YouSaid · the spoken record

Schuman

THE RECORD WRITES THIS SPEAKER AS SCHUMAN

lines on the record
57
first
1948-09-24
most recent
1949-09-24
sittings or episodes
2
sources
un-general-debate

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  1. “The intention from which it sprang had been seriously misunderstood and the result was a kind of paralysis damaging both to the prestige of the Organization and to the efficiency of the system. The question had been frequently raised and passionately discussed. Any revision of the text on reasonable lines would meet with the entire approval of France. But the difficulty was not the framing of a suitable text but the finding of a remedy for an actual situation and a state of mind. Excessive recourse to the veto was the expression of a fundamental opposition which threatened the future of the United Nations and thereby of the whole world.”

    1948-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 3 (1948)

  2. “The admission of Italy would at least tend to correct an unbalanced situation which was both inequitable and fraught with serious disadvantages. The unanimous vote of the permanent members of the Security Council was necessary for the admission of every new Member. In the opinion of those who framed the Charter, that unanimity, which was one of the directing principles of the Organization, was designed to ensure its proper functioning. In fact, the abuse of that rule had had precisely the opposite result. France had not invented the right of veto and did not advocate it; France had accepted it at San Francisco simply as a means of reconciling the equality of rights and the difference of means, between the various States.”

    1948-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 3 (1948)

  3. “The United Nations must be universal or it would cease to exist; no peace-loving nation should be excluded for any political or ideological reason, provided its admission did not prejudice the principles of international morality, democracy and freedom upon which the Charter was based. Many countries had asked to be admitted, and some had now been waiting for a long time. The opposition to their admission was based on the strict letter of the Charter, but without any seriously valid justification. That was not the spirit of the Charter, and the United Nations were entitled to call for a more liberal outlook, and for greater understanding. Thus, the door had been closed for over a year to the Italian Republic. The representation of Europe in the United Nations was tragically mutilated.”

    1948-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 3 (1948)

  4. “The agenda for the third session was disturbingly the same as that of the previous your; the questions were the same from one year to the next, and the problems were still unsolved because the situation had not improved. International relations continued to be governed by the division of the world into two blocs. The failure of the United Nations to overcome essential difficulties, the mental anguish in which mankind lived and the continuance of dangerous local disputes, were all due to that fundamental division. The same weakness was to be seen in the internal working of the United Nations. New Members, however well-qualified, could not be admitted and the over-frequent use of the veto hampered the functioning of the Organization.”

    1948-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 3 (1948)

  5. “Better than any other country France was able to judge the dangers of disunion between nations divided no longer by traditional political rivalries but by profound ideological differences. The United Nations had founded its organization upon mutual understanding and trust; it would live only in so far as both understanding and trust were kept alive. But in actual fact, the United Nations was faced not only with conflicting interests, but with passions, suspicion and moral confusion, the results of two world wars. From the wounds inflicted by those wars Europe had not yet recovered. The French representative was, however, sure he expressed the general feeling in declaring that, in spite of everything, the United Nations was determined to keep its faith intact.”

    1948-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 3 (1948)

  6. “It was right that Europe should enjoy the privilege of welcoming the great forum of the peace-loving nations. In the atmosphere of an ancient civilization and surrounded by the evidence of a glorious yet troubled past, a better idea could be gained of the magnitude of the task and the immense difficulties with which the United Nations was confronted. Here they had a better understanding of its anxieties, but they had also grounds for hope. In happier times, Paris would have had unmixed joy in welcoming the United Nations to a setting which had been miraculously preserved, and would have welcomed them to a city whose pride it was to be and to remain universal. But joy was today tempered with seriousness.”

    1948-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 3 (1948)

  7. “Mr. SCHUMAN, after referring to the speech of welcome by the President of the French Republic (136th meeting) said that his country was glad that all the Governments represented at the Assembly had accepted France’s hospitality, and was grateful for their expressions of friendship and for the flattering terms in which they had described the part it had played in the history of mankind. The United Nations, while remaining attached to the headquarters they had finally chosen, desired to emphasize the universal character of the Organization by temporarily transferring the meeting place of the General Assembly and the Councils of the United Nations to other continents. Europe was the birthplace of the ideal and of the principles on which the Charter was based, and in this case France was only the representative of Europe.”

    1948-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 3 (1948)