in 1882 and the Sudan in community. 1898; the Italian conquest of Libya in 1911 and the French occupation of Morocco in 1912. Then eamethe 128. If we survey the Arab world today, we see that, turn of Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan and Iraq, besides Palestine, there are still areas where im- which fell under French and British rule during and perialism is waging a stubborn flght to stem the tide of after the First World War. If we add the gradual ex- national liberation. France has, for the last six years, tension of British influence and rule in large parts of been waging a war of murder and devastation against Southern and South-Eastern Arabia, we will have the the Algerian people in order to keep them in bondage complete colonial picture in the Arab world. Witha few and slavery, and to prevent them from joining the com- exceptions, almost the entire Arab homeland was thus munity of free and independent nations. In this way, occupied by foreign invaders during the the nineteenth France is trying to deny other nations the rights and and the early part of the twentieth century. This im- liberties which every Frenchman enjoys. We are con- posed upon our people the duty to wage a relentless fident that France is trying in vain, for the bitter and struggle to achieve their freedom andindependenee. It heroic struggle of the Algerian people will ultimately took Egypt more than seventy years to liberate itself triumph. In Oman and Southern Arabia, also, the ' 937th meeting ÿ 6 December 1960 1173

against foreign rule and domination continues 133. In this draft declaration we recall some of the While this General Assembly is expressing basic principles and ideals of the Charter andwe em- most forcefully against the colonial system and phasize the dangers to international peace and security again of a people's right to live in freedom and resulting from conflicts arising out of the denial of the armed forces of Great Britain are carrying freedom to dependent peoples. The declaration pro- operations in Oman, Southern Arabia claims certain facts and principles which are self- evident--that colonialism prevents the development of of Aden. international economic co-operation and impedes the social, cultural and economic development of dependent .ab9. It people can be have seen known from whatIhavecolonialism justin its said worst that forms the peoples; that alien subjugation and exploitation con- 3d manifestations. They have experienced at first stitute a denial of fundamental human rights and are contrary to the Charter of the United Nations , and that 0mnd its it physically,oppression materiallyand treachery and and spiritually have suffered as few all peoples have the right to self-deternfination. The This is one of the reasons why we have declaration categorically rejects the arguments that ers have. tch a deep sympathy and understanding for the the colonialists have consistently advanced to justify the perpetuation of their domination over dependent Std ruggle will continueof other nations to support for freedom the aspirations and independenceÿ of the countries, one argument being that the peoples of the colonies are not prepared to rule themselves, that they p ;0ples of the remaining colonies in Africa and else- lack political maturity, and that economically, socially where. and educationally they are not sufficiently developed to Our experience of colonialism has been exten- be fully independent. The fallacy of this argument is We have seen economic exploitation and theplun- evident and has been discredited even by some of the ars and Oÿ of our wealth and resources bythe colonialists. colonial Powers themselves, which today admit that have had the bitter experience of the suppression of political independence and emancipation should not be libertfes by force and we have known the methods delayed on account of the inadeqnacy of political, by which a nation can be keptata low level of cultural economic and social preparedness. The world has as and political development. These facts do not perhaps come to recognize, too, that freedom and independence h befell great emphasis, but one thing really shouldbe provide a very powerful stimulus for accelerating the here, that is the use of colonial people in the pace of advance in all fields of human activity. It is of suppressing the movement towards libera- hardly necessary to cite the examples of so many )bjective l of other people under colonial rule. The sad story countries, including my own, which have been able to ed from t of the Indian soldiers who fell in the valleys of Mesopo- advance at a much more rapid pace after achieving during the First World War, or the Moroccans their full liberation from foreign rule. who lost their lives on European battlefields, or the 4 the .134. One of the most important articles in this dec- other milHons of colonial peoples who were driven to nl was laration is the one which deals with the need for stop- fight neither under their own banner nor for their own Lhemselve ping all armed action and repressive measures national cause but to defend the colonialists' interests y. How directed against dependent peoples struggling to and to suppress the rights and liberties of oppressed the achieve their just aspirations for freedom and dignity. will ever figure inthe tragic annals of history. , who Examples of such armed action and aggression are too • This shameful employment of the colonial peoples as f the well know to make it necessary for me to elaborate on were cannon-fodder should remind us of the value setby the this theme; but it is essential that nations should not colonialists on the human lives of those whom they be compelled to pay the heavy price of partitioning dominated. their own homeland in order to achieve independence. T were 131. Because of our tragic experience of colonialism, We have already seen many examples of this and it is a danger which the United Nations must always guard imate and in view of our belief in the right of all nations to freely and in peace, we have taken a strong stand against. It is therefore imperative thatthe declaration mppresm should contain a paragraph condemning the partial or lated. on all colonial questions in the United Nations. In the Committee, where these questions have been total disruption of the national unity and territorial hery, integrity of countries. aken !i discussed, Iraq has spared no effort to serve the cause 0f freedom in Africa and elsewhere. We have tried and ith the 135. Paragraph 5 of the draftdeclarationis of special succeeded in breathing life into the Declaration re- pry Non-SeLf-Governing Territories contained in significance. It asks that immediate steps be taken in all territories which have not yet obtained their in- XI of the Charter. Through our collective ind her : dependence to arrange the unconditional transfer of all we have been able to make the United Nations :play a significant andbeneflcentrole in the progress of powers to the peoples of those territories inaccordance the world with their freely expressed will and desire. This is a number of dependent Territories towards freedom call to all those Powers that presently administer nd independence, and thus assisted in bringing to dependent territories to take immediate action with a see ÿths one of the most important principles of the view to enabling the peoples of those territories to vhere Im Clmrÿr. the tide € achieve their independence without delay. 132. As to the draft declaration [A/L.323 and Add.I- six yearSii 136. By adopting this declaration unanimously, the on against which my delegation has the honour to co-sponsor, with a number of Asian and African States, General Assembly would be fulfilling one of the greatest n bondagÿ purposes of the Charter andwould canse a flmdamental r the coÿ e present it to the Assembly in the hope that it will a universal declaration like the one on human change in the present dangerous trends of development • this wayÿ in the power relations between States and in the balance rights an! rights-.a landmark and a great milestone in the work Organization. This is a charter of freedom for of risks which have So far dominated human relation- are coÿ ships. The final liquidation of the co!onial system is bitter anq oppressed peoples of the world sub- by countries many of Which have emerged from bound to usher in a new era in the history of human ltimateÿ society, an era in which relationships between nations also, tIÿ in the very recent past. 1174 General Assembly ÿ Fifteenth Session u Plenary Meetings ÿ

