Haile Selassie

“ The Cold War And yet, while we await hopefully that measure of assistance which, coupled with our own resources, could assure the ultimate triumph of the under-developed peoples over their poverty, the rich and powerful boast of the size of their military arms and the might of their forces. The one claims that it will spend the other into bankruptcy and collapse - a most worthy and noble objective. We must recognize that the cold war poses not only a military danger; the cold war robs the under-developed nations of their hopes for a happier and more prosperous future. ”

“ How often have we all, at the United Nations, witnessed the sorry spectacle of nations voting against their will, against their own self-interest at times, as part of a bloc. And how have we applauded the occasions when members of a group, in defiance, of the policies and wishes of the group's leaders, have voted in accordance with principle and right as they saw it. ”

“ Only if the Non-Aligned Nations have a real opportunity of choice can their adherence to and support of their policies be of value; a choice dictated by others or imposed by outside influence is a meaningless choice.
We believe that on this score the conscience of the world has been awakened, and that the vast majority of men today recognize the truth of what we say. There are those, however, who raise their voices in alarm warning us that this assistance is designed only to impose upon us another but equally insidious form of subjugation. ”

“ It is one of the tragedies of our day that while half of the world's population is wracked by a never-satisfied hunger and remains poverty-stricken, disease-ridden and ignorant, vast amounts are spent by great powers on armaments money which, if diverted to satisfying the basic human needs of the poorer people of the world, could transform their lives and restore to them their human dignity, their happiness in the present and their confidence and faith in the future. ”

“ Men are coming increasingly to be judged by their talents and abilities rather than by the less meaningful and far more superficial standards of race and religion. But there yet remain those who, in their bigotry and ignorance, resist this flooding tide, and it is against these that our efforts must be directed. The struggle to win for our brothers in South Africa that status as free men, free to stand, heads high, among free men as equals, which so many millions of Africans and Asians have attained but yesterday, goes on. ”

“ But let us take pride in the fact that as free men we attack and abhor racial discrimination on principle, where-ever it is found and in whatever guise. We can, in addition to the economic pressures of which we dispose, bring our moral weight to bear and rally world opinion to our cause by revealing the brutality, the inhumanity, the inherent viciousness and evil represented by this policy. ”

“ Disarmament must be achieved not only because in this fashion will the threat of a world holocaust be dispelled, but, equally because only through a drastic reduction in the military budgets of the great powers can the vast resources required to raise all of mankind to the level of free men be freed for these purposes.
The agenda which has been placed before us at this Conference is ambitious in the extreme. In effect, we are to pass judgment, in one way or another, on virtually every question of significance which confronts the world today. ”

“ Can a Government which overtly or covertly supports the violation of the territorial integrity of another state justify its actions on the ground that it seeks only to implement the principle of self-determination for all or a portion of the people of that nation? ”

“ Conflict Reigns As our gaze travels over the map of the world, we find no quarter wholly free from problems which threaten the preservation of the peace. In Laos, a conflict had raged which, even though localized, carries with it far wider implications. We urge that the fourteen-nation conference which is even now meeting in Geneva to settle this question reach a speedy decision which will restore to this nation the serenity and tranquillity which it had earlier enjoyed. ”

“ Both great power groups, while disclaiming any intention of initiating aggression, have dwelt, in public utterances, upon their retaliatory might, upon their power to destroy and devastate and, annihilate, upon their ability to wage a war in which tens and hundreds of millions would be the victims, in which, indeed, some of us fear that man himself might be exterminated. ”

“ Let us not recoil in hatred against those who, even while protecting their freedom from bias and prejudice, reveal by their actions that the poison of discrimination has left its lasting effects, and by this reaction reveal that we, no less than they, are prey to unreasoning emotion, that we, no less than they, are susceptible to that virus which is called intolerance. ”

“ Financial Assistance In order to speed our economic development, most of us require extensive external financial assistance. We need not be ashamed of this fact, particularly when the poverty and ignorance from which our peoples suffer have been perpetuated through the deliberate and long-standing policies of others. It is surely in the interest of those who look to the uncommitted world to swing the balance between West and East that we be economically strong and free of crippling bonds which would limit our freedom of choice. ”

“ World's Major Challenges The major challenges confronting the world today are two: the preservation of peace and the betterment of the living conditions of that half of the world which is poor. These are of course, mutually interdependent. Without peace, it is futile to talk of improving man's lot; and without such improvement, the task of guaranteeing peace is rendered many-fold more difficult. The assault on these two problems must be made simultaneously, and all of our actions should be taken with an eye to the solution of both. ”

“ Ethiopia was arbitrarily included within the sphere of influence of a colonial empire when the map of Africa was carved up by treaty at the end of the 19th Century, and Our country's invasion in 1935 was but the last act in a prolonged struggle to impose upon Ethiopians this most ignoble of human conditions of servitude. No nation in Africa, we Ethiopians proudly boast, can be said to have more consistently and more fiercely fought against the shackles of colonialism. ”

“ No nation is possessed of limitless riches, and each heightening of world tensions and the force expenditure which calls forth greater military strength on the part of those to whom we look for aid, serves to lessen the sums available to fight misery, and the great nations cannot, even if they would, enlist their full support in this battle. ”

“ On the continent of Africa, we have witnessed, during the past years, the sad spectacle of Africans ranged against Africans in a struggle not of their own making, in which only Africans will be the losers. Here, again, peace has largely been preserved through the efforts of the United Nations. Ethiopia has contributed to the full extent of her resources to these endeavours to resolve this problem through peaceful discussions, and Ethiopian soldiers serve in the Congo in ensuring the United Nations presence there. ”

