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| Ba Beta Kristiyan Haile Selassie I |
| Chapter V |
| Selected Speeches |
The record of the United Nations during the few short years of its life
affords mankind a solid basis for encouragement and hope for the future.
The United Nations has dared to act, when the League dared not -- in
Palestine, in Korea, in Suez, in the Congo. There is not one among us
today who does not conjecture upon the reaction of this body when
motives and actions are called into question. The opinion of this
Organization today acts as a powerful influence upon the decisions of its
members. The spotlight of world opinion, focused by the United Nations
upon the transgressions of the renegades of human society, has thus far
proved an effective safeguard against unchecked aggression and
unrestricted violation of human rights.
The United Nations continues to serve as the forum where nations whose
interests clash may lay their cases before world opinion. It still provides
the essential escape valve without which the slow build-up of pressures
would have long since resulted in catastrophic explosion. Its actions and
decisions have speeded the achievement of freedom by many peoples on
the continents of Africa and Asia. Its efforts have contributed to the
advancement of the standard of living of peoples in all corners of the
world.
For this, all men must give thanks. As I stand here today, how faint, how
remote, are the memories of 1936. How different in 1963 are the attitudes
of men. We then existed in an atmosphere of suffocating pessimism.
Today, cautious yet buoyant optimism is the prevailing spirit.
But each one of us here knows that what has been accomplished is not
enough. The United Nations judgments have been and continue to be
subject to frustration, as individual member-states have ignored its
pronouncements and disregarded its recommendations. The
Organization's sinews have been weakened, as member states have shirked
their obligations to it. The authority of the Organization has been mocked,
as individual member-states have proceeded, in violation of its commands,
to pursue their own aims and ends. The troubles which continue to plague
us virtually all arise among member states of the Organization, but the
Organization remains impotent to enforce acceptable solutions. As the
maker and enforcer of the international law, what the United Nations has
achieved still falls regrettably short of our goal of an international
community nations.
This does not mean that the United Nations has failed. I have lived too
long to cherish many illusions about the essential high-mindedness of men
when brought into stark confrontation with the issue of control over their
security, and their property interests. Not even now, when so much is at
hazard would many nations willingly entrust their destinies to other hands.
Yet, this is the ultimatum presented to us: secure the conditions whereby
men will entrust their security to a larger entity, or risk annihilation;
persuade men that their salvation rests in the subordination of national and
local interests to the interests of humanity, or endanger man's future.
These are the objectives, yesterday unobtainable, today essential, which
we must labour to achieve.
Until this is accomplished, mankind's future remains hazardous and
permanent peace a matter for speculation. There is no single magic
formula, no one simple step, no words, whether written into the
Organization's Charter or into a treaty between states, which can
automatically guarantee to us what we seek. Peace is a day-to-day
problem, the product of a multitude of events and judgments. Peace is not
an "is", it is a "becoming." We cannot escape the dreadful possibility of
catastrophe by miscalculation. But we can reach the right decisions on the
myriad subordinate problems which each new day poses, and we can
thereby make our contribution -- and perhaps the most that can be
reasonably expected of us in 1963 -- to the preservation of peace.
It is here that the United Nations has served us -- not perfectly, but well.
And in enhancing the possibilities that the Organization may serve us
better, we serve and bring closer our most cherished goals.
affords mankind a solid basis for encouragement and hope for the future.
The United Nations has dared to act, when the League dared not -- in
Palestine, in Korea, in Suez, in the Congo. There is not one among us
today who does not conjecture upon the reaction of this body when
motives and actions are called into question. The opinion of this
Organization today acts as a powerful influence upon the decisions of its
members. The spotlight of world opinion, focused by the United Nations
upon the transgressions of the renegades of human society, has thus far
proved an effective safeguard against unchecked aggression and
unrestricted violation of human rights.
The United Nations continues to serve as the forum where nations whose
interests clash may lay their cases before world opinion. It still provides
the essential escape valve without which the slow build-up of pressures
would have long since resulted in catastrophic explosion. Its actions and
decisions have speeded the achievement of freedom by many peoples on
the continents of Africa and Asia. Its efforts have contributed to the
advancement of the standard of living of peoples in all corners of the
world.
