Call For Austerity In U.N. Finances

Press, Volume C, Issue 29643, 13 October 1961, Page 13

Call For Austerity In U.N. Finances

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NEW YORK, October 12. Britain warned yesterday that the United Nations faced “the humiliation of bankruptcy” by mid-1962 and called for a “conscious policy of austerity” in the world organisation’s finances.

The British delegate in the General Assembly’s Administrative and Budgetary Committee, Mr Peter Smithers, said the “ugly cash situation" could mean only one thingeconomies might not only be encouraged but intensified. He hit out strongly at the concept that members should finance those expenses of the United Nations that they approved of but not those which they happened to dislike. “‘Surely that is a certain recipe for paralysis in the United Nations.” Mr • Smithers said. Britain believed that in its operations and activities, in its finance and in its member, ship, the United Nations organisation would stand or fall as a whole, he said. ' Mr Smithers’ statement was delivered shortly after South Africa had joined the ranks of states refusing to bear any part of the enormous cost of the Congo operation. The Soviet Bloc and France already had deelined to pay their share. The British delegate told . the 100-member committee - that total arrears of member states at September 20 last • was about 114 million dollars, of which 89 million dollars was in respect of contributions due this year. Urging that the United Nations “cut our coat accordnig to our cloth,” Mr Smithers said if this was not done and the organisation continued to incur expenses and commitments for which ade-

quate finance was not available. the alternatives were: “Financial collapse and therewith a shattering blow to the hopes of mankind all over the world for peace and progress: “A decline in the status of the United Nations to that of a pensioner dependent on the charity of one. or at most of a few. of the richer members. ‘That status could not be reconciled with the United Nations Charter, which clearly envisages collective responsibility based on the sovereign equality of all member states." he said.