UNITED NATIONS

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 55, Issue 32672, 4 February 1946, Page 3

UNITED NATIONS

POLITICAL PROGRAMME REVIEW BY MR BEVIN TRIUMPH OF ORGANISATION LONDON, .Tun. 18 Mr Bevin in a speech to-day to the General Assembly of the United Nations said, “Mr President, I wish first to express the thanks ' of His Majesty’s Government and people of Great Britain to’the Executive Committee and the Preparatory Commission for the work they have so thoroughly done during four months of untiring labour. The organisation of the Assembly and the Council, the Committee structure, the rules of procedure and machinery that have been established, represent a triumph of detailed organisation which could only have become possible by the exercise of patience and tolerance among members of the Commission. They have set a good example to the Assembly and the various organisations now being created under its auspices. One proposal iu the Commission’s report that we regard as of particular importance is the establishment of an International Secretariat, completely independent of the Government, and also an International Civil Service Commissioner. If the work of this Civil Service Commission is done thoroughly the Organisation will have at its disposal a staff with a high stanard of honour and international outlook. Confidence of People The way in which this organisation is administered will in large measure affect the confidence which the peoples of the world repose in it. Therefore it is essential that budgetary procedure should be extremely thorough. While on the one hand there should lie no niggardliness which would frustrate or hinder development, on the other the financial controls must be such as to give confidence in the administration by the treasuries of the different contributing Governments. It is clear that however much the world may spend on making this organisation effective it will be a very small sum compared with the terrible cost of war. According to an estimate I have heard the cost per annum of the United Nations to all fifty-one nations will be less than half the cost to the United Kingdom alone of a single day in the war just ended. Efficiency supported by liberality is the watchword that, we offer to the administration of United Nations. It is not necessary for me to go into the whole history of the development of this Organisation. My colleague the United States Secretary of State has already described it. But as a member for five years of the War Government of the United Kingdom I witnessed 1 the gradual evolution emerging from talks and conferences between the powers which ultimately led to this meeting. The Great gathering of nations brought to birth in the dawn of peace is a vision and a hope

conceived in the darkest days of war. Meetings between representatives

of the British and U.S. Governments led to the proclaiming of the Atlantic Charter. Next, in Moscow, the Soviet Government and the Chinese Government joined with these two Governments in issuing the Moscow Declaration on General Security of November 1, 1943. At Dumbarton Oaks in 1941 officials of these four Governments worked out tentative proposals which were finally adopted by the, San Francisco Conference. Therefore it would be accurate to say that this Organisation has been as it were hammered out and shaped under the very heat and din of battle, a clear’ sign to the world that while this titanic struggle to preserve liberty was going on and our minds were still concentrated on the defeat of the enemy, a hope was alive that even yet in spite of past failures we might find a way to create a world organisation that would allow humanity to live Without fear in freedom rind in peace.

Coincident with this development there have been others. At the same time as the Organisation for security was being devised other organs were being created to deal with human welfare. There was the laying of the foundations of the Food' and Agriculture Organisation, an organisation which I venture to suggest, having as its purpose to deal with the terrible problem of malnutrition, will become very vital to the United Nations; the Bretton Woods Conference drafted the constitutions of the International Bank and the International Fund; we have witnessed the birth of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation and the provisional International Civil Aviation Organisation: draft plans were recently announced for an International Trade Organisation, so that by a natural process the functional instruments of a world State were coming into existence.

All that was needed was the final coping stone of the arch, an organisation to guarantee real security. During all these discussions we have accepted the view that aggressive war was a crime and that he who started such aggression must pay the price. This is made clear by the establishment of War Crimes Tribunals, before whom are being revealed for the whole world to know, the devious methods and cruel conceptions of those who sought to use force for mastery of the world. These men who were responsible are now being brought to justice, which expresses in its decisions the feelings and conceptions that mankind has reached. The aggressor therefore can no longer look forward to a halo of glory and statues created to his memory. Instead he will be remembered by the scaffold and the hangman’s rope. Indeed mass murder’ has been arrainged before the courts on the same basis as individual murder. It is necessary not only to outlaw war itself when it has begun, but to build an organisation that will act promptly and as soon as symptoms are manifest.

War has become more and more devastating. But even if we had not discovered the atomic bomb, bacteriological warfare and all these other terrible devices, still it was our duty to outlaw war and to create this Organisation.”