November 30, 1954 — Declaring that there has been "a neglect of international law" since World War II, Dr. Eelco N. van Kleffens, president of the United Nations General Assembly, called for giving "international law a much greater place in our defensive preoccupations" in a speech in McCosh 10 last night at 8 p.m.
Speaking under the auspices of the Wilson School before an audience of 150, the president of the ninth regular session of the Assembly talked on "The Place of Law in International Relations."
"Decent men want law," Dr. van Kleffens said. "That is why an appeal to law has such tremendous force."
Though agreeing with logical theories for the use of law, he emphasized "that the ultimate basis of the respect due to international law . . . lies outside of the realm of law — it is the moral and sociological order."
Criticizes Charter
He decried the fact that despite the allied powers' "very strong legal position . . . there was nothing in the Atlantic Charter in the nature of a reference to international law."
"Even more surprisingly," he maintained, "the draft of the United National Charter prepared in 1944 at Dumbarton Oaks . . . contained no reference at all to international law, or even to justice."
The charter, he added, was later revised to refer directly to international law.
He also stressed the difficulty the Hague Academy of International Law has had in securing funds since the war.
However, he said, "there are a few signs" that a better understanding of the value of international law "is at hand."
He praised Secretary of State Dulles '08's statement that "one of the inadequacies of the United Nations Charter 'came out of disregard for the fact that world order, in the long run, depends . . . upon law.' "
Appeal of law
Turning to the appeal of international law, he said, "Every right-minded person carries within him a natural respect for law."
"Let us not fall victim to the delusion that international law is so abstruse a science that the general public cannot understand an argument which is based on it," he continued.
Emphasizing that the people sense in law "the element of legitimate defense against chaos or attack," he said, "they know that law is the average of what is right, nationally or internationally."
He declared, "A powerful weapon of defense has been left unused. Let us then, make full use of it."
Currently serving as Netherlands Ambassador to Portugal, a post he has held since 1950, Dr. van Kleffens was Ambassador to the United States from 1947 to 1950.
Presiding over his country's delegation to the San Francisco Conference in 1945, he signed the original United Nations Charter on behalf of the Netherlands.
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