6/3/16 ADDRESS TO THE DELEGATES TO THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE UNITED NATIONS H.M. THE KING St. James's Palace, January 9, 1946. I am very glad to extend a hearty welcome to the delegates of fifty countries to the Great Assembly of the United Nations. It gives me particular pleasure that the first meeting of this great Assembly should be held in London. Our ancient capital, though almost every home in it bears the scars of war, remains a worthy setting for the momentous tasks with which you are entrusted. In the long course of our history no more important meeting has ever taken place within its boundaries. You will carry on your deliberations, so fateful for the future of humanity, within sight of our Parliament of Westminster. There the people of these islands, century after century, have sent their representatives, whose duty it has been to preserve their liberties and to secure the observance of the rule of law. By God's grace we have been able for a long period to enjoy both freedom and order; it is clear that neither can be preserved without the other. And now you have come here from the four quarters of the earth to seek these ends for all countries and all peoples. The year 1945 brought the end of the sternest, most widespread and most dangerous conflict of all ages; it brought final victory over the enemies of the liberties of mankind. But that victory was won at a grievously heavy price; it has left, in its aftermath, a no less heavy responsibility on the victors, now joined together in this organization of the United Nations. It is, in fact, in your hands to make or mar the happiness of millions of your fellow men, and of millions yet unborn. It is for you to lay the foundations of a new world, where such a conflict as that which lately brought our world to the verge of annihilation must never be repeated, where men and women can find opportunity to realize to the full the good that lies in each one of them. It is a noble work, and you have, in the Charter of the United Nations, a noble instrument. In your discussion in the General Assembly, of course, the major problem of security will claim much of your attention; but the establishment of the Economic and Social Council, and of the Trusteeship Council, gives farreaching opportunities for dealing with other issues of no less importance. Upon the former depends to a large extent the success of your work for security, while through the Trusteeship Council peace-loving States can stimulate the extension of self-government to peoples all over the world. As for the Charter itself, it reaffirms our faith in the equal rights of men and women and of nations great and small-a recognition of a vital principle that our enemies tried in vain to overthrow. But the rights both of nations and individuals cannot exist and stand secure unless nations and individuals alike are members of an ordered society. Such rights can only be fully enjoyed when they are recognized as part of a common interest in which we all share. Moreover, to every right belongs a corresponding duty; this cardinal point is rightly emphasized in the obligations assumed under the Charter. The splendid prizes now offered to mankind will not be won without effort and sacrifice. Clearly, the outstanding feature of membership of the United Nations is service-not a selfish defense of mere national interest, but service to the whole community of nations. Here is the prime motive power which must inspire all its actions and enable the approach to every difficulty to be made in the spirit of co-operation, understanding and good will. It is of good augury that this spirit has been shown in the discussions of the Executive Committee and the Preparatory Commission. We have started well. Machinery has been created appropriate to the grave prob lems now confronting you in the building up of a system of international security. This machinery enables you to harness to the service of mankind those new sources of energy which the genius of man has discovered; to take practical measures for mitigating and finally overcoming the hunger and desolation which the war has brought to so many millions of our fellow men; to increase and to make secure the economic and social welfare of all peoples; and to safeguard the rights of those who as yet are unable to look after themselves. But all these tasks cannot be accomplished at once, nor will they be accomplished at all unless we exercise comprehension, patience and tolerance one with another. I pray that those qualities may be granted to us. For tonight we stand-and stand together-on the threshold of immense possibilities. Within the next few weeks you may determine whether the lifting of the darkness that brought us strength and hope in the year that is past is to broaden into a true dawn, or whether the clouds are to descend once more upon a world that craves for light. If, at this first gathering of the first Assembly of the United Nations, you can succeed in spreading that light, history will record that no band of men and women ever did a nobler duty. It is a duty to which, without fear or hesitation, I pledge those for whom alone I am qualified to speak-peoples of the British Commonwealth and Empire. They have fought through two great world wars from start to finish; though hard beset, they did not fail mankind in its hour of deadliest peril; they will not fail it now. To you, their colleagues in the high task of peaceful reconstruction, their neighbors in the world-community, I know that they will give that loyal co-operation through which alone colleagues and neighbors can attain their common ends. Gentlemen, I bid you the warmest of welcomes to London. I ask you to believe that you have my heartfelt good wishes for the success of the work which tomorrow, with the eyes of all humanity upon you, you will begin. [United Nations Journal] OF THE UNITED NATIONS RT. HON. CLEMENT ATTLEE, Prime Minister London, January 10, 1946. I have the honor today of welcoming to London this great assembly of delegates of the United Nations. I would like in the first place to thank you, Mr. President, for your speech, and also to place on record the appreciation