U Thant Urges End To International Discord

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32385, 26 August 1970, Page 6

U Thant Urges End To International Discord

j (N.2 F.A.-Reuter—Copi/right) r THE HAGUE. The world’s great Powers, including China, must get together for regular talks if man is not to destroy himself and his planet, the United Nations Secre-tary-General (U Thant) has said. U Thant gave his dramaticwarning at the opening session of the two-week second World Food Congress convened by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation, attended by more than 1500 delegates from 100 countries. The great Powers should meet regularly on neutral territory for example, Geneva or Vienna—"to initiate a change from confrontation and division to th" buildi ing of a safe and peaceful world habitat,” U Thant said. | He expressed sympathy for the younger generation, he said, for their rebellion against the intolerable and distorted values and priori-; ;ties of the nations. Was it! surprising that young men’ should begin to refuse to kill

their fellow men. whatever, their race, their colour, or their nationality? he asked. ’.‘We must appeal to the great nations to have the vision, the wisdom, and the I human elevation to set aside; ; their fraticidal course: anta-! gonisms must be turned into , common endeavours," he j said. U Thant’s appeal came on the eve of his visit to Moscow for talks with Soviet j leaders. ’ U Thant poured scorn onI the huge defence programmes: : of the big Powers. “Govern-, . ments spend 200 billion! ’ dollars a year on armaments ' to keep one another in check,! • thus achieving the most! ' expensive zero result ever’ ’ observed in human history,”! he said. I U Thant said that progress: 1 towards justice and human. • solidarity had seriously! ■ lagged behind scientific and - technical progress. In some - of the' most advanced coun- ■ tries, life expectancy was, • rpore than 70 years. But in r some of the poorer countries, ■ ; it was only 25 years, he said. i “One wonders how human (’communities can live side by - side in such disparity of cont ditions. It is not necessary to i;go to the moon to reach into 1 the universe, to find new

challenges for human creativity and progreess," he said. The world’s population explosion was almost out of hand. “The six billion population figure for the year 2000 can no longer be significantly (influenced," he said. The world was still being kept under pressure by great Powers and various ideologies. each of which claimed to hold the key to man's future. But the world was changing dramatically behind the backs, and above the heads, of Governments. “Can one honestly believe that any of the super-Powers can win and dominate the world without dragging all ; mankind into atomic disaster?” he said. U Thant spoke of “an increasingly. interdependent

• world, still divided by narrow ~and selfish nationalism.” He said: “One would have expected that, under the new : scientific, economic, and i social conditions of our • 1 planet, governments would have rapidly coalesced to ;! anticipate and solve together the tasks of immeasurable (magnitude which lie ahead. This is not so. Little political , progress has been achieved these last 25 years." The smaller nations “have begun to imitate the larger ones, arming themselves, taking sides, and preparing to enter the power game of nations,” he said. International peace, social progress and justice “have become the Jast preoccupa•’tion and the lowest priorities : of nations.” he said.