Manahan, Manny <br/><br/>
Report of meetings :  October 23, 1952 / 
Manny Manahan 
 - page 3-6. 
<br/><br/> The Rotary Balita no. 708 (November 6, 1952) 
<br/><br/> To us small nations, particularly those in Asia and the Pacific, the United Nations is still the best means however imperfect to help achieve our purpose of peace, freedom and security," declared President Elpidio Quirino in his address in connection with the celebration of the United Nations Week.  He said that the United Nations was founded within the shadow of the immeasurable destruction of a world war. The founding nations resolved "to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war. to reaffirm faith in the fundamental human rights... to establish conditions under which justice and respect from the obligations arising from treaties can be maintained... to promote social progress and better standards of life in better freedom." He recalled the weakness and failures of the old League of Nations.  The President lashed at Russia whose indiscriminate use of the veto has made havoc of all the hopes of cooperation and peace that clustered above and gave effulgence to the hills of San Francisco for the world of 1945.   He said that Korea has been a turning point in the career of the United Nations.  The situation, he added, has brought into focus the inadequacies of any international organization whose members have the background of colonialism, imperialism, hostile ideologies and tragic national experiences. He traced these inadequacies to the absence of a way of compelling action from members for the implementation of UN resolutions in their respective territories.  "Up to now such implementation has been left to the sense of moral obligation of the member state concerned," he said. "Up to now no effective collective measures can be applied to member or non-member states guilty of aggression."  He cited the role the Philippines is taking in the present Korean war. "The Philippines has cooperated and is cooperating in Korea as a military and moral background," he said. "It has expanded and is advancing this cooperation in undertaking to promote the formation of a Pacific Union that will meet with the peculiar and varied orientations of all the countries of Southeast Asia."  The United Nations means a lot particularly to small nations like the Philippines, he explained.  He said further that the unification of the world under one power possessing a monopoly of all the major weapons of war is very possible, indeed, within this century. But with all that power on earth, he continued, there can be no real peace unless the individual country or people acquire the inherent capacity for peace.  "Peace is what the United Nations stands for," he emphasized. "It is an ironic commentary on our times that while everybody talks about peace - the democracies, the dictators, the Rotarians, the churches, labor, industry, business, the rich, the poor, the public man, the public citizen - that while all these talk about peace, there is no peace."  He called upon every man, every organization, every community, every nation "to feel peace, think peace, exemplify peace, acquire the daily habit of peace, and our people, our region, our world shall be nearer peace."  In concluding his speech, the Chief Executive declared, "this is the challenge of our times. This is the primary responsibility of our educational and cultural institutions. We must return to the Master Teacher, to the humility and the sacrifice that gave Him and His name lasting power. We must not only believe but act as the true follower and lover of the Prince of Peace."  The affair was held on the eve of the seventh anniversary of the United Nations. A short program preceded the President's address. Musical selections were contributed by the Armed Forces Band. The "Legong Ceremonial Dance '' was contributed by the Indonesian Embassy. The Chinese Embassy, not to be outdone, contributed the "Traditional Formosan Harvest Dance '' performed by the school boys and girls of the Chinese Republican School. The Philippine contribution was a Filipino song by Miss Pilar Marino.