For this, all men must give thanks. As I stand here today, how faint, how
remote, are the memories of 1936. How different in 1963 are the attitudes
of men. We then existed in an atmosphere of suffocating pessimism.
Today, cautious yet buoyant optimism is the prevailing spirit.
But each one of us here knows that what has been accomplished is not
enough. The United Nations judgments have been and continue to be
subject to frustration, as individual member-states have ignored its
pronouncements and disregarded its recommendations. The
Organization's sinews have been weakened, as member states have shirked
their obligations to it. The authority of the Organization has been mocked,
as individual member-states have proceeded, in violation of its commands,
to pursue their own aims and ends. The troubles which continue to plague
us virtually all arise among member states of the Organization, but the
Organization remains impotent to enforce acceptable solutions. As the
maker and enforcer of the international law, what the United Nations has
achieved still falls regrettably short of our goal of an international
community nations.
This does not mean that the United Nations has failed. I have lived too
long to cherish many illusions about the essential high-mindedness of men
when brought into stark confrontation with the issue of control over their
security, and their property interests. Not even now, when so much is at
hazard would many nations willingly entrust their destinies to other hands.
Yet, this is the ultimatum presented to us: secure the conditions whereby
men will entrust their security to a larger entity, or risk annihilation;
persuade men that their salvation rests in the subordination of national and
local interests to the interests of humanity, or endanger man's future.
These are the objectives, yesterday unobtainable, today essential, which
we must labour to achieve.
Until this is accomplished, mankind's future remains hazardous and
permanent peace a matter for speculation. There is no single magic
formula, no one simple step, no words, whether written into the
Organization's Charter or into a treaty between states, which can
automatically guarantee to us what we seek. Peace is a day-to-day
problem, the product of a multitude of events and judgments. Peace is not
an "is", it is a "becoming." We cannot escape the dreadful possibility of
catastrophe by miscalculation. But we can reach the right decisions on the
myriad subordinate problems which each new day poses, and we can
thereby make our contribution -- and perhaps the most that can be
reasonably expected of us in 1963 -- to the preservation of peace.
It is here that the United Nations has served us -- not perfectly, but well.
And in enhancing the possibilities that the Organization may serve us
better, we serve and bring closer our most cherished goals.
| Opportunity And Challenge |
Here is our opportunity and our challenge. If the nuclear powers are
prepared to declare a truce, let us seize the moment to strengthen the
institutions and precedures which serve as the means for the pacific
settlement of disputes among men.
Conflicts between nations will continue to arise. The real issue is whether
they are to be resolved by force, or by resort to peaceful methods and
procedures, administered by impartial institutions. This very Organization
itself is the greatest such institution, and it is in a more powerful United
Nations that we seek, and it is here that we shall find, the assurance of a
peaceful future.
Were a real and effective disarmament achieved and the funds now spent
in the arms race devoted to the amelioration of man's state; were we to
concentrate only on the peaceful uses of nuclear knowledge, how vastly
and in how short a time might we change the conditions of mankind. This
should be our goal.
When we talk of the equality of man, we find, also, a challenge and an
opportunity; a challenge to breathe new life into the ideals enshrined in the
Charter, an opportunity to bring men closer to freedom and true equality,
and thus, closer to a love of peace.
The goal of the equality of man which we seek is the antithesis of
exploitations of one people by another with which the pages of history and
in particular those written of the African and Asian continents, speak at
such length.
Exploitation, thus viewed, has many faces. But whatever guise it
assumes, this evil is to be shunned where it does not exist and crushed
where it does. It is the sacred duty of this Organization to ensure that the
dream of equality is finally realized for all men to whom it is still denied, to
guarantee that exploitation is not reincarnated in other forms in places
whence it has already been banished.
As a free Africa has emerged during the past decade, a fresh attack has
been launched against exploitation, wherever it still exists. And in that
interaction so common to history, this in turn, has stimulated and
encouraged the remaining dependent peoples to renewed efforts to throw
off the yoke which has oppressed them and to claim as their birthright the
twin ideals of liberty and equality.