will evolve according to principles of justice and equity, 139. The PRESIDENT: I call on the representative of aiming at the elimination of violence and the use of Panama who wishes to exercise his right of reply. force. Above all, it will reduce international tension and pave the way for a better understanding between the 140. Mr. ILLUECA (Panama) (translated from advanced and the underdeveloped countries. Spanish): A few moments ago the Foreign Minister of Cuba made a reference to the Paname Canal Zone 137. It is the highest duty of the United Nations to which my delegation cannot allow to go unanswered. assist in the emergence of this new community of nations by helping forward the emancipation of those 141. The Panama Canal Zone, a small strip of land nations which were--and still are-under colonial rule, some ten miles wide andbarely fifty miles long, is an thus responding to the exigencies of thepresont era in integral part of the territory of the Republic of Panama, history. In the words of Mr. Khrushehev: which exercises its sovereignty and has sovereign rights over that territory. Those rights have been Ours is an era of swift renewal of society; an era recognized by the United States Government, by the in which more progressive and equitable ways of President of the United States, and the flag of Panama llfe are being affirmed; an era inwhiehman is soar- flies over the Canal Zone. ! ing upwards to unprecedentedmastery over forces of nature. The time has come for the complete and final 142. I deeply deplore the fact that the Foreign Minister liberation of peoples languishing in colonial bond- of Cuba should have made a reference ofthis kind at a age°w [A/4502] time when a representative of the Republic of Panama The United Nations cannot remain indifferent to the way was present in this Assembly. Just as the Cuban certain colonial Powers are trampling on the rights of Foreign MiniSter affirmed here that his country is peoples and keeping them in subjugation by the most free and is not under the trusteeship of the United brutal methods. It cannot close its eyes to the way in States or of the Soviet Union, so the Republic of which these colonial Powers are plnndering the wealth Panama is also a free, honourable and sovereign State of other nations, thus keeping them in great poverty and with its representative in the world Organization, and backwardness. The immediate elimination of colonial- the Panamanian people does notwish any more than Ms ism will no doubt be in the interests of all nations. to be under the trusteeship of any Power great or Recent experience has shown most clearly how much small, and obvionsly not under the trusteeship of Cuba emancipated nations are able to contribute to world either. progress and prosperity. The liberation of the colonial countries has created many new conditions favouring 143. I would therefore beg the Foreign Minister of Cuba, the next time he speaks on any matter of an in- their normal economic, political and cultural develop- ment and contributed to an appreciable rise in the ternational nature in this Assembly, to be goodenough to respect the legitimate rights of other representa- standard of living everywhere. tives constituting this august body. 138. Only free people can join in building up the new • world order envisaged in the United Nations Charter, 144, My delegation reserves the right to speak again and the colonial system is a denial of freedom and on this matter if circumstances so require. therefore contrary to the principles of that Charter and to the spirit and rising forces of our modern age. The meeting rose at 6.15 p.m.

y 77001--S eptember 1961ÿ2,225 Litho in Uÿ.