YouSaid · the spoken record

Fitzgerald

THE RECORD WRITES THIS SPEAKER AS FITZGERALD

lines on the record: 175
first: 1973-09-24
most recent: 1976-09-24
sittings or episodes: 4
sources: un-general-debate

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“My delegation hopes that those reports are well founded, not merely for the sake of the Namibian people, whose welfare in the future is the special responsibility of this Organization, but also in the hope that such a development might mark a first step by the Government of South Africa away from its past policies which have cut it off from the rest of the world. 66. We in Ireland have also suffered in our turn from a failure on the part of those who had the authority to do so to tackle in good time the problem of injustice to the important nationalist minority in Northern Ireland. The explosive situation which inevitably developed from this failure burst into open conflict in 1969.”
1974-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 29 (1974)
“In southern Africa the same danger of confrontation persists. Happily, as I noted earlier, the emergence of a democratic Government in. Portugal is helping to resolve this problem peacefully in several of the Territories involved; but these developments serve only to stress the urgency of a movement towards a solution in the rest of southern Africa, which has been suffering from the intransigence of its white minority regimes and from their shortsighted determination to perpetuate injustice in defense of a perverted concept of "civilization". 65. Within the past couple of days there have been reports from South Africa that the Government of that country may be about to announce a significant change in its policy with respect to Namibia.”
1974-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 29 (1974)
“It is our earnest hope that from the tragic drama of Cyprus in recent months, the participants and the rest of the world too may learn that attempts to resolve conflicts of communal rights by forceful means not only can bring greater hardship to the communities in whose name the actions were taken, but can also damage the international machinery available under the Charter for the solution of such problems and can undermine the principle that lies at the heart of the Charter itself the sovereign equality of States. 63. In the Middle East, the unwillingness for so long of Arab States to recognize the right of Israel to exist and the reluctance in turn by Israel to recognize and work towards a resolution of the problem of the Palestinians have together contributed to instability, and thus to repeated armed conflict. 64.”
1974-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 29 (1974)
“We trust that negotiations will permit the speedy and safe return to their homes of all those, from both communities, who have been uprooted, as well as the full restoration to Cyprus of its right to sovereignty and independence. 61. The course of events in Cyprus has not made the task entrusted to the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus any easier, and we share the sorrow of those countries whose soldiers have died under the flag of the United Nations in the cause of peace in the island. We also wish to pay homage to the devoted and unflagging personal efforts of the Secretary-General, Mr. Waldheim, to bring communal leaders of Cyprus together in a dialog of peace. 62.”
1974-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 29 (1974)
“In Cyprus an inherently unstable situation was made even more dangerous by the emergence in Greece of a military dictatorship which was far too readily tolerated, and even aided, by some members of the world community. When that regime eventually succumbed to adventurism in Cyprus, the uneasy balance in that island foundered, bringing misery and death to the Cypriot community, Greek and Turk alike. 60. The disproportionate response by Turkey to the events precipitated by the coup in Cyprus has brought in its train tragic hardship and dislocation to the Cypriot population and a threat to the sovereignty and independence of Cyprus as a State.”
1974-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 29 (1974)
“No country can, however, escape from the constraints imposed by the situation that faces the world today. In southern Africa, in the Middle East, in Cyprus and in Northern Ireland, to name but four parts of the world, there are dangerous situations, each of which owes its potentially or actually explosive Character to the world's too ready acceptance of past festering injustices a failing to which the Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom, Mr. Callaghan, referred in the course of his address yesterday [2240th meeting] and to the failure of one or other party to these disputes to face up to the inherent instability of a situation that momentarily may have seemed to favor their interests. 59.”
1974-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 29 (1974)
“This poses great problems for the world's nations: for the super-Powers, which will find it difficult to accept any constraint on the freedom of action which their potential for destruction has hitherto given them; for the former colonial Powers, which cannot find it easy to adapt to the loss of their ancient privileges; but also for the new States, those like my own, with half a century of independence behind them as well as those which have secured their sovereign freedom only within the past decade or two. For all of us newer States the acceptance of constraints on our individual freedom of action in the interest of stability, and even of the survival of the world, must be somewhat irksome coming within decades, or even only within years, after we have achieved our long-sought independence. 58.”
