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The New Zealand delegation at Paris gave wholehearted support to Ceylon's application for admission to the United Nations. This application had been vetoed by the Soviet Union in the Security Council, -ostensibly on the gound that more information was required regarding Ceylon's independent status. Though at the Prime Ministers' meeting in London the representatives of all the members of the Commonwealth, including the other Asiatic members, had formally declared that Ceylon was a full member of the Commonwealth in all respects equal in status to themselves, the Soviet Government appeared unimpressed by this assurance and continued its opposition both in the Assembly and also in the Security Council when the matter was again brought before that body after the close of the Assembly's session. Undoubtedly the largest positive accomplishment of the Assembly was the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The full text of this declaration is appended. It is not a formal treaty but " a common standard of achievement for all peoples of all nations." In the final voting it was not opposed by any State, though eight abstained. Only the future will show whether it is a fruitful seed cast on good ground. It may very well prove to be the -most important achievement of the United Nations up to the present time, and the last Assembly may rightly be known, in Mrs Eleanor Roosevelt's words, as the " Rights of Man Assembly." I shall not attempt a balance-sheet of the session. Those who read this report may strike one for themselves. The United Nations is important not because of our momentary assessment of the value of this activity or that, but because it is an integral part of the system of international relations in which we are placed. It is one of the chief channels through which the nations, the great powers, as well as the small, express their foreign policies. It must be accepted with its achievements and its failures, its opportunities and its costs, or we must isolate ourselves from one of the main currents of international life. Also, as a member, New Zealand has its own share of influence and responsibility in affecting the decisions of the United Nations. In using that influence and discharging that responsibility the New Zealand delegation has attempted, while keeping our country's interests always in view, to remain faithful to the purposes and principles of the Charter.