This very struggle is a struggle to establish peace, and until victory is
assured, that brotherhood and understanding which nourish and give life to
peace can be but partial and incomplete.
In the United States of America, the administration of President Kennedy is
leading a vigorous attack to eradicate the remaining vestige of racial
discrimination from the county. We know that this conflict will be won
and that the right will triumph. In this time of trial, these efforts should be
encouraged and assisted, and we should lend our sympathy and support to
the American Government today.
prepared to declare a truce, let us seize the moment to strengthen the
institutions and precedures which serve as the means for the pacific
settlement of disputes among men.
Conflicts between nations will continue to arise. The real issue is whether
they are to be resolved by force, or by resort to peaceful methods and
procedures, administered by impartial institutions. This very Organization
itself is the greatest such institution, and it is in a more powerful United
Nations that we seek, and it is here that we shall find, the assurance of a
peaceful future.
Were a real and effective disarmament achieved and the funds now spent
in the arms race devoted to the amelioration of man's state; were we to
concentrate only on the peaceful uses of nuclear knowledge, how vastly
and in how short a time might we change the conditions of mankind. This
should be our goal.
When we talk of the equality of man, we find, also, a challenge and an
opportunity; a challenge to breathe new life into the ideals enshrined in the
Charter, an opportunity to bring men closer to freedom and true equality,
and thus, closer to a love of peace.
The goal of the equality of man which we seek is the antithesis of
exploitations of one people by another with which the pages of history and
in particular those written of the African and Asian continents, speak at
such length.
Exploitation, thus viewed, has many faces. But whatever guise it
assumes, this evil is to be shunned where it does not exist and crushed
where it does. It is the sacred duty of this Organization to ensure that the
dream of equality is finally realized for all men to whom it is still denied, to
guarantee that exploitation is not reincarnated in other forms in places
whence it has already been banished.
As a free Africa has emerged during the past decade, a fresh attack has
been launched against exploitation, wherever it still exists. And in that
interaction so common to history, this in turn, has stimulated and
encouraged the remaining dependent peoples to renewed efforts to throw
off the yoke which has oppressed them and to claim as their birthright the
twin ideals of liberty and equality.
This very struggle is a struggle to establish peace, and until victory is
assured, that brotherhood and understanding which nourish and give life to
peace can be but partial and incomplete.
In the United States of America, the administration of President Kennedy is
leading a vigorous attack to eradicate the remaining vestige of racial
discrimination from the county. We know that this conflict will be won
and that the right will triumph. In this time of trial, these efforts should be
encouraged and assisted, and we should lend our sympathy and support to
the American Government today.
| U.N. Must Be Strengthened |
If we are to survive, this Organization must survive. To survive, it must
be strengthened. Its executive must be vested with greater authority. The
means for the enforcement of its decisions must be fortified, and, if they
do not exist, the must be devised. Procedures must be established to
protect the small and the weak when threatened by the strong and the
mighty. All nations which fulfil the conditions of membership must be
admitted and allowed to sit in this assemblage. Equality of representation
must be assured in each of its organs. The possibilities which exist in the
United Nations to provide the medium whereby the hungry may be fed, the
naked clothed, the ignorant instructed, must be seized on and exploited for
the flower of peace is not sustained by poverty and want.
To achieve this requires courage and confidence. The courage, I believe,
we possess. The confidence must be created, and to create confidence
we must act courageously.
The great nations of the world would do well to remember that in the
modern age even their own fates are not wholly in their hands. Peace
demands the united efforts of us all. Who can foresee what spark might
ignite the fuse? It is not only the small and the weak who must
scrupulously observe their obligations to the United Nations and to each
other. Unless the small nations are accorded their proper voice in the
settlement of the world's problems, unless the equality which Africa and
Asia have struggled to attain is reflected in expanded membership in the
institutions which make up the United Nations, confidence will come just
that much harder. Unless the rights of the least of men are as assiduously
protected as those of the greatest, the seeds of confidence will fall on
barren soil.
