ited Nations 944th. Lu%ion ;ENERAL PLENABY MEETING goyern.rae sSEMBLY Tuesday, 13 December 1960, r as at 10.30 a.m. • of Profq SESSION detailed Records HEW YOBK eond ral CONTENTS foreign capital is not allowed to hold more than 40 Page per cent of the total social capital. Therefore, we have here a plain falsehood and a plain distortion of the ion, item 87: true facts. urnittee, on the granting of independence to 4. The Soviet representative also placed before the colonial countries and peoples (continued).. 1231 Assembly the question whether or not it was a fact f that in Portuguese territory " ... a brutal system of porteur of president; Mr. Frederick H. BOLAND (Ireland). racial discrimination and of forced slave labour exists ..." [ibid., para. 59]. No, it is not a fact. It is he merely another falsehood, and we firmly and strongly ats on In the a bs ence of the Pres iden t, Mr. Has an (Pakis tan), repudiate it. I am not going to burden the Assembly ;dom of Inf0 £ice-President, took the Chair. with details, but I must say that there is absolute the freedom of labour and absolute freedom of choice of employment. Furthermore, my Government has rati- on these AGENDA ITEM 87 so fied the Convention concerning Forced or Compulsory oration on the granting of independence to colonial Labour of 1930 U and the Convention concerning the Abolition of F0rcedlabour of 19572-/of the Inter- Lsional countries and peoples (continued) national Labour Organisation. Also, the Portuguese ration at Constitution and the labour laws explicitly prohibit The PRESIDENT: The first speaker on my list forced labour, or any other form of compulsory labour, morning is the representative of Portugal, in estion, I which is considered by us as a crime.Anyone wishing of the right of reply. / to do so can consult our laws. GARIN (Portugal): Using the most insulting 5. As for the allegation concerning racial discrimin- the baseness of which I can only guess at ation, no imagination, no matter how fertile, could x of the the English translation, the Soviet representa- conceive of any more unjust and unfounded accusation, of this at the 939th meeting, unrestrainedly insulted nor of any accusation which could have hurt us more mqmry and the Portuguese people from this rostrum. deeply had it come from a responsible source. Let his Government's well-known policy of in- me quote a responsible source, the renownedhistorian falsehoods and distortions into any issue, the Arnold Toynbee, who in an article published in The Lhis item representative embarked the other day on New York Times magazine section of 7 August 1960 nittee. and vicious attack against many countries. wrote: timously. own country was included, and the Soviet repre- unleashed against us unprovoked, unjustified, "There are large and important sections of the gratuitous and thoroughly malevolent ac- human race in which race prejudice is conspicuous This abuse by the Soviet delegation of aÿ by its absence: I am thinking particularly of the Member of this Organization cannot Moslems and of the Spanish-speaking and Portu- , unanswered. guese-speaking peoples." I The Soviet representative began his false alle- And again, the same historian wrote in the same article: has by asserting that in the Portuguese Overseas ,ÿurity are found" ... Americanbanks and compa- "Anyway, the freedom of the Spanish- and of the like Standard Oil, the Chase National Bank, the Portuguese-speaking peoples from race feeling isan sembly City Bank of New York" and the Gulf Oil unquestionable fact, whatever its historic origins rt. which control most of the Portuguese may be." petroleum, rubber and other companies" 6. I could quote many other independent and re- zimously. meeting, para. 58]. None of these allegations !true. Neither the National City Bank nor the Standard sponsible authorities, but I doubt that the Soviet repre- m. sentative would be much interested in independent Company nor the Chase National Bank controls and responsible sources. in Portuguese territory, nor have they in territory even an agency. All those who know 7. Here is another accusationby the Soviet delegation: Portuguese economy and who are acting in good are very much aware that there is no American "Neither in the Fourth Committee nor in the nor any foreign control for that matter, over plenary GeneralAssembly has the Portuguese repre- enterprises or companies, and that sentative even attempted to deny that in the Portu- interests, as they may exist, are negli- guese colonies all the inhabitants are classified as Besides, in accordance with Portuguese law, 1/ International Labour Conference, Conventions and Recommen- administration of any company or enterprise, dations, 1919-1949 (Geneva, International Labour Office, 1949), Con- though it may have some foreign capital, must vention No. 29. 