YouSaid · the spoken record

Falcon Briceño

lines on the record: 94
first: 1961-09-24
most recent: 1963-09-24
sittings or episodes: 3
sources: un-general-debate

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“The Chief and I have decided to disclose to you confidentially just what has passed. Martens [the Chairman of the Arbitration Tribunal] has been to see us. He informs us that Russell and Collins [the two British judges] are ready to decide in favour of the Schomburgk Line which, starting from Point Barima on the coast, would give Great Britain the control of the main mouth of the Orinoco; that if we insist on starting the line on the coast at the Moruca River he will side with the British and approve the Schomburgk Line as the true boundary.”
1962-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 17 (1962)
“Mallet-Prevost states: "When all the speeches had been concluded in the month of August or early September the court adjourned so as to allow the arbitrators to confer and render their decision. Several days passed while we anxiously waited, but one afternoon I received a message from Justice Brewer [one of the United States judges] saying that he and Chief Justice Fuller [the other United States judge] would like to speak with me and asking me to meet them at once at their hotel. I immediately went there. "When I was shown into the apartment where the two American arbitrators were waiting for me, Justice Brewer arose and said quite excitedly: 'Mallet-Prevost, it is useless any longer to keep up this farce pretending that we are judges and that you are counsel.”
1962-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 17 (1962)
“We know that Harrison, animated by his sense of justice, devoted himself to a thorough and passionate examination of Venezuela's case. He defended our high interests with all the zeal that would have been shown by a good son of Venezuela. Harrison's colleague in these delicate tasks was a New York attorney, Mr. Severo Mallet-Prevost, who could never reconcile himself to the idea of the larceny done to Venezuela and who, in a memorandum published shortly after his death, tore a hole in the curtain of mystery which for years concealed what had happened in a very private room of the Quai d'Orsay, in Paris, at noon on 3 October 1899. That was when the so-called arbitral award was made.”
1962-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 17 (1962)
“Under that agreement an arbitral tribunal was created consisting of five judges: two Britons, two from the United States of America and, as President, the Russian professor, Frederic de Martens. The rules by which the case was to be studied and decided were laid down, as is customary, in the arbitration agreement. However, when the award was made, no attention whatever was paid to those rules, the sole source of authority which the arbitrators had for making an award in the case submitted to them. The arbitral award, which failed to state the grounds on which it was made, gave Great Britain 45,000 of the 50,000 square miles in dispute. 67. A famous former President of the United States and a man of exemplary public and private conduct, Mr. Benjamin Harrison, was our legal counsel in the proceedings.”
1962-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 17 (1962)
“Our repeated protests to Great Britain over the occupation of our territory received no response, and Venezuela, weak though it was but sustained by a deep feeling of national dignity, broke off diplomatic relations with the British Government. 66. The United States of America became alarmed by the British expansion in Venezuela, and President Cleveland exercised his influence with a view to obtaining Great Britain's agreement to the request by Venezuela that the boundaries question should be submitted to arbitration. In 1897, the representatives of Venezuela and Great Britain signed at Washington an arbitration agreement creating an arbitral tribunal for the purpose of determining the dividing line between Venezuela and the colony of British Guiana.”
1962-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 17 (1962)
“At the expense of Venezuela and contrary to all legality, the British colony began to expand, and rich areas of our land were incorporated by a powerful Great Britain during the period of Victorian imperialism at such a pace that by the middle of the last century the 20,000 square miles had grown to 60,000 and, by the end of the century, had turned into a claim of an area of 109,000 square miles. There was no holding back Great Britain in its ambitions, and the territory which it desired would have stretched to the very mouth of the Orinoco, one of the great rivers of South America and the most important in Venezuela. 65.”
1962-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 17 (1962)
“For a good part of the past century, there were long and sometimes bitter disputes between Venezuela and Great Britain with regard to the boundaries of their respective territories in Guiana. On becoming an independent republic, we had inherited from Spain all the territory which up to 1810 formed the Capitanía General de Venezuela. In Guiana this territory was adjacent to the Dutch settlements of the Essequibo. By the Treaty of London of 13 August 1814 the Netherlands ceded approximately 20,000 square miles of this Dutch colony to Great Britain. The ceded territories bear the names of Essequibo, Demerara and Berbice.”
