The United Nations Secretary-General, U Thant, yesterday [October 15, United Nations], said that the United Nations had done well in its first 25 years – but not well enough. In an anniversary message, he said: “It is unforgivable that so many problems from the past are still with us, absorbing vast energies and resources desperately needed for nobler purposes”. He cited the “horrid and futile armaments race”, remnants of colonialism, racism and violations of human rights, power and domination instead of fraternal coexistence, China’s exclusion from the U.N. extension of ideological domains, and the local conflicts that plagued the world. “It is time for governments to make a fresh start and to lift themselves again to the same high level, if not a higher level, of vision and determination as that of the authors of the Charter”. “We must give the Charter a real chance at least. We must pass from words to deeds. We must pass from rights to obligations. We must pass from self interest to mutual interest. We must pass from partial peace to total peace”, U Thant said.
