10021964  Text of the Speech made by Sir Patrick Dean (United Kingdom) in the Security Council Meeting No. 1090 held on 10 February 1964

 Text of the Speech made by Sir Patrick Dean (United Kingdom) in the Security Council Meeting No. 1090 held on 10 February 1964

 

The statements which we have heard from the representatives of Pakistan and India have revealed yet again the complexities of the question now before the Council and the apparently complete incompatibility of the public attitudes taken by the two parties to the Kashmir dispute. This, I am afraid, was an outcome which my Government had expected. What we had hoped to avoid here was bitter accusation and counter accusation.

 

My Government's view on the settlement of the Kashmir problem was stated in the British Parliament in December 1956 by the Under-Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations in the following terms:

 

"Her Majesty's Government has always hoped that this dispute would be settled by agreement between the two countries. That is still their hope. Meanwhile, Her Majesty's Government will continue to support efforts to reach agreement which would give effect to the Resolutions of the United Nations."

 

This remains my Government's policy.

We are still convinced that a solution can emerge only. from constructive and sincere negotiations between the Governments of India and Pakistan. We are anxious lest public discussion in the Security Council should prejudice prospects for such sincere negotiation. Nevertheless, the problem of Kashmir has once more been brought before us.

 

In these circumstances my delegation believes that it is the clear duty of all members of the Council, and if I may say so, the delegations of India and Pakistan, to do our best to use this occasion for discussion and negotiation with a view to moving towards the settlement which has eluded the collective wisdom of the Security Council for fifteen years.

 

My delegation has therefore welcomed the efforts which we understand are being made behind the scenes to find common ground between India and Pakistan. We should indeed the well pleased if a fresh approach by such members of the Council as have spoken today, which have not previously had direct contact with the consideration of this question in the Security Council, should lead to the break-through that is so earnestly desired by all members of this Council, and should enable the negotiations towards which my Government has been working for many years to be undertaken on a basis that holds promise of a settlement.

 

What I have now to say, therefore, will be directed to making plain my Government's views on the status of Kashmir, to outlining action taken by my Government since the Security Council last met to discuss Kashmir in 1962, and finally to suggesting steps which in our opinion would help towards progress.

 

First, I wish to reiterate my Government's position on the status of Kashmir and on the question of self-determination. This was made clear most recently by our sponsorship of the resolution adopted by the Security Council on 24 January 1957. According to that resolution, the Council:

 

"[reminded] the Governments and authorities concerned of the principle embodied in its resolutions of 21 April 1948, 3 June 1948, 14 March 1950 and 30 March 1951, and the United Nations Commission for India and Pakistan resolutions of 13 August 1948 and 5 January 1949, that the final disposition of the State of Jammu and Kashmir will be made in accordance with the will of the people expressed through the democratic method of a free and impartial plebiscite conducted under the auspices of the United Nations."

 

My Government stands firmly by the principles enunciated in that resolution today.

 

We consider it unrealistic to consider the status of Kashmir purely in terms of the legal effect of the Maharajah's instrument of accession. It is in our view impossible to leave out of consideration fifteen years of discussion in this Council and the decisions taken by it. In short, my Government does not accept the contention that no dispute now exists and that there remains in Kashmir nothing to be negotiated. Quite the contrary. A dispute does exist, which should be made subject of negotiation with due regard to previous Security Council resolutions and to the wishes of the people most directly concerned, namely the people of Kashmir.

 

I now turn to the action taken by my Government towards trying to find a solution of the Kashmir dispute in the period since the Security Council's last discussion of the matter in 1962. I need not explain to members of the Security Council why my Government has felt compelled to be active in this matter. The Council is well aware of our historical association with the problem and the ties of friendship and Commonwealth with both India and Pakistan, which make the continuation of this dispute between the two countries so distressing to my Government.

 

It will be equally clear to members of this Council and, I trust, to the delegations of India and Pakistan, that satisfactory permanent political defence and economic arrangements for the Indian subcontinent can never be reached until there is an agreed Kashmir settlement. My Government is, therefore, bound to regard this as the ultimate objective and constantly to seek ways and means of moving towards it. It was in this spirit, that my Government warmly welcomed the joint statement issued by Mr. Nehru and President Ayub Khan on 29 November 1962, which reads as follows:

 

"The President of Pakistan and the Prime Minister of India have agreed that a renewed effort should be made to resolve the outstanding differences between their two countries on Kashmir and other related matters, so as to enable India and Pakistan to live side by side in peace and friendship. In consequence they have decided to start discussions at an early date with the object of reaching an honourable and equitable settlement. These will be conducted initially at the ministerial level. At the appropriate stage direct talks will be held between Mr. Nehru and President Ayub."