1962-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 17 (1962)
“There can be no doubt that important steps have recently been taken in our Organization as regards the speeding up of independence for the Non-Self-Governing Territories. Venezuela, true to its inflexible anti-colonialist position, has played an active part in those efforts and has co-operated, most significantly by its work in the Committee of Seventeen, in the common endeavour to speed the demise of colonialism. 63. Of very special importance to Venezuela is the item which was included in the agenda of this session of the General Assembly at the request of my country and which is entitled: "Question of boundaries between Venezuela and the territory of British Guiana". On this I can give the following information. 64.”
1962-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 17 (1962)
“It should be the mission of our Organization to play an active part in promoting co-operation and understanding rather than maintaining the present precarious status quo, which was recently described from this very rostrum as a balance of terror. 61. One of the main problems which continue to disturb all nations is that of Berlin. We believe that the so-called problem of Berlin must be considered within the framework of the reunification of Germany and must be solved through appropriate negotiations among the interested parties, carried out in keeping with the applicable treaties. The present situation cannot be resolved unilaterally, and any desire to seek such a solution will only help to increase international tensions and the risks of a world conflagration. 62.”
1962-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 17 (1962)
“Up to now 56,284 families have been settled and 1,620,000 hectares have been distributed to the peasants. 59. It should be emphasized that in order to achieve its objectives of social justice and economic betterment, the agrarian reform is not limited simply to giving land to the man who works it. The State is also providing him with education for his children, sanitary conditions, loans and technical assistance. 60. With particular reference to the work being done by our world Organization, we agree with the Secretary-General that a dynamic, rather than a static approach, is required. In this time of profound and rapid changes in every sphere of international life, no other interpretation concerning what are the proper functions of the United Nations is conceivable.”
1962-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 17 (1962)
“This principle is laid down in article V of the Charter of the Organization of American States and is unquestionably of a binding character. That this principle has been successfully enshrined as the standard of political life is explained by the fact that the feeling most deeply rooted in our American peoples is a sense of liberty. 58. We believe that if there is world peace, the democratic form of government will be established in our America. We Venezuelans are convinced that a system of public freedoms will enable us to carry out the most progressive economic and social reforms. In other words, we can practice a dynamic democracy aimed at achieving social justice. In this regard it is worth noting, by way of example, what has so far been done in Venezuela in the matter of agrarian reform.”
1962-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 17 (1962)
“In that regard, as the representative of a Government that wants peace, I should like to record our profound disappointment over the renewal of atomic weapons tests and our eagerness to see a final agreement on disarmament. We believe that a strong effort must be made for the immediate attainment of, at least, the cessation of nuclear tests under international supervision. 57. So far as our continent is concerned, we, the people of America, have built by a process that has taken sixty years a political structure founded on democratic solidarity. The attainment of that solidarity and of the lofty aims towards which it is directed calls for the organization of Member States on the basis of the effective exercise of representative democracy.”
1962-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 17 (1962)
“This desire for understanding, to which I have just referred, seems to be absent, and in every corner of the world we find the deepest anxiety, fully justified because of the impression that we are witnessing the final deterioration of an international situation which has never been so heavily laden with dangers for mankind. It is painful to have to realize that the fine words and the promises of peace are losing their noble meaning and force and arc giving ground before what might better be regarded as preparations for war. For example, there is no inkling of success in the disarmament talks and no apparent hope for the prohibition of atomic weapons and the discontinuance of nuclear tests as part of the disarmament process.”
1962-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 17 (1962)
“While weapons have changed — there has been quite an evolution between the invention of gunpowder and the atomic bomb — the fact unfortunately remains that man has changed very little and the saying Homo homini lupus still seems to be all too true. The root of everything that has happened and will happen in the world is buried in the heart of man, which is therefore the measure of all things. Our efforts must be directed at knowing each other better, at understanding each other, at negotiating always, at using every possible means to reach understanding and when all of them seem exhausted, to begin anew, bravely and resolutely, until peace is enthroned in the hearts of men and of peoples. 56.”
