NOT A FAILURE

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 69, Issue 106, 14 February 1949, Page 2

NOT A FAILURE

United Nations Organisation ADDRESS BY MRS NEWLANDS “The United Nations Organisation is not a failure —it is making great progress. It is not just an organisation set up to prevent war, but one with commitees in itself dealing with every conceivable subject, where there is a place for everyone seeking to help mankind.” So said Mrs A. N. Newlands, New Zealand delegate to the Uno conference at Paris, in an address to a public meeting in the Foresters’ Hall, Ashburton, on Saturday evening. Since her return to the Dominion, said the speaker, many people had remarked that Uno appeared to be a place where there was just a lot of talk, and a lot of money spent. Her answer to those criticisms was that it •seemed better to be spending money in an effort to have the nations of the wox-ld air their opinions publicly than be spending a great deal more money on battlefields. She had worked at the conference for two and a half months, being on the committee dealing with the Declaration of Human Rights, said Mrs Newlands. Fifty-six countries were represented in the assembly building, which accommodated huge staffs. On the secretariat etaff alone, for instance, there were 1200 persons. Women played a leading part at the conference, according to the speaker. Though there were only nine among 56 delegates, the staff of interpreters chiefly comprised women. Mrs Roosevelt had ben a central figure at the con ference, and with M. Pavlav (Russia) had commanded the greatest atention in her speeches. Dealing with the Declaration of Human Rights, in which her main interest at the conference lay, Mre Newlands stated it was the first time in history that nations gathered together and formed a committee to decide what was signified by human rights. The work had been long and exhausting, but well worthwhile. The outstanding feature was, to her mind, that despite differences of race, religion and ide'als, the representatives, had been able to agree on the Human Rights Declaration. This, of course, w r as a p;oral force alone. Russia Said “No” ■ “We .received not the slightest- degree of co-operation from the Russian delegates, however,” declared the speaker. “They haven’t the faintest conception of democracy as we understand the word to mean,” she added, “and abstained from voting on the human rights question. “Whenever they were required to make a decision on anything, they always qualified it by saying ‘lf it be the will of the State,’ or, ‘lf the State desires it,’ or, ‘lf it is not in conflict with the wish of the State.’ ” Describing her trip to Paris, and the numerous rounds of sightseeing entailed, Mrs Newlands said it had brought home to her for the first time the full realisation of what the warhad done to countries and the peoples. They had travelled by flyingboat to Sydney, Darwin, and the Dutch East Indies (where they were not allowed to go ashore on account of the civil war). At Singapore and Rangoon, the harbours were filled with sunken ships. From Calcutta, Karachi, and .Cairo, they flew over El Alamein, Mersa Matrnth and Tobruk. These last three places provided grim reminders of the desert warfare, said the speaker, and made her more fully alive to her responsibilities at the Uno conference which was trying to ensure that war never came again. From Augusta, in Italy, the party had flown to Marseilles, and thence to Paris where they arrived on September 21. ' Mrs Newlands spent five days m England when her work was completed, and returned to New Zealand by Constellation late in December. “I am glad to he back in. New Zealand for the paramount reason that every human right for which we fought in the Uno Conference is realised here. Our way of life is the envy of the peoples of most countries of the world,” concluded Mrs Newlands.