1974-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 29 (1974)
“What frankly is frightening is that here in the political sphere as in the economic sphere the achievement of a new and more equitable world equilibrium, one that would be acceptable to the world's peoples as well as to their Governments, seems to be beyond the competence of our existing international institutions, as we work them today. The kind of international order needed to cope successfully with these problems demands an institutional structure far better organized and far better disciplined than that which we now have. 57.”
1974-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 29 (1974)
“As a country which a decade ago played a constructive part in the initiation of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons [resolution 2373 (XXII), annex], Ireland is particularly concerned at the recent evidence of a breakdown in the safeguards then introduced and will join in any effort to restore tight control over the spread of nuclear weapons. 56. These new problems cannot be met by old, simplistic solutions; they require a far more sophisticated approach, one that will involve many nations in the exercise of statesmanship and self-restraint.”
1974-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 29 (1974)
“At the same time, the former simple balance of terror between the nuclear capabilities of the two super-Powers has been replaced by a new, increasingly dispersed, and therefore perhaps increasingly threatening, proliferation of nuclear weapons and of the means to create them. The dangers posed by these developments, and the 'need for effective action to deal with them, were rightly stressed here last Monday by the Secretary of State of the United States, Mr. Kissinger [2238th meeting].”
1974-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 29 (1974)
“We see today clearly that this is no longer the case; quite apart from the new situation created by the return of China to its rightful role as an active world Power, by the emergence of Japan as one of the world's major industrial Powers, and by the coming together of nine of the countries of Western Europe in a new European community, there has been the emergence of the group of non-aligned countries. Moreover, the relationship between the two super-Powers has settled into a more stable pattern and the confrontation that existed between them has, to a degree, been replaced as a source of world tension by local conflicts in various parts of the world, some of which carry in themselves, however as others have already pointed out in this debate the seeds of a threat to world peace. 55.”
1974-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 29 (1974)
“Moreover, as between the countries within the industrialized group of nations, no adequate progress has yet been made with smoothing out the uneven distribution of the impact of these events on somewhat differently placed national economies, nor has there been on the part of most of these countries sufficient progress in tackling the inflationary impact of the sharp price increases they face, which now threaten to precipitate a dangerously sharp second-stage wage cost inflation within many of these States. 54. What I have just said concerning the need to replace a false equilibrium in the economic sphere finds its application also, I believe, in the political sphere. There was a time when the world political balance seemed to be a function almost exclusively of the relationship between two super-Powers.”
1974-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 29 (1974)
“Almost a year has now passed since the increase in oil prices, and well over a year since some prices of raw materials started to move sharply upwards, but there still seems to be a dangerous hiatus in the redirecting of surplus funds not being spent on current consumption or investment by those who have received them; these funds are not yet working their way back into the system on a scale sufficient to maintain world economic activity.”
1974-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 29 (1974)
“A number of countries, including those of the, European Economic Community and a number of the oil-producing countries, have tried in their different ways to give a lead in this matter, but this lead has yet to be followed on a scale large enough to offer an assurance that the action to be taken in respect of this aspect of the problem will be in any degree commensurate with the urgent need. 53. Finally, and equally urgently, effective international action is required to prevent the impact of the recent sudden deterioration in the terms of trade of the industrialized countries from precipitating a world recession.”
1974-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 29 (1974)
“Next, as part of the immediate program demanded by the urgent needs of the present situation, there must be an adequate emergency fund to help those developing countries which, because of their lack of raw materials, have merely had their poverty made even more absolute by these recent price movements and have, in some instances, been threatened with actual starvation, as we have just heard in moving terms from the Prime Minister of Bangladesh. The efforts to get an emergency fund of this kind off the ground have been frustratingly slow, and have hitherto evoked a somewhat uneven response from those whose means impose on them a severe responsibility in this matter.”
