Haiti, 1955

95. None of our great annual meetings, since the United Nations was established for the lofty purposes set forth in the Charter, has begun its work under more brilliant auspices than those which mark the opening of our discussions at this tenth session. The number and nature of the items on our agenda, the importance and gravity of the problems with which we are confronted, the action to which they must lead — or ought to lead, if world peace and stability are to be made more secure — all this confers upon our mission an exceptional authority and grandeur.

96. We are, moreover, beginning our task in an encouraging atmosphere of optimism, charged with hope and prospects of success. The period from July 1954 to June 1955 reported on by the Secretary-General [A/2911] closed with endeavours towards mutual understanding, marked efforts to relax international tension and unmistakable and comforting signs of better relations between the principal world Powers.

97. The horror of the destruction threatening our planet should nuclear weapons be used in international conflicts has led the Heads of Governments of some of the greatest Powers in the world to approach each other directly in an attempt to overcome the differences which divide them. Those who have won mastery over nuclear forces have become increasingly aware of the responsibility they would bear for the terrifying carnage which would inevitably accompany an atomic war. This monstrous prospect has provoked such panic in the world at large that no one is willing to stand aloof from the search for a way of avoiding a catastrophe which would threaten man’s very survival.

98. It was this psychological process, if I am not mistaken, that gave rise to what is now known as “the spirit of Geneva”, that is, the sudden emergence, in the settlement of international affairs, of an atmosphere of mutual concessions, and of appeals for co-operation with a view to substituting for the armaments race the fruitful and less costly policy of seeking ways of saving human beings from the despondency and degradation that sickness, suffering and poverty bring in their wake.

99. These, I believe are the auspices under which the tenth session of the Assembly is 'beginning its work. Is there really any relationship between what the world expects from the new era and the work to which we are going to devote our best efforts? Is it from us, and from us alone, that the world awaits the miracle of international peace without rift or contradictions? We should he greatly overestimating the impact of our decisions were we to make such a claim.

100. However, we have only to consider the questions on our agenda to realize to what extent we are account able to public opinion and how much the solution, even partial, of four-fifths of the problems raised here would bring relief to the anguish of the multitudes hungering and thirsting after peace, and would give concrete expression to that longing for collective happiness common to almost all mankind. Have we the power to achieve such prodigies? So many contingencies have to be taken into account in establishing the relevant facts, there are so many conflicting trends and so many complexities, that it would be futile to believe that we can find easy and quick solutions,

101. What we can do, however, is to bring to the study of these problems an unwavering and keen approach, an active and unswerving will and infinite perspicacity. Nor must we let ourselves be influenced by considerations of party, clique, race or belief or dominated by inveterate and age-old prejudices. What is expected of us is to impart to those whom we represent an understanding of the ever greater sacrifices which are called for as mankind steadily moves towards a clearer realization of its destiny. What is expected of us is that we should prove ourselves equal to the dramatic events taking place in certain parts of the world: blood is flowing in North and East Africa, in the Middle and Far East, in the islands of Asia and in South-East Asia.

102. Can the dictum of Jean Jaures be true that mankind is accursed, if in order to prove its courage, it is condemned to kill eternally? Peoples as well as their Governments resort to force to impose on the enemy their own solution of problems. Both, however, are warned by experience and history that solutions imposed by force so often prove precarious and illusory that they would be better advised to try other means of more lasting efficacy. In that case, there remains the great hope of which we are the symbol. It is, then, towards us, towards the United Nations, that people are turning in the hope that by common consent it will propose those means of adjustment and conciliation most likely to reduce the clash of interests and temper the fiercest conflicts.

103. Since this, in fact, is our role and our task, since this is our essential duty, my delegation, in the name of the Government and people of Haiti, renews here, at the opening of these discussions, the pledge of its faithful co-operation in ensuring the triumph of the principles of justice and human solidarity which are the very foundations of the United Nations.