Thant Advocates Peace Force

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32308, 28 May 1970, Page 15

Thant Advocates Peace Force

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuler—Copyright; NEW YORK, May 27. The United Nations SecretaryGeneral (U Thant) called on member governments today to equip the United Nations with a standby peace force, and to accept the compulsory jurisdiction of the World Court in their disputes.

These steps were essential for the enforcement of United Nations decisions, particu-

Ilarly those approved by unanimous vote of the Security Council, he said. Speaking on administrative and operational problems that have bedevilled United Nations peace-keeping, U Thant appealed to all governments to redouble their efforts to come to an agreement on these aspects of the problem so that the United Nations would have on call a standby police force. This was a prerequisite for the effective maintenance of international peace and security, he said. The Secretary-General, addressing a conference of private organisations in consultant status with the United Nations, said that in all his experience he had not encountered so great a “groundswell of public sentiment for peace as there is today.” For weeks and months his office had been deluged with mail and telegrams attesting to the fact that people were fed up with war . . . increasingly conscious of its futility as an instrument of national policy. Recalling that South Africa and Portugal, the targets of many United Nations resolutions, had repeatedly denounced them as prejudiced and biased, U Thant said that this attitude was understandable. But it was based on “parochial considerations,” which were opposed to the spirit of : the United Nations Charter and the development of the i United Nations into the effective instrument the charter intended for it States must be on guard against “falling into the trap of becoming enemies of the United Nations,” he said.