Meeting Place Of Forces

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 12, Issue 11, 9 January 1948, Page 5

Meeting Place Of Forces

Delegation Member’s View Of U.N. Assembly “The United Nations is a meeting place of forces and its organised opinion is itself a force,” said Mr J. V. Wilson, New Zealand member of the delegation at the second United Nations Assembly, in a recent broadcast. “My strongest opinion of the United Nation is that it is a force unwise to ignore, but unwise to idealise.”

“Naturally, people want to know more about United Nations than that it is a force. The charter of the United Nations contains certain excellent purposes and principles. What aim among the secular aims of mankind could be more important than to “maintain international peace and security amongst nations” and to “harmonise the actions of nations?” Discussions Public “Moreover I think these purposes and principles, though far from being realised, have some influence on the actual working of the United Nations. The fact that all discussions are held in public, means that every proposal can be measured by these purposes and principles. Moreover in every discussion is some delegate with a genuine wish to apply to the particular situation the aims of the Charter.

An Arena “It is too simple to say that the United Nations is morally neutral, merely an arena where opposing countries fight it out. It is an arena where the struggle for power proceeds, where the game of international politics and high politics is played. Unless the players observe the rules and the onlookers are vigilant the game can degenerate. “Even if the greater number of decisions reflect a fair approximation of what is just and reasonable there is always a danger that a particular decision might owe more to group pressure and racial passion, than to a scrupulous regard of the principals of the Charter. “When one speaks of the United Nations as a single thing, as “it,” we mean of course that majority of the fifty-seven members who are competent to take a decision. Majority Rules

* “In the security council you have the “Veto” which I do not intend to discuss. The Assembly is not bound by veto, but can decide by majority. In important matters it must be a two-thirds majority. This clause was prescribed by the authors of the Charter to prevent any rash or tyranical decisions. “No State in matters touching its vital interests will despise a judgment—be it only an opinion—of a two-thirds majority of the members of the United Nations. “The United Nations then is a meeting place of forces and its organised opinion is in itself a force.”