21021957 Text of the Speech made by Mr. Tsiang (China) in the Security Council Meeting No. 774 held on 21 February 1957

Text of the Speech made by Mr. Tsiang (China) in the Security Council Meeting No. 774 held on 21 February 1957

It now appears that this present draft resolution introduced by Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States will be passed by this Council. My delegation will certainly vote for it. Before we pass to the vote, I wish only to say a few words in regard to this draft resolution.

So far we have not heard any criticism of this draft except a mild criticism, if I understand aright, in regard to the recalling of past resolutions and also in regard to that phrase "having regard to the previous resolutions of the Security Council". So far as my delegation is concerned, if we should omit the creature of the draft resolution I will still vote for it. I do not attach much importance to the reciting of past. resolutions. Even if we should not follow our past resolutions, we certainly will follow the Charter. I think the Charter is a sufficient basis for an appropriate settlement of this dispute.

The particular principle which would be applicable to this dispute would be the principle of self-determination of peoples. If any party should wish the Council to start all over again and wipe off the slate any previous resolutions we have passed, I am agreeable. I would be glad to start all over again and go back to the fundamental principles of the Charter. I believe with the Charter in hand we could find an appropriate solution.

Now, however, we take the draft resolution as it stands. This draft resolution leaves considerable discretion to you, Mr. President. I do not envy you the task that you are assuming. I anticipate, and I am sure you anticipate, a hard and difficult assignment and journey.

A strange feature of this whole dispute from 1948 to the present time is that we started with an agreement, namely, that the question should eventually be decided through a free and fair plebiscite. Our efforts have been hampered, blocked and even baulked by the conditions preliminary to a plebiscite. It is this question of conditions that has prevented any fruitful action. To my mind, there are two kinds of conditions that we can face and in fact we have faced two types of conditions. One category of conditions determined by one State or another relates to the freedom and fairness of the plebiscite. One party or the other is anxious or worried that unless a certain condition is fulfilled the plebiscite will not be free or fair. So far as conditions of that category are concerned, conditions which aim at increasing the freedom and fairness of the plebiscite, I think the Council and I am sure the President will be very sympathetic in considering them. Indeed, it is the duty of the President and the members of the Security Council to consider sympathetically any condition which would make the plebiscite fair and free.

However, in the course of our deliberations during the last nine years, we have had to face another category of conditions, conditions which have nothing to do with the freedom or fairness of the plebiscite but which are aimed at weakening or strengthening the existing claims of one party or the other. It seems to me that that type of condition does not deserve consideration. We cannot afford to write into the conditions of the plebiscite speeches that would strengthen or weaken the claims of one party or the other. We would and we should accept conditions which contribute to the freedom and fairness of the plebiscite.

This draft resolution leaves you, Mr. President, ample discretion. So far as my delegation is concerned, we have every confidence that you will exercise your discretionary powers with wisdom.

126. Text of the Speech made by Mr. Graham (United Nations Representative for India and Pakistan) in the Security Council Meeting No. 774 held on 21 February 1957

I wish, Mr. President, to give you my co-operative and loyal good wishes for your most important mission. gratulate you on the opportunity to negotiate with the Governments of two great peoples whom I not only respect, but, if I may say so, have come to love for themselves-their history, their heritage, their heroic struggles with gigantic problems and yet, withal, with a joyous and youthful hope.

I congratulate the Council on your acceptance of this mission, Mr. President, for which you are by ability, experience and disposition so eminently qualified and to which you bring the prestige of the office of President of the Security Council itself. Godspeed to you on your mission, to the efforts of the Security Council, to the cooperation of the two Governments with you and to the untiring work of an ably led and dedicated Secretariat, as they all work together and stand firm on the moral foundations of the life and values of the United Nations in this time of hazard and hope.

The Member States of the United Nations must apply, with equal justice under the Charter, the principles of the United Nations to all nations, large or small, friend or foe, east or west. Problems, situations, disputes, cases on the agenda. of the United Nations have their ups and downs and come and go, but the United Nations goes on, deep in the minds and hearts of the people as they do their day's work and pray and hope, in the great adventure of building a freer and fairer peaceful world for all peoples in all lands.