Fiddling Will Not Secure Peace, Says Sir C. Berendsen

Grey River Argus, 30 January 1948, Page 5

Fiddling Will Not Secure Peace, Says Sir C. Berendsen

WELLINGTON; Jan. 29.

“For my part I am convinced that world peace is indeed within man’s grasp, if man will but grasp and not fiddle,” said Sir Carl Berendseh, New Zealand Minister at Washington and leader of the New Zealand delegation to the General Assembly of U.N.O. Sir Carl, who has returned to New Zealand for consultations with the Government, expressed decided views on the operation of the veto and spoke hopefully of the future of the "Little Assembly,” which operates without the restrictions of the veto.

While the United Nations was making substantial progress in some directions and offered some promise of being in the course of time the effective body which its authors contemplated, it would be folly, he said, to ignore the stultifying effect of the veto in the Security Council. “The fact is that the Security Council has been frustrated —as Mr Fraser quite frankly indicated at the San Francisco Conference it would be— bv the use of the veto,” he said. It now seemed ’to be generally recognised that while the veto existed there could be no effective system of collective security. It was recognition of that fact which had led to the establishment of the “Little Assembly,” which acted as a backstop for any Security Council failures. “LITTLE ASSEMBLY” There was no veto in the assembly and consequently none in the “Little Assembly,” which was merely a committee of the Assembly but sat constantly, instead of only once a year. He added that it might well be that out of the activities of the “Little Assembly” there would arise a system of collective security which would actually work. The United Nations was sent into the world as an infant organisation with its hands manacled and its feet fettered. The Charter (in which the veto was incorporated) could not be altered without the consent of the five great Powers. Consequently there was a'veto on the elimination of the veto. “Permanent world peace cannot be attained without courage, resolution and the determination that lawless force will' always be met and defeated by lawful force.” he concluded.