1962-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 17 (1962)
“We have seen how railways have been used to transport troops and to invade neighbouring countries as quickly as possible. And in the First and Second World Wars the most powerful weapons, huge guns, submarines, battleships, aircraft, all were put to use as soon as they appeared. The most powerful conventional weapons went into action. Nevertheless, man still retained control over the destructive means he used. Today, with the appearance of nuclear weapons and radiation, he has lost that control, and this change, this loss of control over his means of destruction, is what makes us less pessimistic as regards the possibility of a new war. 55.”
1962-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 17 (1962)
“Both expressions aptly show the ferment of our times. 54. In primitive times warfare was more or less man's natural state. The law of the strongest prevailed. He who had nothing with which to defend himself perished. To redress the balance, weapons appeared, weapons of stone, then of metal. Much later came firearms. Firearms had a terrifying impact, and no doubt people believed that weapons of such destruction would not be used for fighting and that peace would reign among men. The romantic socialists of the middle nineteenth century welcomed the appearance of the railway as a vehicle of friendship. The peoples, they said, would become better acquainted, would fraternize, by using such facilities for exchanges of visits. Things did not turnout in that way.”
1962-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 17 (1962)
“If only the great Powers, too, might be guided in their deliberations here by that spirit of understanding and faith in principles. If only those great Powers might forget that they possessed the most destructive weapons hitherto know, and might, like the small Powers, the unarmed Powers, rely on a surer and more human arsenal in their international disputes: on international law and the procedures laid down in our Charter, which are the only civilized means of solving any kind of problem between the States Members of our Organization. 53. Mankind has had a spectacular history. In Europe, the cradle of our Western civilization, the two greatest wars of all times broke out within a period of barely twenty years. Even now it could not be said that we are living in peace. Some call our present situation cold war; others, bellicose peace.”
1962-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 17 (1962)
“Nations which have no powerful army and which use no language other than that of principle firmly maintain that the problems plaguing this world in crisis can be solved by peaceful means. Long before Europe, we in America proscribed wars of aggression and declared recourse to war a real crime. In keeping with the ideal of peace — which is the very basis of our world Organization — the Charter of the United Nations tells us "to practice tolerance" and "to live together in peace". That is an ideal which cannot be achieved overnight. The history of mankind has been different, but its long and dramatic past has given rise to the conviction that war is not a solution, that it is always better to negotiate than to fight. It is in order to negotiate that we who constitute the United Nations have come together here.”
1962-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 17 (1962)
“It is fortunate indeed that we can meet here, with our different points of view to be sure, with more or less conflicting interests, but, there can be no doubt, with the purpose of saving the world from one of those relapses which have so far proved ineffective as a solution to its most serious problems. 52. No people wants war, nor does any statesman who loyally interprets the feelings of his people. But the mind of peoples has been, and is being, poisoned by the preaching and practice of doctrines which seek to build a new world on the ruins of liberty, as if man were eager to return to primitive times. There cannot be the slightest doubt that throughout history man has been struggling towards liberty.”
1962-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 17 (1962)
“Simón Bolivar lived in Jamaica, and it was there that he wrote one of his most extraordinary documents, "Letter from Jamaica". It was Trinidad which gave a brotherly welcome to the first political exiles from my country, the heralds of our independence. These and other things which have united us in the past and unite us in the present explain the special sympathy with which Venezuela has welcomed the independence of these two new States. 51. In attending this General Assembly of the United Nations we are naturally concerned over the difficult problems of our times. We cannot ignore the fact that the world is passing through one of its most serious crises which we must try to solve in ways dictated by reason, law and historical experience.”
1962-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 17 (1962)
“Mr. President, it is a pleasure for me to congratulate you on your election as the presiding officer of this Assembly. We are convinced by your record of outstanding service in the political and judicial offices you have held that you will carry out the duties of the high office of President of the General Assembly with your customary intelligence and discretion. We cherish the hope that under your expert guidance the present session will prove to be a great success. 50. It is also a pleasure for me to extend the warmest of welcomes to the representatives of the four new independent States recently admitted to the United Nations: Rwanda, Burundi, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago. The last two are countries of the American continent which are close to Venezuela both geographically and historically.”