1974-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 29 (1974)
“In other words, the benefits gained by many poor countries as a result of the rise in the prices of raw materials in the past couple of years must by some means be substantially guaranteed pending the development of arrangements that will assure to them a continued, steady future growth of real income from these sources. The European Community, in its negotiations with the associated African, Caribbean and Pacific countries in Jamaica two months ago, undertook some first tentative steps in this direction which will, however, need to be reinforced and to be extended much more widely if the trading gains secured by the raw-material-producing countries in the last couple of years are to be maintained. 52.”
1974-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 29 (1974)
“The forthcoming Euro-Arab dialog, in which my country as a member of the European Economic Community will be participating, will, I hope, among other things, lead to a beginning of such a transfer of technology in favor of one group of developing countries and could perhaps, if successful as we hope it will be provide a model for similar arrangements between other groups of countries. 50. But pending the development of a long-term plan comprising inter alia these elements, we must ensure as a preliminary step that there is no recurrence of the disastrous cycle of gross fluctuations in the prices of raw materials which has in the past inflicted such misery on poor countries dependent on raw materials for their livelihood and disrupted the markets of the industrialized countries, whose stability is important to the world as a whole. 51.”
1974-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 29 (1974)
“My own country has not in the past played as full a part as it should have done in the provision of development aid to countries much less well off than itself. We have, however, quadrupled our development aid program in the past 18 months and have committed ourselves to a continued expansion of the real volume of this aid designed at least to-treble it again within the next four or five years. 49. But, thirdly, there must be, as between the developed world and the developing countries, whether endowed with raw materials or not, a transfer of technology to bridge that most fundamental gap which, as I said a few moments ago, remains a formidable force perpetuating the division of the world into the "haves" and "have nots" even after the end of the colonial era.”
1974-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 29 (1974)
“In my delegation's view, the solution to the imbalance of wealth in the world must include three essential elements: first, there must be an assurance of a continued long-term improvement in the relative prices of raw materials from developing countries vis-a-vis the prices of industrial manufactures. 47. Secondly, there must be an assurance to those countries which, because of their lack of natural resources, may be expected to lose rather than to gain from such a continued price adjustment of long- term and continuing aid of a kind, and on a scale, that will enable them to share fully in the continuing redistribution of world wealth, and, over a period of time, to secure self-sustaining economic growth. 48.”
1974-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 29 (1974)
“45. That is, surely, the primary lesson brought home to all of us at the sixth special session of the General Assembly, convened earlier this year on the inspired initiative of your country, Mr. President: the complexity of the problem. The Declaration on the Establishment of a New International Economic Order [resolution 3201 (5-K/J] stresses in its paragraph 3 "reality of interdependence" and the fact that "the prosperity of the international community as a whole depends upon the prosperity of its constituent parts". And the complexity of the interests which must be reconciled is reflected in the Program of Action on the Establishment of a New International Economic Order [resolution 3202 (S-VI)]. 46.”
1974-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 29 (1974)
“What seemed up to a year ago a relatively clear-cut, although not easily soluble, problem of two sets of nations, rich and poor, is now universally perceived to be much more complex, involving First the developed countries, which are suffering the consequences of increased oil and raw material prices; secondly, the oil-producing countries, whose resources have overnight been increased on a scale which, for some at least, creates problems of disposal and investment; thirdly, a range of other raw-material-producing countries, some of them great gainers from the rise in the price of certain raw materials, some less markedly benefiting because of a less fortunate pattern of raw material production, and some even losing because the prices of their raw materials have not risen at all; and, fourthly, that group of countries with no raw materials to speak of, which are now far worse off than ever before.”
1974-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 29 (1974)
“44. We are just learning at present to understand the full complexity of the unequal distribution of wealth as we see how increases in the prices of oil and raw materials aid the economies of only some developing countries, and damage, in certain in-stances disastrously, the economies of others less well endowed.”
