Security 217
Following is a summary of the Australian statement on disarmament.

Disarmament came before the Council under three headings, namely
the Assembly resolution on disarmament, the Assembly resolution on
armed forces and the first report of the Atomic Energy Commission.

The Assembly resolution of 14th December really covered all three
matters and in addition draws attention to implementation of
Article 43. The Assembly made four precise recommendations to the
Security Council. The text was then quoted.

The Council should agree to take action on these five precise
recommendations and then set up machinery and devise methods by
which it could carry out the recommendations. Happily much of that
machinery already existed and the methods were already part of the
familiar practice of the United Nations.

It was implicit in the Assembly resolution that Council could not
consider any of the various phases of disarmament in isolation
from one another. Without at this stage attempting to say what
phase might prove in the long run to be the more important, the
Council should consider the whole problem, looking steadily
towards the great Objective which all proposals were intended to
serve. The Council was at the commencement of a period of
practical and intensive work. In this matter co-operation between
all nations, and particularly all the great powers, was desirable.

All members of the United Nations, by their unanimous acceptance
of the General Assembly resolution of 14th December, pledged
themselves to give that co-operation and had dedicated themselves
to this task.

This was not the moment for discovering differences. It was not a
moment for lining up on one side or the other or for attempting to
force through favourite ideas at the expense of ideas of other
members. It was not a time for trying to declare the final answer
to every problem or to insist that such and such a conclusion must
be accepted. It was a time for starting work. As a Security
Council which now for the first time was taking up this most
important subject, we could set aside any conflicts of opinion
that may have gone to the making of the General Assembly
resolution or to the preparation of the Atomic Energy Commission's
report, and address ourselves squarely to the one matter which is
now before us, namely, the commencement of constructive work of
the Security Council in pursuance of the recommendations placed
before it by the General Assembly, and making use of the very
valuable report transmitted to us by the Atomic Energy Commission.

After accepting the Assembly's recommendations, the Council should
concentrate on the initiation of measures for carrying them out.

At this point the proposals made by the U.S.S.R. and the United
States would come under notice. Neither of these proposals need be
exclusive of the other. The immediate outcome of deliberations
might well be an agreement to take concurrent decisions to the
following effect-
(a) To establish along the lines proposed by the representative of
the Soviet Union a commission to proceed immediately to working
out of practical measures to implement the General Assembly's
decision on the general regulation and reduction of armaments and
armed forces and the establishment of international control to
assure the reduction of armaments and armed forces.

(b) The acceptance of the first report of the Atomic Energy
Commission as a basis for the immediate commencement by the Atomic
Energy Commission of the second stage of its work and as the
General Assembly resolution requires the facilitating of the
Commission's work and the expediting of the preparation of a draft
convention or conventions for the creation of [an International
System of Atomic Energy Control and
(c) The immediate reference to the Military Staff Committee of the
question of accelerating the implementation of Article 43 and at
the same time of taking action on the General Assembly resolution
regarding information on armed forces.

If prompt measures of the kind could be taken we would have
initiated on parallel lines a useful series of concurrent
activities, all of which would be under constant review by the
Security Council, and it might well lead within the course of the
next two or three months to rapid progress in accordance with the
unanimous wish of all members of the United Nations. Council
should press on in a] [1] practical way with the task laid upon us
both by the Charter of the United Nations and by the will of
members.