1962-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 17 (1962)
“In conclusion, I wish this Assembly the fullest measure of success, for the sake of the peoples represented here and for the sake of all mankind.”
1961-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 16 (1961)
“My delegation is of the opinion that this matter should be settled by negotiation, bearing in mind, however, that in the final analysis the right to determine its fate lies with the German people itself, in accordance with the principle of self-determination of peoples expressly written into the Charter of the United Nations. 33. Before concluding, I should like once again to reaffirm my country's steadfast and unequivocal position on the colonial problem and the question of racial segregation, Venezuela, whose policy is rooted in its own attainment of independence, will continue in this world Organization to defend the right of the peoples still living under colonial or semi-colonial rule to full political and economic self-government. Likewise, we once more go on record as opposing all forms of racial discrimination. 34.”
1961-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 16 (1961)
“Negotiation is the only answer and it is the United Nations itself, where the voice of the peoples can be heard and the weight of world public opinion can make itself felt, that is the body best suited to establish the requisite climate and bases for negotiation, 32. There is another matter of grave concern to all States Members of the United Nations, because of the possible danger it presents to world peace, and that is the Berlin question, which is one part only of the more general problem of the reunification of Germany.”
1961-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 16 (1961)
“My country is ready to unite its efforts with those of other peace- loving countries for the purpose of seeking a positive settlement of the problem of general disarmament, under effective international control. 30. Needless to say, our appeal implies that the atomic Powers should at the earliest date come to terms for the conclusion of an agreement on the immediate cessation of nuclear testing for war purposes. Mankind has the right to demand that it should at least be guaranteed against contamination of the air it breathes. 31. Nowadays, no one in his right mind can look on war as a means of settling a serious current problem.”
1961-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 16 (1961)
“The President of Venezuela, as "Head of State of a small Latin-American country", >desired at his first meeting with the diplomatic corps at Caracas, to put on record that Venezuela stands for disarmament. On that occasion, President Betancourt said: "No people on any continent can be free from the fear that unresolved problems may lead to the holocaust of a third world war, which in this atomic era will be a war between continents rather than peoples and whose consequences for mankind no one can foresee." 29. At every session of this Assembly, the Venezuelan delegation has pressed this petition in defence of the survival of mankind, and will go on pressing it, with the utmost strength and persistence.”
1961-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 16 (1961)
“The conscience of the civilized world cannot rest in peace so long as this Assembly has not taken proper steps to lay down sanctions against Governments which until now have been offending against human rights with impunity — those human rights respect for which is generally regarded, within the international system under which we are living, as essential for the maintenance of peace. 27. I now want to focus my. remarks on the subject among those before the Assembly that is of most vital and general interest. My purpose is to reiterate the fervent appeal of my Government and people to the great Powers asking them to make once again a sincere, a supreme effort to reach agreement on the banning of nuclear weapons and on world disarmament. 28.”
1961-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 16 (1961)
“The Government of Venezuela has been constantly active and on the alert to ensure that human rights, as formulated in the Charter of the world and regional systems of nations to which Venezuela belongs, are safeguarded and it is a cause of profound concern to us that there are still countries today where those inherent rights of the individual are cruelly and shamefully vitiated and violated. 26. I would therefore ask that the Assembly should, by resolution, instruct the Commission on Human Rights to submit an open report annually on any violations of the guarantees inherent to human life and dignity on the part of States Members of the United Nations.”
1961-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 16 (1961)
“Venezuela has firmly upheld this principle, which should serve to ensure the free expression by vote of the sovereign will of the peoples and not become a pretext for the seizure of power, through violence or usurpation, by dictatorships or regimes of force which withhold civil liberties. In this connexion, it is always in doubt that a regime that denies individual liberties and civil rights to its citizens, clamps down on freedom of the Press and information and on the right of minorities freely to form and operate as political parties, and obstructs the effective exercise of representative democracy, can be regarded as the legitimate outcome of the principle of self-determination of peoples. 25.”
1961-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 16 (1961)
“In conformity with this principle of non-intervention, Venezuela condemns the attempts of certain Governments, acting in collusion with disaffected political groups which serve as their fifth column for propaganda and for stirring up violence, to upset law and order and seek to change by force the political structure of other countries. It is our firm belief that, if international agreements are observed in good faith, changes in the political structure of any society should, in conformity with the provisions of the United Nations Charter, be decided upon by the people, in exercise of their right to self-determination. 24.”