1974-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 29 (1974)
“The inequities in the distribution of wealth in the world are not, as some have perhaps simplistically believed, merely the immediate consequence of past colonialism. Many inequities are rather the product of a technological gap which formerly made colonialism possible but which remains an equally formidable force after the end of the colonial system. Other inequities in the distribution of wealth are the product of an unequal distribution of raw materials, with which the nations of the world are most unevenly endowed. Others, again, may reflect massive disparities of size as between different nations: disparities of geographical size, which is often relevant to the range of raw materials available; or of population size, which determines the scale of the domestic market and therefore, to a degree, the possibilities of mass production.”
1974-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 29 (1974)
“The onus for such plans and preparations lies upon the "haves" of the world; it is they who must, not only in their own enlightened self-interest but also in the interest of the rest of the world, seek the means of putting right what is so evidently wrong, at a pace and in a manner, as I have said, that will secure the confidence and trust of those who suffer from the present system. 42. This I take to be the message from the sixth special session of the General Assembly and from the meeting in Mexico of the Working Group on the Charter of Economic Rights and Duties of States, established by UNCTAD; and no doubt it will also be the message that will come within the next couple of months from the World Food Conference in Rome. 43.”
1974-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 29 (1974)
“Whether we like it or not, the old order has to change, and it is clear that, rather than seek to persuade those who suffer under this system to hold their hand lest worse should befall them, we must set out to plan a readjustment of the relations between nations and between economies on a scale large enough and at a rate rapid enough to secure acceptance by those who suffer most from the injustices of the present system. This readjustment must, however, be prepared and planned sufficiently skilfully to ensure against the danger of shocks so great as to increase still further the sufferings of those who are the losers from the present unjust equilibrium. 41.”
1974-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 29 (1974)
“There will, no doubt, be those in the world who try to draw from this the conclusion that however great the injustices that blemish the international order it may be more prudent to leave these untouched than to attempt reforms whose unanticipated shock- effects on the system might in the short and medium run be harmful beyond any gains that can be achieved. This, however, would be a counsel of despair, for the economic, social and political injustices prevailing in the world are so great, and are now so clearly seen to be so, that no counsel of reason could prevent or inhibit efforts to set them right. 40.”
1974-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 29 (1974)
“Moreover, the chain effects of any disruption of this balance are so immensely dangerous to the economy of the whole world and all its peoples, poor as well as rich, that all who are concerned with securing a more equitable distribution of wealth and power throughout the world have been forced by these recent events to consider carefully the manner in which this objective can be achieved without doing more harm than good to the poor as well as the rich, not merely in the short term but indeed over an indefinite period ahead. We have to face the unpalatable fact that already the sudden shift in the terms of trade has sparked off an unprecedented inflation, and that a world recession, the effects of which would inevitably hit the poorest and weakest worst of all, and with which we are most ill-prepared to deal, now threatens. 39.”
1974-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 29 (1974)
“So finely balanced are the economic and social structures that have grown up through the centuries, and so accustomed have most peoples, especially in the developed world, become in recent decades to a regular annual increase in their real incomes, that the impact of a sudden adjustment in real incomes of even 5 or 6 per cent has proved dangerously disruptive and threatens the economic and perhaps even the political stability of some countries. 38.”
1974-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 29 (1974)
“In the economic sphere also we are learning at this time how sensitive is the equilibrium that has hitherto existed among different groups of nations in the world the United States, the countries of Western Europe and other industrialized countries, the State-trading countries, the oil-producing countries, the producers of other raw materials and those countries which are not endowed with natural resources. For the past 12 months the world economic system has been reverberating with the shock-effects of a sudden readjustment in the terms of trade between the oil-producing countries and the rest of the world, and to a lesser extent between other raw material producers and the rest of the world. 37.”