“ For when we descend into the political arena as a recognized and organized and disciplined unit, our moral influence and our power to rally and shape opinion on questions of world import which is otherwise our greatest strength is compromised and dissipated. Bloc action implies, within the group, the exertion of pressures upon recalcitrant members, the compromise of positions, the sacrifice of principle for political expediency, the trading of votes for votes and adherence to the rule of the quid pro quo. ”

“ But at the same time, we should not be cast into despair or deterred from attacking, with zeal and energy, the problems which we have met to consider. Rather, and perhaps for the first time, let us undertake a realistic and critical reappraisal of our role in history and thus achieve a complete understanding of the full extent of our involvement in present-day world events. We, personally, welcome this opportunity to demonstrate the influence which the Non-Aligned Nations can bring to bear upon global problems and the full extent of the contribution which We can make to their solution. ”

“ At the same time that we applaud the serpent of colonialism in breathing its last, and while we Strain our every effort to speed its unlamented demise, we must look beyond it to the problems which remain, several of which, indeed, are created or at least intensified by the disappearance of colonialism from the world scene. ”

“ It is clear to Us that colonialism, defined in the classic sense, is forever finished, both in Africa and in Asia. Its last remaining vestiges are being systematically attacked and destroyed. The major powers not entirely voluntarily and not without the exertion of continuing pressure - for History knows of few instances where colonial powers have, of their own free will, relinquished control of a dependent people - have admitted that the system is out of date, and have acted to change it. ”

“ We Are Not A Power Bloc For the fact is, and while the fact is hard it must be accepted if our deliberations and decisions are to bear the stamp of sincerity and reality, even the total combined weight of all of the uncommitted nations of the world here today, plus those which are not attending this Conference, cannot, in terms of pure power, be compared to the Western and Eastern powers. ”

“ And it is not by mere chance that we also count among our number the great majority of the underdeveloped nations of the world, for not until the direction and determination of man's fate is firmly within his own grasp can he devote the totality of his strength to his own good. ”

“ We can no more refrain from political activity in the year 1961 than man today can voluntarily refrain from partaking of the radioactive fall-out which will be bestowed upon him should a nuclear holocaust erupt on this globe. Nor does neutrality mean that without taking sides, we content ourselves with urging that the powers most intimately concerned negotiate in good faith to the solution of the issues in dispute between them ”

“ U.N's Enemy - Our Enemy In our appraisal of the United Nations, of its structure and the field of action proper and appropriate to it, we must recognize the historically demonstrated fact that a wilful and deliberate violation by any member state of its obligations under the United Nations Charter weakens the United Nation's prestige and threatens its destruction. ”

“ We must, too, observe that the United Nations can scarcely fulfil the role envisaged for it by its founders so long as hundreds of millions of people remain unrepresented there. We refer now not merely to those whose independence is yet to be attained but, as well, to those states, primary among which is the People's Republic of China, which have thus far been excluded from a seat in its councils. ”

“ For above all else, we must ensure that the cold war shall not be imported into the African continent. African soil, for so long the battleground in the struggle of the African peoples for freedom, must not and shall not now be transformed into a field of hostilities in the cold war. ”

“ If this force in men can but be awakened and focused on the problems of each day, we shall, God willing, survive each day to the dawn of each tomorrow, and in this survival guarantee to our children and our children's children a life time of peace and security, under justice and right, and under God. ”

“ To be neutral is to be impartial, impartial to judge actions and policies objectively, as we see them either contributing to or detracting from the resolution of the world's problems, the preservation of peace and the improvement of the general level of man's living conditions. ”

“ We can hardly speak with true sincerity of a universal meeting place or of an organization whose decisions will be binding upon the world community of nations when states which we, the Non-Aligned Countries, would wish to influence are not present to hear our words or to feel the weight of our opinions. ”

“ But when these ends are realized at the expense of others, at the cost of their degradation and poverty, these desires, which are not intrinsically immoral or pernicious in themselves, must be frustrated, and the means by which these otherwise legitimate ends are sought to be attained must be scorned and shunned.
We ourselves, the Non-Aligned Nations of the world, seek no less than others these same objectives. ”

“ In South Africa, an attempt has been made to legislate the inequality of the races. This attempt is doomed to failure. We here are all pledged not to pause in this strife until its emptiness, and mockery are revealed for all to see, and those who have used it for their own purposes have abjured this doctrine which is an insult to all men and to Almighty God in Whose image We are created. ”

“ Apartheid Must Be Discredited The African states have already imposed direct sanctions in the economic and diplomatic fields in an attempt to influence the policies of South Africa and to convince the South African leaders that it is in no sense in their interest longer to adhere to this policy. We should, during this Conference, consider if there are not additional measures which we may adopt to speed the inevitable day when the policy of racial discrimination and the principle of apartheid are discredited and abandoned. ”

“ We do assert, however, that without the medium provided by the United Nations, wherein the African struggle for freedom could be brought before the conscience of the world, the forces of colonialism would remain far more firmly entrenched on the African continent than they do today. ”

“ We refer, in addition, to the spiritual conditions in which man lives, for just as a man without means to feed his hunger and to clothe his nakedness can take no pride in his existence as a human being, so, also is one who is reviled and discriminated against because of his race or religion, robbed of his self-respect and human dignity. ”