The stake of each one of us is identical -- life or death. We all wish to
live. We all seek a world in which men are freed of the burdens of
ignorance, poverty, hunger and disease. And we shall be hard-pressed to
escape the deadly rain of nuclear fall-out should catastrophe overtake us.
be strengthened. Its executive must be vested with greater authority. The
means for the enforcement of its decisions must be fortified, and, if they
do not exist, the must be devised. Procedures must be established to
protect the small and the weak when threatened by the strong and the
mighty. All nations which fulfil the conditions of membership must be
admitted and allowed to sit in this assemblage. Equality of representation
must be assured in each of its organs. The possibilities which exist in the
United Nations to provide the medium whereby the hungry may be fed, the
naked clothed, the ignorant instructed, must be seized on and exploited for
the flower of peace is not sustained by poverty and want.
To achieve this requires courage and confidence. The courage, I believe,
we possess. The confidence must be created, and to create confidence
we must act courageously.
The great nations of the world would do well to remember that in the
modern age even their own fates are not wholly in their hands. Peace
demands the united efforts of us all. Who can foresee what spark might
ignite the fuse? It is not only the small and the weak who must
scrupulously observe their obligations to the United Nations and to each
other. Unless the small nations are accorded their proper voice in the
settlement of the world's problems, unless the equality which Africa and
Asia have struggled to attain is reflected in expanded membership in the
institutions which make up the United Nations, confidence will come just
that much harder. Unless the rights of the least of men are as assiduously
protected as those of the greatest, the seeds of confidence will fall on
barren soil.
The stake of each one of us is identical -- life or death. We all wish to
live. We all seek a world in which men are freed of the burdens of
ignorance, poverty, hunger and disease. And we shall be hard-pressed to
escape the deadly rain of nuclear fall-out should catastrophe overtake us.
| United Nations International |
| Will and Determination |
Last May, in Addis Ababa, I convened a meeting of Heads of African
States and Governments. In three dayss, the thirty-two nations
represented at the Conference demonstrated to the world that when the
will and the determination exist, nations and peoples of diverse
backgrounds can and will work together, in unity, to the achievement of
common goals and the assurance of that equality and brotherhood which
we desire.
On the question of racial discrimination, the Addis Ababa Conference
taught, to those who will learn, this further lesson:
That until the philosphy which holds one race superior and another
inferior is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned;
That until there are no longer first-class and second-class citizens of any
nation;
That until the colour of man's skin is of no more significance than the
colour of his eyes;
That until the basic human rights are equally guaranteed to all without
regard to race;
That until that day, the dream of lasting peace and world citizenship
and the rule of international morality will remain but a fleeting
illusion, to be pursued but never attained;
And until the ignoble and unhappy regimes that hold our brothers in
Angola, in Mozambique and in South Africa in sub-human bondage
have been toppled and destroyed;
Until bigotry and prejudice and malicious and inhuman self-interest
have been replaced by understanding and tolerance and good-will;
Until all Africans stand and speak as free beings, equal in the eyes of all
men, as they are in the eyes of Heaven;
Until that day, the African continent will not know peace. We Africans
will fight, if necessary, and we know that we shall win, as we are
confident in the victory of good over evil.
States and Governments. In three dayss, the thirty-two nations
represented at the Conference demonstrated to the world that when the
will and the determination exist, nations and peoples of diverse
backgrounds can and will work together, in unity, to the achievement of
common goals and the assurance of that equality and brotherhood which
we desire.
