In UN Security Council

by Patrus Bokhari

Speech of Professor Ahmed S. Bokhari of Pakistan, President of the Security Council.

Your Majesty, Your Royal Highness,

This is a rare and memorable occasion. It is a rare privilege for the Security Council to receive hospitality at a sovereign's table. That Your Majesty should have commanded us to be your guest when yourself a guest in this country, is a gesture of particular graciousness of which we are fully sensible. May I on behalf of myself and my colleagues on the Security Council respectfully offer our deepest gratitude for the great honour that Your Majesty has bestowed upon us.

The keen and sincere interest of Youi Majesty and Your Royal Highness in the work of the United Nations has been vividly symbolized by your visit this morning to the Headquarters of the Organization and by this~ voJ evening's brilliant function. The address which we have been privileged to hear from your Majesty's own lips this evening will ever be a source of inspiration to us. Your Majesty's wise observations on the process of evolution in human affairs, which should be so guided as to create the most by destroying the least, are needed by all of us in the world today in order to check us when we are imprudent and impetuous and to stir us when we are sluggish and indifferent. I assure Your Majesty that your great understanding of our difficulties will be highly appreciated and your staunch faith in our mission and belief in the virtQes of tolerance and good neighbourliness, will be echoed and applauded in far wider circles than that of Your Majesty's guests this evening. The "two billion ordinary, normal people" whom Your Majesty has so feelingly mentioned in democratic human terms sorely need every hope that can be held out to them.

Coming from Your Majesty, such hopeful words have great power and significance, coupled as they were by Your Majesty's reference to your great and noble ancestor, founder of the independence of the Dutch nation and of the illustrious dynasty which for so many centuries has guided that nation's destinies. William the Silent, whose ideals were in many respects far in advance of the age in which he lived, will always be acclaimed as one of the first European champions of tolerance and religious, political and personal freedoms. As such, he belongs not merely to your great country and noble ancestry but to th~ whole of mankind. For the influence of his thoughts, words and deeds has transcended the boundaries of his country for which he struggled and gave his life. The principles for which he stood are the very principles on which the United Nations has been built.

Very justly, Your Majesty has referred to the part that the Netherlands has played in striving towards our common goal of peace, justice and freedom. The location of the International Court of Justice at The Hague is nothing less than the acknowledgement by the whole world of the valuable contributions that Your Majesty's distinguished countrymen have made to international law. The high traditions of respect for international law and justice which they have built up have been nobly maintained by the representatives of The Netherlands in the United Nations as well as in other. international forums. Nor can the international community fail to recognize with deep appreciation the fact that Your Majesty's own palace at The Hague has now been placed at the disposal of The Netherlands Institute of Social Studies for the benefit of scholars from allover the world. Above all, it is with Your Majesty's reign that an event of the greatest import in modern times will be associated, whose happy conclusion brought freedom to a great Asian people. Differences of opinion may indeed sometimes arise about the means and methods by which the freedoms of nations and peoples may be finally achieved, but even these differences become a source of ultimate strength in a democratic world as long as we remain in agreement on the fundamental principles and purposes of the Charter of the United Nations.

In our organization, The Netherlands representatives have played and are playing a part worthy of the homeland of Grotius. Our friend and colleague, His Excellency Ambassador D. J. von Balluseck, by his dignity, wisdom and high level of responsibility, his able deputy Dr. J. M. A. H. Luns, by his ability and great sense of duty, and both of them and their .icompanions in life, Madame Balluseck and Madame Luns, by their unas- 4 suming charm and unfailing courtesy, won our respect and esteem and' have endeared Your Majesty's country to us.

Once more I thank Your Majesty for your hospitality and for your inspiring words. It is no mere coincidence that the expression of such devotion to the lofty principles of the United Nations and of concern for the welfare of the people of the world come from a Queen who combines the exalted position of a Ruler with the noble and tender duties of a mother. Your Majesty knows what other mothers feel and what other children need. The world would be a much happier place if all leaders of the people could follow Your Majesty's humane example.

While expressing the fervent hope that our effort may be of service to mankind and fulfill the expectations that Your Majesty has voiced this evening, I raise my glass to salute Your Majesty and Your Royal Highness to wish you both the greatest happiness in your country and to your country and your people, peace, prosperity and forever a distinguished place in the history of human progress.

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