which I am sure we all feel for the successful manner in which you have carried out the arduous and important duties of President of the Preparatory Commission. I know well from my colleagues how much that Commission has owed to your guidance. Without your sense of business, readiness to accept responsibility, and the influence which you have exerted on your colleagues, we might not have been able to meet at this time with the procedure and program ready to hand. I hope that the proceedings of this Conference will be animated by the same sense of urgency, the same practical spirit, and the same co-operative atmosphere as has characterized the work of the Preparatory Commission. I know that great questions were debated frankly and even passionately, but at the same time there was a lively spirit of conciliation and good will which led eventually to almost complete unanimity. I have said that we welcome you here to London, and it will be our endeavor to make you feel at home in this our capital city so that you may speak as freely and frankly as if you were meeting in some special territory under international control. We shall do our best to make your stay here pleasant, within the limit of our means. We wish we could do more, but I am sure that all of you in the course of your stay will realize that anything that is lacking in your entertainment is not due to any absence of good will but to the effect of the malice of our enemies, wreaked upon this ancient city. The evidences of this you will see around you. Last night we listened to an inspiring speech by His Majesty the King, in which he set before us in a few words the nature of the task which we have to accomplish, the vital importance of the issues at stake, and the keen desire of all the nations of the British Commonwealth, for whom he spoke, to make this first meeting of the United Nations Organization a complete success. I had the privilege of taking part in the discussions at San Francisco, from which was evolved the Charter of the United Nations. The initiation of these discussions, while our enemies were still in the field against us, was at once an act of faith in our victory and an acknowledgment of the cause for which we were fighting. The purposes and principles set down in the Preamble and in Article I of the Charter have the wholehearted support of His Majesty's Government and, I believe, of the whole of the people of this country, to whatever political party they belong. We realize that, as perhaps never before, a choice is offered to mankind. Twice in my lifetime a war has brought untold sorrow to mankind. Should there be a third world war, the long upward progress toward civilization may be halted for generations, and the work of myriads of men and women through the centuries be brought to naught. PRINCIPLES AND ACTION The Preamble to the Charter of the United Nations admirably sets out the ideals for which men and women laid down their lives during the war. But the affirmation of principles is easy: the translation into action, the making of a working reality out of an ideal, is very difficult. In the stress and strain of war it is possible to fuse the ideal aim with practical effort. When, in the summer of 1940, this country was left open to the imminent danger of invasion, the whole of the people were animated by one single aim, and that aim was immediately translated into action. Every man and woman leaped forward to serve wherever needed, and the strength of that purpose endured through five years of war. During those five years, as nation after nation joined in the struggle, the efforts of the fighting forces, of the workers behind the line, of the resistance movements in so many countries, were all co-ordinated and directed to the single purpose of victory. Private interests and individual national aspirations were sunk in the common endeavor. Now, today, when victory has crowned our arms, we have to bring to the task of creating permanent conditions of peace the same sense of urgency, the same self-sacrifice, the same willingness to subordinate sectional interests to the common good, as brought us through the crisis of war. We all, therefore, must approach our work with a realization of its outstanding and vital importance. The United Nations Organization must become the overriding factor in foreign policy. After the First World War, there was a tendency to regard the League of Nations as something outside the ordinary range of foreign policy. Governments continued on the old lines, pursuing individual aims, following the path of power politics, not understanding that the world had passed into a new epoch. In just such a spirit in times past in these Islands, great nobles and their retainers used to practice private war in disregard of the authority of the central Government. The time came when private armies were abolished, when the rule of law was established throughout the length and breadth of this Island. What has been done in Britain and in other countries on a small stage has now to be effected throughout the whole world. THE INDIVISIBILITY OF PEACE We must all now today recognize the truth proclaimed by the Foreign Minister of the U.S.S.R. at Geneva-"Peace is indivisible." Looking back on past years, we can trace the origins of the late war to acts of aggression the significance of which was not fully realized at the time. Failure to deal with the Japanese adventure in the Far East, and with the acts of aggression of the Fascist rulers of Germany and Italy, Ied inevitably to the breakdown of the rule of law and to the Second World War. In the last five years, the aggression of Hitler in Europe drew eventually into the contest men from all continents and from the islands of the sea. It should make us all realize that the welfare of every one of us is bound up with the welfare of the world as a whole, and that we are truly all members one of another. I am glad that the Charter of the United Nations does not deal only with Governments and States or with politics and war, but with the simple elemental needs of human beings whatever be their race, their color, or their creed. In the Charter we reaffirm our faith in fundamental human rights. |