asked the Minister for External Affairs whether the Irish proposals for nuclear disarmament made recently at the United Nations General Assembly and to which he referred recently were withdrawn after only one preambular paragraph had been voted upon; and, if so, if he will indicate why the Assembly was not afforded an opportunity of voting on the resolution as a whole.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Nuclear Disarmament.
15.
After the paragraph in the resolution which recognised the danger of the further dissemination of nuclear weapons had been adopted by thirty-seven votes to nil, with forty-four abstentions, I decided to withdraw the resolution to which the Deputy refers, for the reasons indicated in my speech in the General Assembly on 4th November, 1958. These reasons were briefly as follows:—
First, because the primary purpose of our initiative had been attained by the vote which recognised the danger of disseminating nuclear weapons; secondly, because, having secured the adoption of this principle, it would have been wrong to create an artificial division by forcing a vote on a mere question of machinery—that of how the matter should be further studied and reported on; thirdly, because a new Disarmament Commission had been established which could deal with the proposals; and, fourthly, because I felt that many Governments had not had time to study the proposals fully and there was thus a danger of their voting against them, and so compromising the prospects of final agreement, if the resolution as a whole had there and then been put to a vote.
Would the Minister have been permitted by protocol to leave the resolution there until Governments had had an opportunity of considering the implications of it?
There is nothing to prevent the matter being put on the Agenda for the coming session.
Is it proposed to put the resolution on the Agenda?
I certainly have it in mind to do so.