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Speeches by Her Majesty Queen
Juliana of the Netherlands, and Professor A. S. Bokhari, President
of UN Security Council.
Speech of Her Majesty Queen Juliana of the Netherlands
 My husband and I are very happy to have you with us tonight,
because, in you we greet the United Nations, and we welcome, in your
persons, humanity's magnanimous and desperate try for peace and
security.
Your task is one of vital importance to the peace of the world,
immensely difficult though it may be. As we live in a time which is
so full of serious misunderstanding and disagreements, we have every
reason to be grateful for the existence in our troubled age of an
international body for the safeguarding of security.
In the short but most eventful history of this Council the
Netherlands have crossed your path. We were not always in full
agreement about ways and means, but we did not disagree with you in
our common objective to establish conditions of peace, justice and
freedom.
In principle, in our country, nobody begrudges anybody else his
freedom and independence.
Wherever the English language is spoken many pleasant references to
sport and play are used: They point in a rather casual way to a
number of vitally important rules of human conduct. Such standing
expressions as "fair play", "team spirit" and "good sport" cannot be
translated into any other language, but they are clear to everybody.
They do not appear in the Charter of the United Nations but they are
nevertheless fundamental. It is sometimes part of your assignment
only to play for time in order to let strong feelings cool down and
passions abate.
I feel, however, that it is your most important task to play for
safety, to practice the virtue of prudence, as you have to safeguard
international order on earth -in short the "maintenance of peace and
security".
May your Council be able to live up to its high duties, teaching the
, peoples -in the words of the Charter - how "to practice tolerance
and live together in peace with one another as good neighbours".
The maintenance of peace and security entails consideration for
existing law and order, loving care for established institutions and
respect for those relations in human society which have proved their
value. On the other hand it sometimes happens that new life is
growing behind the old order, new faces look around the corner, new
states ask to be seated at our table, claiming full respect for
their rights and their new dignity.
The occasion was a formal dinner hosted by Queen Juliana in the
Grand Ballroom of New York's Colony Club, April 8, 1952.
Time and again the old and well-tried makes room for the new and
unknown. Some will praise the old, feeling that there are many
reasons to be proud of it. Others will welcome the new, in the firm
belief that the old order is no longer identical with justice.
In the United Nations the old and the new, the rule of established
law and the process of evolution, are both asserting themselves. The
Security Council will need a great deal of prudence while
considering both the old and the new, in discerning what has value
and what has not, especially in a time when propaganda is mixing up
the facts, and falsifying the issues the daylight may not see or the
Security Council either! Luckily your eyes are sharper than some
people hope!
In these days the fear of a new war overshadows everything in the
hearts and minds of mankind. Why is humanity in the grip of such
great.fear? Is it that the natural principle of life, of man being
the master of his instruments, his tools, his weapons, now stands in
danger of being reversed: the instrument becoming the master of man,
the threatening robot, the monster that we made ourselves?
Aggression is his name!
One of the methods by which we are trying to save the human race is
the United Nations and its Security Council. When a fire threatens
somewhere in the world they must prevent it and when it does break
out they have to extinguish it as speedily as possible.
The important thing is that the United Nations is growing more
resolute in its attitude toward aggression. This strengthens
confidence in the United Nations. The League of Nations has
succumbed from weakness. But the real r,eadiness nowadays to take
action for a purpose which is in line with the United Nations idea,
whatever the stakes: this is what counts and gives confidence also
for the future.
To save the human race - this is the vital urge to preserve the
species, it is the vital urge to have as much out of life as we can;
or, I wish we all would put it: to make as much out of life as we
can. And certainly we have a right to this. After all, life has been
granted to man! Aggression means presenting death to another, as a
requirement for claiming life for oneself!
For when we commit aggression we turn a handle which makes the
monster start to move, causing irrevocable chaos and destruction.
Then it will throw this in our faces as a fact.
Once faced by this fatal fact, the only way we have to save the
world is to make life safe for man, and in the end the weapons for
war and death will rust away by them.selves.
In the course of these years in which we live, either we go to
perdition, or we come to peace. It is not to paradise we then will
come but at least to peace.
I believe that there is indeed a great mission for you to fulfil by
your striving for security for the community of nations, for all
these people, whether represented in the United Nations or not yet.
Those two billion ordinary, normal people, like you and me, have to
manage for their safety with an organization of nations which is
after all still struggling hard for perfection. They long for its
good and encouraging results. It is exactly security that they need,
in order to be able to live, and develop. All they want is to be rid
of the fear of each other, the mutual fear on either side of the
world. All they want is - peace, freedom, justice, democracy, a
decent living, some happiness. And they all want it. They
want it for themselves, but they would alsp wholeheartedly wish it
for anybody else. We all agreed that we all want these things for
everyone!
These and other things can never be enforced by tyranny, but I
believe only be reached by the free co-operation of the people. But
someday the nightmare of this time will have passed by. As long as
there still is life, there still is hope.
In concluding, I want to give you one more contribution on the theme
of your mandate, and that is in the words of my ancestor, the
champion for freedom in The Netherlands: "Point n'est besoin
d'esperer pour entre prendre ni de reussirpourperseverer."
(Translation: It is not necessary to hope in order to undertake, nor
is it necessary to succeed in order to persevere.)
Also he should have said, according to his friend, the poet, in a
part of
our national anthem, which, in English, sounds thus:
A shield and my reliance
0 God, Thou ever wert.
I'll trust unto Thy guidance.
0 leave me not ungirt.
That I may stay a pious
Servant of Thine for aye,
And drive the plagues that try us
And tyranny away.
Speech of Professor Ahmed S. Bokhari of Pakistan, President of
the Security Council
for April, 1952.
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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