On the question of racial discrimination, the Addis Ababa Conference
taught, to those who will learn, this further lesson:
That until the philosphy which holds one race superior and another
inferior is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned;
That until there are no longer first-class and second-class citizens of any
nation;
That until the colour of man's skin is of no more significance than the
colour of his eyes;
That until the basic human rights are equally guaranteed to all without
regard to race;
That until that day, the dream of lasting peace and world citizenship
and the rule of international morality will remain but a fleeting
illusion, to be pursued but never attained;
And until the ignoble and unhappy regimes that hold our brothers in
Angola, in Mozambique and in South Africa in sub-human bondage
have been toppled and destroyed;
Until bigotry and prejudice and malicious and inhuman self-interest
have been replaced by understanding and tolerance and good-will;
Until all Africans stand and speak as free beings, equal in the eyes of all
men, as they are in the eyes of Heaven;
Until that day, the African continent will not know peace. We Africans
will fight, if necessary, and we know that we shall win, as we are
confident in the victory of good over evil.
| Haile Selassie the First - July 21, 1964 |
| Address To The United Nations Oct. 06, 1963 |
Mr. President, Distinguished Delegates:
Twenty-seven years ago, as Emperor of Ethiopia, I mounted the rostrum
in Geneva, Switzerland, to address the League of Nations and to appeal for
relief from the destruction which had been unleashed against my
defenceless nation by the Fascist invader.
I spoke then both to and for the conscience of the world. My words went
unheeded, but history testifies to the accuracy of the warning that I gave
in 1936.
Today, I stand before the world organization which has succeeded to the
mantle discarded by its discredited predecessor. In this body is enshrined
the principle of collective security which I unsuccessfully invoked at
Geneva. Here, in this Assembly, reposes the best -- perhaps the last --
hope for the peaceful survival of mankind.
In 1936, I declared that it was not the Covenant of the League that was a
stake, but international morality. Undertakings, I said then, are of little
worth if the will to keep them is lacking.
The Charter of the United Nations expresses the noblest aspirations of
man: abjuration of force in the settlement of disputes between states; the
assurance of human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without
distinction as to race, sex, religion; the safeguarding of international peace
and security.
But these, too, as were the phrases of the Covenant, are only words; their
value depends wholly on our will to observe and honour them and give
them content and meaning.
The preservation of peace and the guaranteeing of man's basic freedoms
and rights require courage and eternal vigilance: courage to speak and act
-- and if necessary, to suffer and die -- for truth and justice; eternal
vigilance, that the least transgression of international morality shall not go
undetected and unremedied. These lessons must be learned anew by each
succeeding generation, and that generation is fortunate indeed which learns
from other than its own bitter experience. This Organization and each of
its members bear a crushing and awesome responsibility: to absorb the
wisdom of history and to apply it to the problems of the present, in order
that future generations may be born, and live, and die, in peace.
Twenty-seven years ago, as Emperor of Ethiopia, I mounted the rostrum
in Geneva, Switzerland, to address the League of Nations and to appeal for
relief from the destruction which had been unleashed against my
defenceless nation by the Fascist invader.
I spoke then both to and for the conscience of the world. My words went
unheeded, but history testifies to the accuracy of the warning that I gave
in 1936.
Today, I stand before the world organization which has succeeded to the
mantle discarded by its discredited predecessor. In this body is enshrined
the principle of collective security which I unsuccessfully invoked at
Geneva. Here, in this Assembly, reposes the best -- perhaps the last --
hope for the peaceful survival of mankind.
In 1936, I declared that it was not the Covenant of the League that was a
stake, but international morality. Undertakings, I said then, are of little
worth if the will to keep them is lacking.
The Charter of the United Nations expresses the noblest aspirations of
man: abjuration of force in the settlement of disputes between states; the
assurance of human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without
distinction as to race, sex, religion; the safeguarding of international peace
and security.
But these, too, as were the phrases of the Covenant, are only words; their
value depends wholly on our will to observe and honour them and give
them content and meaning.
The preservation of peace and the guaranteeing of man's basic freedoms
and rights require courage and eternal vigilance: courage to speak and act
-- and if necessary, to suffer and die -- for truth and justice; eternal
vigilance, that the least transgression of international morality shall not go
undetected and unremedied. These lessons must be learned anew by each
succeeding generation, and that generation is fortunate indeed which learns
from other than its own bitter experience. This Organization and each of
its members bear a crushing and awesome responsibility: to absorb the
wisdom of history and to apply it to the problems of the present, in order
that future generations may be born, and live, and die, in peace.
| U.N. Basis For Hope |
| Issues of Deep Concern |
I would mention briefly today two particular issues which are of deep
concern to all men: disarmament and the establishment of true equality
among men.