4 remain in Portuguese hands; and under the 2_/International Labour Office, Official Bulletin, voi.XL (1957),No. 1, of the current Portuguese legislation, Convention No. 105. ,tember 1231 A/PV.944 1232 General Assembly -- Fifteenth Session m Plenary Meetings 'civilized' (assimilated) or 'uncivilized'." [939th 13. The PRESIDENT: I call on the meeting, para. 59.] Argentina to exercise his right of reply, ntative of The Portuguese delegation has done more than try to 14. Mr. AMADEO (Argentina) (translated froÿ deny; we have strongly denied it, and, what is more, Spanish): In his speech made on 7 December [939ÿ the Portuguese delegation has explained in detail that meeting] the representative of the Soviet Union re: such accusations have no foundation whatever in Portu- ferred to the attitude adopted by the Argentine dele. guese law or practice. The indisputable fact is that gation in this debate. the distinction between "civilized" and "uncivilized" is unknown to Portuguese law and if others, like the 15. The Soviet representative has blatantly distorted Soviet delegation, have framed such an invention for the views expressed by Argentina by asserting that reasons of propaganda and political expediency, the inasmuch as my speech showed, as he puts it, that fault is not ours and we reject any such blame. we were opposed to the artificial acceleration of the decolonization process, it wasÿ encouraging the co. 8. For those who may be interested in more details, lonial Powers to refuse independence to their colonies. I would refer them to the debates in the Fourth Com- mittee on this question in which this point was fully 16. The position of the Argentine delegation re- explained beyond dolibt. garding the liquidation of the colonial system hasbeen so clearly expounded that it does not need to be ex. 9. Then the Soviet delegation has stated that in one plained. In my speech I said: Portuguese territory there has been carried on "a veritable policy of bloody intimidation" and "mass "The important thing to note is that whatever murders" [ibid., para. 61]. Those were the actual judgement may be passed on the system now or words. This is a most outrageous accusation and, by future historians, colonialism no longer fits unless the Soviet delegation is accustomed to taking into the political structure of our time .... It does such things lightly, it seems to my delegation incon- not matter now what explanation or justification those ceivable that any responsible member of this Assembly systems may have had in the past. What is important should make such preposterous statements without is that in our day and age we should refuse to allow substantiation and without the vaguest proof. them to continue." [927th meeting, para. 17.] 10. I strongly protest against these outrageous accu- 17. This point of view is "sufficiently clear-cut to sations made by the Soviet delegation. There is still require no clarification. 'The' fact that we believe another falsehood. The Soviet representative saidthat that the transfer of power to the new States must the inhabitants of our overseas territories "have no be effected as far as possible peacefully and in ac- representation in any single administrative organ or cord with the former metropolitan Powers and within in the metropolitan legislative organs" [ ibid., para. 59]. the time-limits that are most convenient to the It is not true; they have such representation. The liberated countries, does not in any way mean that Soviet representative said that the population "may we modify the statement of principle affirming our be arbitrarily expelled from lands which have been opposition to the existence of the colonial system. theirs from time immemorial" [ibid.]. It is not true; 18. Accordingly, our vote in favour of the African- they cannot: Asian draft resolution [A/L.323 and Add.l-6] is based 11. Shall I go on7 I do not wish to try the patience of on the conviction that the immediate steps referred the Assembly. I submit that it would be a divine to in paragraph 5 of the declaration implythe creation miracle if the Soviet Government which, by ruthless without delay of the conditions requisite for inde- and violent means, has consistently denied freedom, pendence. We do not believe, on the other hand, that and whose record of oppression is second to none, they presuppose an obligation to transform the existing were truly interested in what it calls the freedom juridical system. of colonial peoples. Actually, we are left with the 19. It seems to us that the countries most directly same old story of Soviet manoeuvres in this Assembly. interested in these problems have adopted a much They will use anything--that is, anything but the truthm more realistic attitude and one, undoubtedly, that will or anyone, to plant the seeds of hatred and chaos on prove more advantageous to the non-self-goverming earth so that the ground will be ripe for communist peoples than those countries which have made a propa- conquest and exploitation, through penetration in ganda slogan out of the colonial problem.