1961-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 16 (1961)
“This stand is well known to the many groups of political exiles who have taken refuge under our flag and sought the hospitality of our land. This is not incompatible, but rather in keeping with our constant efforts, by word and deed, within our regional framework, to assure through concerted and collective action, compliance with the basic principle of the Charter of the Organization of American States, the general interpretation of which is that only Governments freely elected by their people and guaranteeing individual liberties and respect for human rights may be members of the OAS. 23.”
1961-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 16 (1961)
“Thus, I wish above all else earnestly to appeal to this Assembly, to the great and the small Powers alike, to see to it that our efforts to find the answer to grave international problems are made in the spirit of harmony that inspired those systems of law — appeal for return to rule of law, to respect for principle and regulation, to fulfilment of obligations and of the pledged word, with the interest of mankind and its higher destinies in mind. 22. The principle of non-intervention in the affairs of other Governments has been zealously and consistently applied by Venezuela. In faithful and unflinching adherence to that principle, no armed expedition to overthrow the regime of another country has been or is being organized in my country.”
1961-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 16 (1961)
“Romulo Betancourt, in his then capacity of head of Venezuela's delegation to the Ninth Inter-American Conference, sketched the ideas that have guided Venezuela's foreign policy, in delivering the closing speech of the Conference. At that time, he said that the effectiveness of multilateral agreements depends on the degree of true democracy in the signatory States and that "the fact that a distinction continued to be made between binding and non-binding obligations would detract from the moral authority of the system of relations that we have put together as well as from the ability to inspire confidence in the peoples of the world". 21.”
1961-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 16 (1961)
“Too often the fact is expressly ignored that the existence of effective rules of international law alone is capable of bringing about the general and genuine undertaking on which a lasting peace may be based. The peoples of the world will gradually lose faith in the efficacy of international law and of the constitutions of world universal and regional organizations if the very Governments committed to ensure their observance hold them in contempt. 19. There are signs that the United Nations, having been established under the best auspices and with the lofty purpose of safeguarding the security of all peoples within a framework of harmonious coexistence, is in danger of being swept away, carrying with it the last hopes of mankind. 20. As early as April 1948, the present President of Venezuela, Mr.”
1961-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 16 (1961)
“Governments that deny the most elementary rights to their citizens, countries that violate by force the rules governing coexistence in the international community, come here with inflammatory slogans with the intent of covering up the intolerance in their internal regimes and of confusing world public opinion. The intent is likewise, by resorting to subterfuge based on distorted interpretations of the Charter of the United Nations and of the constitutions of the regional bodies, to place obstacles in the way of the peoples' advancement and their right to make the economic and social changes essential for the achievement of maximum levels of well-being. 18.”
1961-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 16 (1961)
“It is not therefore with the arrogance stemming from the possession of massive armaments — which, indeed, it does not possess — but with the moral strength conferred on a people by steadfast fulfilment, out of respect for its own sovereignty and its proven peaceful intentions, of its international obligations that Venezuela is come to this Assembly to ask for better faith and stricter and more honest adherence to the rules of international law on the part of the Governments represented here, for that is the most direct way of safeguarding peace and of working in concert for the well-being and advancement of mankind. 17.”
1961-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 16 (1961)
“Freedom, respect for human dignity and social justice are no longer mere provisions in the Constitution and the laws of the Venezuelan Republic: today, they have become a fecund reality, part of day-to-day existence, lacking which the nation's life would be unthinkable. 14. The principles of representative democracy and the rights of the individual, both as person and as citizen, have been enshrined for us in our Constitution and incorporated into cur daily life, 15. Venezuela, in putting forward at the international level its ideas for advancing the common weal of mankind, in demanding observance of principles and respect for rules, in asking other States to comply with international law and the obligations they have freely assumed, is asking nothing more than it is itself doing or is ready to do. 16.”
