Secretariat

Extract

Annual Report of the Secretary-General: Speaking on the development of public understanding during the year under review, the Secretary-General ex-pressed his conviction that public understanding of the United Nations as an institution for world peace and progress had continued to grow in most areas of the world. Although the United Nations might, however, be almost universally regarded as “the main hope for peace in the long run”, the Secretary-General felt that there was then a general tendency to consider that the organization was not the “sole or main instrument for peace”. He remarked on the wide areas of misunderstanding and the lack of knowledge about the United Nations and its work which persisted in most parts of the world, but he coupled this view with the impression of notable progress during the previous year toward a more realistic appraisal of the organization's potentialities for the solution of basic problems. The Secretary-General pointed out also that, as in previous years, the course of events had had a direct bearing on prevailing public opinion and had caused fluctuations in both positive and negative directions. The situation in Korea during the past year had exerted particularly strong influence on the attitude of the public toward the United Nations.