UNO RECORD LAST YEAR WAS “GOOD ON THE WHOLE”

Greymouth Evening Star, 9 August 1948, Page 6

UNO RECORD LAST YEAR WAS “GOOD ON THE WHOLE”

NEW YORK, August 8. “The United Nations is the chief force holding the world together today, and on the whole its record for the last year has been good,” says the Secretary-General of the United Nations (Mr Trygve Lie) in his third annual report. Mr Lie believes that the world picture should not be oversimplified. “The present tensions between America and Russia are not the only factor likely to have a powerful influence on history,” he says, “and the position of the other three permanent members of the Security Council — Britain, France, and China symbolises some of the other forces at work. In the struggle for economic recovery and political stability a new European pattern is emerging. The growth of Asia . is particularly significant. When the Charter was first signed China was the only fully independent nation of Eastern Asia among the signatories, but within three years Burma, India, Pakistan, and the Philippines have become fully independent and all are now members of the United Nations.” Domination Unthinkable Discussing the ideologies of the world, Mr Lie says :“It would be a grave mistake to believe that most of the wbrld has any intention of accepting any single economic system, whether based on the Communist doctrine of a classless society or the extremist American capitalist version of the free enterprise system. In

a world where so many forces are at work, so many different civilisations and cultural traditions stirring and intermingling, domination by any single ideology, whether religious, political, or economic, is unthinkable and impossible. The United Nations has been constructed to embrace the whole world because anything less, by dividing the world into rival military alliances, would destroy the hope of preventing war,” said Mr Lie. “Generally the United Nations’ record. lias been more encouraging than might have been expected in a year of adverse political circumstances. The United Nations Charter is the only road now available to a permanently peaceful world.”

Proposals for Peace His proposals for strengthening the United Nations were: — :

(1) The Big Four should resume negotiations on Germany. (2) The Security Council should make greater use of the Charter and break the deadlock which was holding up the creation of an international armed force.

(3) The General Assembly should consider more thorough control of chemical and bacteriological weapons.