Disarmament has become the urgent imperative of our time, I do not say
this because I equate the absence of arms to peace, or because I believe
that bringing an end to the nuclear arms race automatically guarantees the
peace, or because the elimination of nuclear warheads from the arsenals of
the world will bring in its wake that change in attitude requiste to the
peaceful settlement of disputes between nations. Disarmament is vital
today, quite simply, because of the immense destructive capacity of which
men dispose.
Ethiopia supports the atmospheric nuclear test ban treaty as a step towards
this goal, even though only a partial step. Nations can still perfect
weapons of mass destruction by underground testing. There is no
guarantee against the sudden, unannounced resumption of testing in the
atmosphere.
The real significance of the treaty is that it admits of a tacit stalemate
between the nations which negotiated it, a stalemate which recognizes the
blunt, unavoidable fact that none would emerge from the total destruction
which would be the lot of all in a nuclear war, a stalemate which affords
us and the United Nations a breathing space in which to act.
concern to all men: disarmament and the establishment of true equality
among men.
Disarmament has become the urgent imperative of our time, I do not say
this because I equate the absence of arms to peace, or because I believe
that bringing an end to the nuclear arms race automatically guarantees the
peace, or because the elimination of nuclear warheads from the arsenals of
the world will bring in its wake that change in attitude requiste to the
peaceful settlement of disputes between nations. Disarmament is vital
today, quite simply, because of the immense destructive capacity of which
men dispose.
Ethiopia supports the atmospheric nuclear test ban treaty as a step towards
this goal, even though only a partial step. Nations can still perfect
weapons of mass destruction by underground testing. There is no
guarantee against the sudden, unannounced resumption of testing in the
atmosphere.
The real significance of the treaty is that it admits of a tacit stalemate
between the nations which negotiated it, a stalemate which recognizes the
blunt, unavoidable fact that none would emerge from the total destruction
which would be the lot of all in a nuclear war, a stalemate which affords
us and the United Nations a breathing space in which to act.
| Ultimate Challenge |
When I spoke at Geneva in 1936, there was no precedent for a head of
state addressing the League of Nations. I am neither the first, nor will I be
the last head of state to address the United Nations, but only I have
addressed both the League and this Organization in this capacity.
The problems which confront us today are, equally, unprecedented. They
have no counterparts in human experience. Men search the pages of
history for solutions, for precedents, but there are none.
This, then, is the ultimate challenge. Where are we to look for our
survival, for the answers to the questions which have never before been
posed?
We must look, first, to Almighty God, Who has raised man above the
animals and endowed him with intelligence and reason. We must put our
faith in Him, that He will not desert us or permit us to destroy humanity
which He created in His image.
We must look into ourselves, into the depth of our souls. We must
become something we have never been and for which our education and
experience and environment have ill-prepared us. We must become bigger
than we have been, more courageous, greater in spirit, larger in outlook.
We must become members of a new race, overcoming petty prejudice,
owing our ultimate allegiance not to nations but to our fellow men within
the human community.
state addressing the League of Nations. I am neither the first, nor will I be
the last head of state to address the United Nations, but only I have
addressed both the League and this Organization in this capacity.
The problems which confront us today are, equally, unprecedented. They
have no counterparts in human experience. Men search the pages of
history for solutions, for precedents, but there are none.
This, then, is the ultimate challenge. Where are we to look for our
survival, for the answers to the questions which have never before been
posed?
We must look, first, to Almighty God, Who has raised man above the
animals and endowed him with intelligence and reason. We must put our
faith in Him, that He will not desert us or permit us to destroy humanity
which He created in His image.
We must look into ourselves, into the depth of our souls. We must
become something we have never been and for which our education and
experience and environment have ill-prepared us. We must become bigger
than we have been, more courageous, greater in spirit, larger in outlook.
We must become members of a new race, overcoming petty prejudice,
owing our ultimate allegiance not to nations but to our fellow men within
the human community.