UN INTERVENTIONS
Sir-Mr de la Mare says that the basis of United Nations intervention must be "abstract justice." What is abstract has no relation to material things. The United Nations has to deal with material things-rights and wrongs between nations. It is therefore bound to intervene on a more mundane plane than that of abstract justice, And it should be in a position to enforce immediatdly obedience to its decrees. We
live in a world where force is still the final arbiter. Whatever amendments may be made to the text of the Charter there should be a vital amendment to the spirit in which UN affairs are conducted. At present they amount to a scrimmage amongst blocs for power or the advantage of "interests." The criterion for decisions should be more in the nature of "Is this in the interest of the welfare of all nations?" When genuine welfare is the objective peaceful co-operation is possible. When power or interests are objectives, strife is inevitable. As a body the United Nations lacks courage to come to grips with realities such as that genuine universal welfare implies a radical re-organisation of international relationships, industrial and commercial affairs; that Russian military might is the obstacle preventing the nonCommunist world from planning and implementing universal disarmament, the abandonment of national armies and of arms manufacture; that the non-Com-munist world possesses resources which, pooled if need be, are adequate to remove that obstacle; that developing, through the international arms traffic, more and more armed groups is folly; that permitting the nuclear weapons race is lunacy that may destroy the whole world; and that in truth there can be no "domestic political factors outside its jurisdiction, because the nations are now so interdependent that no matter what of political importance happens inside them it is bound to have international repercussions. So long as the veto exists, so long as delegates must give priority to the "interests" of the nations they represent, so long shall we fail to see in United Nations interventions any closer approach to the ideal we envisage when thinking of abstract justice. 3
J. MALTON
MURRAY
(Oamaru).
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 36, Issue 920, 29 March 1957, Page 11
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355UN INTERVENTIONS New Zealand Listener, Volume 36, Issue 920, 29 March 1957, Page 11
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