1974-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 29 (1974)
“A new sense of mutual commitment between nations and peoples has been a feature of the past decade in world affairs and has begun to influence the attitudes of nations and their political leaders towards each other. 35. The problem of putting right a world structure which is so evidently and pervasively wrong is not, however, going to be easy to solve; on the contrary, it seems likely to prove frustratingly intractable. For, unjust though the economic and political equilibrium that has hitherto existed in the world may be, it is an equilibrium, and a delicately balanced one at that. We have seen on a number of occasions in recent decades how in the sphere of power politics even a marginal shift in the political balance between the super-Powers can endanger world peace. 36.”
1974-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 29 (1974)
“It is only in the past decade that rich and poor nations alike have for the first time come to a full realization of how unjust is the present distribution of the world's resources and how inequitable is the sharing of power between the world's peoples. This belated realization brings with it, naturally, a desire to set things right, to create a true equilibrium in place of that false equilibrium that has hitherto existed between the nations of the world. 34. That radical changes in the relationships between rich and poor nations and in the distribution of the world's resources are urgently needed is now common ground among all but the most selfish and most reactionary.”
1974-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 29 (1974)
“The equilibrium has in fact in many respects been a false one, reflecting an inherited balance of forces that has no objective justification other than the fact that it has secured a certain short-term stability in world affairs. 32. We in this generation now face the consequences of the understandable, but perhaps near-fatal, neglect by those who have gone before us of the fundamental problems involved in this false equilibrium. We face the problem of setting right imbalances between and within nations and social and economic injustices on a global scale, as well as the problem of creating a new world political equilibrium that will reflect the rights of peoples vis-ct-vis each other a new equilibrium that will replace a pattern of international relationships that owes all too much to injustices inherited from history. 33.”
1974-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 29 (1974)
“Supply and demand have been kept more or less in balance by the price mechanism; the spheres of influence of the great Powers have remained more or less stable over a full generation; and even within particular regions of the world where local conflict situations have existed, a political balance has been maintained, disrupted only infrequently by the outbreak of conflicts, which have in each case been successfully localized. 31. The fact that such a balance has existed throughout the past generation has obscured for many the fact that the relationships which have found themselves more or less in equilibrium during this period are themselves in many instances inherently unjust and therefore unstable.”
1974-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 29 (1974)
“My delegation wishes to pay a special tribute to the inspiring and heart-warming address delivered here on Monday [2239th meeting] by the Foreign Minister of Portugal and to offer to his country our congratulations and most whole-hearted support in the new phase of its history which is now opening. 29. To Grenada, the Isle of Spice, we also give our warm felicitations. As the Prime Minister, Mr. Gairy, has said [2233rd meeting], the presence here of Grenada is an expression of faith in fundamental human rights and the dignity and worth of man which underscores the principle of self-determination. 30. The world that we have inherited from the past has had its own equilibrium.”
1974-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 29 (1974)
“The Prime Minister's moving address has emphasized to us the urgent and terrible problems which face many parts of the world none more so than his stricken country. 28. We particularly welcome Guinea-Bissau as a new Member State. Its gallant struggle for freedom has been vindicated and its presence here today reflects the rebirth of democracy in Portugal, whose previous regime's colonial policy I described at the previous session of this Assembly [.2125th meeting] as doing an injustice to the Portuguese people, their traditions and their past contributions to human knowledge and culture. We hope soon to greet the newly emerging independent States of Mozambique and Angola.”
1974-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 29 (1974)
“Mr. President, I wish at the outset to convey to you the very warm congratulations of the Irish delegation on your election as President of the twenty-ninth session of the General Assembly. Your election is doubly fortunate, since your personal wisdom and experience will guide our deliberations, and you represent a country which in both the political and the economic spheres has a record of initiative and leadership. 26. My delegation wishes, too, to pay a tribute to your predecessor, Mr. Benites of Ecuador, Who guided the twenty-eighth session and the sixth special session of the General Assembly with brilliance and juridical sagacity. 27. It is my privilege to be the first after the address of the Prime Minister of Bangladesh to welcome Bangladesh to the United Nations.”
