Canada's Secretary of State Claims U.N. Involvement Will Not Diminish

"One would have to be optimistic almost to the point of complete naivete to believe that the need for United Nations intervention will diminish," Paul Martin, Canadian Secretary of State for Internal Affairs, told an audience of 250 at Agassiz Theater last night.

Martin delivered the fourth annual Dag Hammarskjold Memorial Lecture, sponsored by Radcliffe College and the Harvard Radcliffe World Federalists. His topic was "Prospects for Peacekeeping".

Peacekeeping

Martin emphasized he effectiveness of U.N. intervention in previous peacekeeping attempts. "There is now not much doubt that multi-national forces under United Nations control can be mounted and dispatched and can commence and carry through their specific functions with considerable efficiency," he said.

Financial Veto

Continued success in maintaining peace, however, depends largely on the operation of the Soviet Union, Martin said. Russia, along with France, maintains that contributions requested from it for peacekeeping purposes are either illegal or optional, Martin explained, and it is imposing a "financial veto" on U.N. peacekeeping efforts.

Keep U.N. Active

Martin also emphasized the need for keeping the U.N. active in the peacekeep field. "Whether we like it or not, our world has achieved a degree of common involvement in political and economic affairs which requires an attempt at common management," he said. Most nations have supported U.N. intervention, he continued, and desire the continued role of the U.N. in preserving peace.

One of the means Martin proposed for insuring the continued effectiveness of U.N. peacekeeping efforts is maintaining the prerogatives of the General Assembly. He argued that because of Russia's veto power in the Security Council, peacekeeping operations should not be concentrated there.

Martin considered it probable that the Soviet Union would attempt to force exclusive control into the Security Council in return for Russia's contributions to the $100 million U.N. debt.

He maintained that U.N. influence in the Vietnam war had to be exerted in directly through African and other neutral nations because North and South Vietnam and Communist China are not members of the U.N.