WORK OF UNITED NATIONS

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27644, 28 April 1955, Page 11

WORK OF UNITED NATIONS

Record “Worth Taking Note Of” INFORMATION DIRECTOR’S REVIEW “When a ship like the United Nations, on which in a way we are all embarked, has kept afloat for 10 years and at the end of that time is still pretty much on course it is worth taking note of,” said Mr Hugh Williams, Director of the United Nations Information Centre in Sydney, speaking to tiie United Nations Association in Christchurch. One of the great difficulties in looking at the United Nations was that in the first place people’s expectations had been pitched so high, he said. This was natural after a war that had laid waste to so much land and cost 50,000,000 lives in military action or in the dreadful things that had overcome great masses of civilians. But it was natural, said Mr Williams, that in the United Nations there should be disputes and discord. It had been set up to resolve disputes and promote harmony. It was a fact-facing organisation and not a great goodwill organisation bringing peace down to earth. It had to face facts and many of these facts might not be pleasant. Many countries, which were members or the United Nations, were hardly able to carry on because of the wretched state of their economy. Countless people were still being forced to live under conditions that it was hard for New Zealanders to realise. For instance in one area the average length of life was only 26 years. There were countries where 85 per cent, of the houses averaged only one and a half rooms. Mr Williams said they should dismiss the point of view that there was no way out of the difficulties of the world. The forbears of these who held this view must have thought that there was no escape from the advance of the glaciers or that men would never fly. War oh Way Out There was one perfectly clear fact. War as an institution between countries was on the way out. Once hereditary enmity had meant something. Just as the last battles had been fought between the Scots and the English and the French and the English, could it not also be said that the last engage ment had also been fought between the Turks and the English. The institution of war was being reduced to an absurdity. In 1952 an explosion in the islands of the Pacific had produced a ball of fire three and a half miles in diameter and five times hotter than the centre of the sun. “If you think of things like this—the idea of blasting one’s way, no matter how right the cause may be, is one that we have got to face up to seriously and discard I think.” The fact that the United Nations existed and provided a world meeting point was of real importance, said Mr Williams. The United Nations could not claim to be responsible for the settlement of the Berlin blockade, one of the most serious crises of the postwar era, but it had been in a lounge of the United Nations that Dr.'Jessup had asked a question of Mr Malik that had led to conferences in Europe and the lifting of the blockade. Looking at the “box score” of the United Nations Mr Williams said that on the political and security side its record was “moderately good” or “above average.” In Greece, where conditions had been close to a civil war. the position had improved after United Nations action so that the Greek Government had requested the withdrawal of United Nations observers. One by one fhe children were now returning, he added. The same machinery had helped countries to stop wars in Indonesia, Kashmir, Pakistan and Korea. “None of these situations has been cleaned up,” he said, “but not one has spread from a local war into a world war.”

Agencies, who work was co-ordin-ated in the United Nations, had done a great deal of good on a practical plane, said Mr Williams.