1974-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 29 (1974)
“Should we fail in our efforts, together with the United Kingdom Government, to secure a solution along those lines, the situation could become grave indeed. I hope and pray that we shall not fail, and that I shall not at any time in the future have to come before the General Assembly to seek your assistance in finding a way out of the dangerous and tragic situation that could then arise.”
1973-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 28 (1973)
“That Council must have the power to evolve and to undertake new functions, but the pace of any such evolution must be governed by the consent of a majority of the people of Northern Ireland. The desire of the minority to identify with the new institutions should be recognized, and also their concern that justice will be fairly administered. 151. We believe that this policy reconciles the concerns of the majority in Northern Ireland with the legitimate aspirations of the great majority of the Irish people to national unity. It is a policy of reconciliation; it is a policy which we believe we can submit to this Assembly as one in full accord with the principles of the United Nations. And I hope, and I believe, that my Government will enjoy the sympathy and understanding of the States represented here in pursuing such a policy. 152.”
1973-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 28 (1973)
“The solution now proposed to this terrible problem is one on which broad agreement exists between my Government and that of the United Kingdom. It entails the establishment of a new executive in Northern Ireland, comprising elected members of the Northern Ireland Assembly, drawn from parties representative of both communities; the reform of the police and civil service in Northern Ireland so that they may be acceptable to the minority community as well as to the majority; and the creation of a Council of Ireland, with equal representation Iat executive level for Northern Ireland-which has half the Republic's population-and functions in relation to economic co-operation between the two parts of Ireland.”
1973-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 28 (1973)
“If those fears, aggravated by the uncertainties and physical distress of the past four years, could be eased, the problem of Northern Ireland would be on the way to solution. My Government has a role to play here. We do not seek to impose or to have imposed on the people of Northern Ireland any solution unacceptable to a majority there. J49. We know that any attempt to impose such a solution could only multiply the bloodshed and the bitterness. It is the people of Ireland we seek to unite; the territory of Ireland is nothing without its people. And this unity of the people of Ireland can be secured only in peace and reconciliation, with the consent of a majority of the inhabitants of Northern Ireland. 150.”
1973-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 28 (1973)
“Those two communities in Northern Ireland, locked into a situation of apparently inevitable and endless conflict, differ somewhat in their origins. But unlike, for example, the more deeply divided communities in the island of Cyprus, they speak the same language, English. In the absence of linguistic differences, the most evident distinction between the two communities happens to be one of religion, and it is this that has given the conflict its anachronistic reputation of being a religious war. Differences on points of dogma between Christian denominations have little to do with the conflict between the two communities, however. 148. The fears of the northern majority are the key to this situation, for it is their actions in response to those fears that pose a threat to the lives and well-being of the minority in Northern Ireland.”
1973-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 28 (1973)
“Before concluding, I must refer to the tragic situation in Northern Ireland. The conflict that has torn apart that little community of 1.5 million people, costing almost a thousand lives and injuries to many thousands of others while reducing large areas of its urban centres to rubble, has yet to be resolved, but there are signs that a solution may be found in the months ahead. None dare put it more hopefully than that. 147. The divisions that have contributed to this tragedy owe much to history. Fear lies at the root of the situation-the fears of the majority in that area that they might against their will be forced to become a minority within an all-Ireland republic and the fears of the minority in Northern Ireland for their future in a situation dominated by a frightened majority.”
1973-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 28 (1973)
“In the meantime the major Powers can help towards a solution by adopting a genuinely neutral attitude towards the contending interests rather than, as has been the case in the past, aligning themselves with either side, thus converting this tragically divided region into a mini-cockpit of the cold war. They could also help by agreeing amongst themselves to refrain from arming the two sides in a manner that can only make a recurrence of violence more likely and more bloody if it occurs. The intransigence of the parties to this dispute has in the past been intensified rather than eased by the actions of outside States pursuing what they have conceived to be their own interests through involvement with the contending parties. Hopefully, this phase is coming to an end, and with that the chances of peace in the area should be enhanced. 146.”