 

We regarded this statement of intention as a major step forward and we followed the course of the ministerial meetings which were subsequently held with keen anticipation. 

 

There were in all six rounds of ministerial talks. Unfortunately, they came to an end on 16 May 1963 with an announcement that "no agreement could be reached". At this stage my Government reverted to the trend of thought which had been propounded in the Security Council in 1962, namely, that, in the face of the inability of the two countries to agree, some degree of outside assistance might help in the search for a solution.

 

The possibility of mediation was discussed during the summer of 1963 by the Indian and Pakistani and British Governments and we were encouraged when in answering a question about mediation at a press conference on 15 June, Mr. Nehru confirmed that his Government was prepared "to explore any avenue". Subsequently, however, the Governments of both India and Pakistan indicated that they did not consider the time propitious for further discussion of mediation.

 

There the matter rested until the autumn of 1963, when developments in Indo-Pakistan relations were once more brought to the attention of the Security Council by the Government of Pakistan. The subsequent course of events is familiar to all in this room.

 

Apart from the question of Kashmir, the delegations of Pakistan and India have touched in their statements to the Council on other subjects of contention between their two Governments, notably, the communal rioting in East Pakistan and West Bengal, and the problem of population movements between these two areas. My Government shared the profound regret expressed by both delegations at the outbreaks of communal violence, and welcomed the stern action taken by both Governments to put an end to them and to prevent their recurrence. My delegation is not qualified to comment on the genesis of these communal outbreaks. Equally we have not got sufficient facts which would enable a judgement to be made on the merits of the case relating to population movements.

 

To us, the most immediate and practical way of handling these sources of tension between the two countries is by representatives of the Governments concerned getting together around the conference table. We deplore anything that is allowed to stand in the way of such negotiations, while men and women are exposed to injury and death.

 

My delegation therefore welcomes the statement made by the representative of India, in the context of these problems, that his Government is prepared to take any and every step i cooperation with Pakistan and that it would welcome a meeting of Ministers from both countries to discuss ways and means. I explained my Government's position on the problem before us and the action which it has taken in the past eighteen months. to try to bring about a settlement of the Kashmir dispute.

 

I have stressed the fact that, now that meetings are taking place in this Council, we must all make every effort to find a constructive solution. My delegation welcomes the attempts being made by certain delegations to work for such a solution and we have no desire to complicate their efforts by laying down rigid lines of action which in our view should be followed However, I should like to suggest that the Security Council should bear two factors in mind.

 

The first is that the authority of this Council, which we are all here pledged to preserve, and the principles of the Charter, require that the decisions taken by the Security Council in the course of the last fifteen years should not be lost to view.

 

The second is that the passage of resolutions which are ignored by one of the parties takes us no further forward and has not in the past led to the constructive solution which all members of the Council, so I presume, desire.

 

The Security Council's attention should therefore be directed in the first instance to searching for common ground between India and Pakistan. The directions in which this common ground might be found appear to my delegation to be the following. First, both India and Pakistan should restore normal conditions and inter-communal harmony in their two countries and forthwith undertake talks on their communal and related problems with a view to preventing further outbreaks. If the two parties believe that the exercise of good offices in this connection would be helpful, my delegation suggests that the Security Council should stand ready to discuss this aspect. In the second place, India and Pakistan should be prepared to resume negotiations on Kashmir and, as necessary, other related matters.

 

In this connection I must emphasise that my Government's experience of the negotiations undertaken between the two countries in the course of 1962 and 1963 has convinced it that some degree of outside help will be necessary if satisfactory results are to be achieved. It is for this reason that we have favoured mediation, as both parties are aware from discussions we have had with them from time to time.

 

We realise that neither Government accepted this contention last August, largely on the grounds, as I said, that the time was not propitious, although our impression was that both agreed that mediation would be helpful at the right time. We now put forward for consideration the view that the extreme tension which characterises Indo-Pakistan relations at the present time, as reflected in the bloodshed of the last few months, renders urgent the need for a bold approach.

 

This, however, is a matter which we cannot press if it is not acceptable to both India and Pakistan. We shall therefore content ourselves with commending it to the urgent attention of both delegations. We suggest that they consider all possibilities in this regard, including that of engaging the assistance of the Secretary-General of the United Nations. In conclusion, I would say that much clearly bangs on the efforts now being made by certain delegations behind the scenes. Their willingness to accept this responsibility, in spite of the sorry history of the Security Council's past failure to resolve the Kashmir dispute, is admired by my delegation. We have no desire whatsoever to interfere with their efforts, but we wish them to know that they have our full support.

 

It will be clear, I think, from what I have said, that my delegation would be ready to give general endorsement to the form and content of the method of approach to a solution of this problem advocated at the end of his speech by the representative of the Ivory Coast.