Text of the Speech made by Mr. Morozov (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) in the Security Council Meeting No. 1237 held on 4 September 1965

Text of the Speech made by Mr. Morozov (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) in the Security Council Meeting No. 1237 held on 4 September 1965

Mr. President, I should like to point out that in your second statement you conceded that in the future you would avoid creating a situation like that which resulted in my delegation not being consulted about the time of the Council's meeting.

Although coming at this time, that is not enough to give me, as representative of the Soviet Union, full satisfaction, it is in any case considerably better than the statement made by my distinguished neighbour on the left. Reproaching me for trying to lecture the Council-which I leave to his conscience the United Kingdom representative expressed himself more or less as follows: Oh, you were not informed? But I was informed, so please be satisfied with that." Of course, if we are going to act in that way, it will hardly contribute to the success of our work. In any event, it has already resulted in the loss of time which we could have put to considerable better use.

My second observation is that we could, of course, continue at great length the discussion of the meaning of rules 1, 2 and 3. I wish to reaffirm the position which I stated initially in answer to your statement, Mr. President; I remain of that opinion. However, I am very grateful to the representative of the Netherlands. He did not, it is true, support my point of view with regard to the interpretation of the extent of the President's authority, but he did, in a highly practical way, come to the rescue, I might say, of the whole Counsel-both you yourself, Mr. President, and all those others who, like you, have until now been considering what steps they should take to convene the Council. The representative of the Netherlands made two points in his statement. First of all, he said that his Government considered it essential to call a meeting of the Security Council. Well, better late than never. It seems that this saying has been translated into all languages. Thus, we have a formal proposal to call a meeting of the Council. And since we have not yet started the meeting and have not yet considered the Council's agenda-even though it is not quite customary, and I would have preferred to see that proposal in writing under the name of the country represented by my distinguished neighbour on the right-I am prepared, in view of the circumstances in which we find ourselves, to accept it as a formal proposal to call a meeting of the Council.

The Netherlands representative said further that since his Government considered it essential to call a meeting of the Council-that is how he began-he supported your decision, Mr. President. This is, as the French say, a manner of speaking. However, if it pleased him to state that the Government of the Netherlands considered it essential to call a meeting of the Council on this question and to add something more, as I have just pointed out, then, in view of the service which he has done us all by removing the necessity for continuing this particular discussion, I am prepared to forgo any comment on what he said.