1973-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 28 (1973)
“We regret that its solution does not seem to have been brought any nearer, though we realize how grave are the problems involved end the difficulties facing diplomacy. We welcomed the visit of the Secretary-General to the countries of the Middle East, under the aegis of the Security Council. We can but hope that that visit may result in some initiatives which might break the present deadlock and help the process of diplomacy in securing peace between the parties, in finding a peaceful solution to their problems based on acceptance by all countries concerned of Security Council resolution 242(1967).”
1973-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 28 (1973)
“This disparity between expectations and performance has damaged the credibility of our Organization, and I have no wish to aggravate this problem by highlighting the unresolved problems that remain in , relations between States. But I think it is right to remark that there is a measure of detente since at last the futility of the cold war and its sterile polemics is recognized. The major Powers do seem to be moving, however slowly, towards a measure of accommodation with each other, although the balance thus created is not yet stable since the world has yet to learn to cope with the more complex interactions between Powers and blocs in this new situation. 145. The most explosive situation remains that of the Middle East.”
1973-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 28 (1973)
“In what I have said here today I have hitherto concentrated on problems which concern our Organization outside the field of peace-building, the settlement of disputes and detente. This is not because I underestimate the importance of seeking a de-escalation of tensions between States in many parts of the world; indeed, unless such relations are improved and peace preserved none of the other matters of which I have spoken will have much relevance. But we must face the fact that it is in this area of activity that world public opinion has expected more from the United Nations than it could possibly perform and where at the same time the Organization has at times performed less well than might have been expected even by realistic and reasonable people.”
1973-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 28 (1973)
“My Government accepts that there is a need for real and substantial improvement in Ireland's aid to developing countries. In the current year our official financial transfers to developing countries have been doubled. The intention of my Government is to increase thereafter the annual level of this assistance in absolute terms and as a percentage of our gross national product in a planned manner over a period of years. We are developing a comprehensive and coherent programme which will show a balanced growth in its various sectors and will be designed to achieve the greatest benefit for developing countries. That will still not immediately match the generous acceptance of this obligation by some other developed countries, but it is an indication of our will to meet our United Nations obligations in this essential work. 144.”
1973-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 28 (1973)
“In addition to past exploitation, there are also deep underlying causes of poverty in many of those countries which cannot be solved in the foreseeable future without generous recognition by the better-off States of the world of their obligation to share their wealth with countries less fortunate. 143. My country shares with other developed countries this duty and obligation of aiding our economically less fortunate neighbours in the world community. It is a duty which our membership in the United Nations has brought clearly to our attention. It is a duty and obligation which Ireland has accepted in principle but one where to date our performance does not match our duty. In the past our performance operated on an unplanned basis.”
1973-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 28 (1973)
“Much misery-not alone for the Africans in those Territories but also for the Portuguese in Africa and at home — could be spared if that reality were to be recognized by the Portuguese Government, which in its present policy is doing an injustice to its people, to their traditions and to their past contributions to human knowledge and culture. The tragedy of this residual colonial situation has been deepened recently by the disturbing reports of massacres in Mozambique, which have not yet been the subject of an independent investigation. 142. The problems of the countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America owe a good deal to past colonialism, but by no means all their problems can fairly be attributed to that cause.”
1973-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 28 (1973)
“The attitude of the people of Namibia to the illegal South African regime-which persists in exercising authority in the region in defiance of the United Nations, which seven years ago terminated South Africa's mandate for the Territory [resolution 2145 (XXI)]-has been shown by the boycott of elections in one of the so-called "homelands", by industrial action, and, indeed, by rebellion against the denial of human rights. We support the United Nations in its efforts to free this country from the illegal South African regime. 141. We also support the calls made by the Security Council and the Assembly to Portugal to recognize the right of the people in the Portuguese African Territories to self-determination and independence. There is no other solution, and in the end that will be the solution.”
1973-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 28 (1973)