1961-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 16 (1961)
“Not only has this action served to increase the danger of a world holocaust whereby civilization would be wiped out but, in the immediate present, it is of itself helping to weaken the chances of survival of the human race by daily increasing the contamination of the earth's atmosphere with harmful radiation which, according to scientists, is injurious to man and to all living creatures on earth. 12. Hence, in speaking before this Assembly on behalf of the people and Government of Venezuela, my first duty is to record our profound consternation at the renewal of the nuclear tests. I am making this protest on behalf of a country that cannot use the language of threats but whose truly democratic domestic policy and peaceful tradition in international relations is the guarantee of its word. 13.”
1961-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 16 (1961)
“But all the professions of sincerity, all the expressions of good will and all the pledges of greater effort to seek the way to peace are being frustrated, one after the other, by what can only be regarded as frenzied preparations for war. 10. Mankind is looking on in stunned dismay while, instead of progress, being made in the talks for banning nuclear weapons and for ending atom bomb tests for all time, the disarmament negotiations reach a deadlock and one of the great Powers responsible for the maintenance of peace without warning suddenly decides — and whatever the reasons adduced this is obviously iniquitous — to renew the testing of nuclear weapons of the most destructive kind. 11.”
1961-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 16 (1961)
“Hammarskjold's ideas, as expressed in the last document put out by him (Introduction to the Annual Report of the Secretary- General on the Work of the Organization): "The exclusively international character of the Secretariat is not tied to its composition, but to the spirit in which it works and to its insulation from outside influences..[A/4800/Add.lt page 6]. 8. All over the world men are watching, stunned, the latest worsening of the international situation, a situation which never before in history has been fraught with such peril for mankind. We have acclimatized ourselves to the cold war and learnt to breathe in its oppressive air, in the confident hope that Governments and their international organizations would find a road to understanding that would ensure the peaceful coexistence of nations. 9.”
1961-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 16 (1961)
“We believe that a change in its structure would not benefit the Organization in any way; that, on the contrary, its action might thereby be paralysed and the performance of its normal functions impeded. The argument that the international character of the Secretariat would be best safeguarded by a change to allow of representation of the main political divisions of the world is not, in our opinion, valid. Bather than to ensure the predominance of truly international interests and purposes, the result would be to subject that organ to daily disputes. In this respect, we agree with Mr.”
1961-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 16 (1961)
“As a result of the Secretary-General's demise, we are now faced with the need of appointing a successor to him. Article 97 of the United Nations Charter states: "The Secretary-General shall be appointed by the General Assembly upon the recommendation of the Security Council", My Government takes the view that this appointment should be made, if not immediately, with the least possible delay, as legally should be the case, but not for that reason alone; politically speaking, it is not in the interest of the vast majority of the peoples represented here to delay too long in filling the vacant post. Needless to say, Venezuela is thinking in terms of a single Secretary-General. 7. Apart from the fact that the Charter so provides, there are practical reasons for maintaining the unitary character of the Secretariat.”
1961-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 16 (1961)
“5. The Secretary-General's incredible death by accident has sown dismay in the hearts of the international community. Representatives, Secretariat members, Government leaders, newspapermen, the general public and even his opponents appreciate this irreparable loss to the ranks of the best of humankind, those who hold tolerance, reflection and serenity above violence, the rule of law and reason above force;) those who fight for peace and want all men to be happy. For although his opponents might perhaps have been able to tax him with mistakes, no one could deny Dag Hammarskjold's worth in dedicating himself body and soul to the achievement of those ideals as he saw them, to the point where his own death constitutes in some sort the crowning martyrdom to that devotion. 6.”
1961-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 16 (1961)
“In unanimously electing Mr. Slim to preside over its sixteenth session the General Assembly has made an excellent choice, for in him are united all the qualities needed to guide the thinking and the action for which the peoples look to the United Nations at this turning-point in history. 2. The President's intelligence and tolerance, his moderation and impartiality, will, we are sure, do much to bring about at this session the understanding needed to restore to mankind the faith, optimism and joy that are today at a low ebb owing to the ominous threat of war. 3. May I congratulate the President on this well- deserved mark of confidence which the General Assembly has conferred upon him. 4. This sixteenth regular session of the United Nations General Assembly is opening under the violent shock caused by the tragic loss of Dag Hammarskjold.”
1961-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 16 (1961)