The Reminiscences of Zafrulla Khan — Page 233
217 REMINISCENCES OF SIR MUHAMMAD ZAFRULLA KHAN Thus new members, if the matter is not clearly explained, may fall into some confusion. There is another factor which operates: those who can understand the language in which the President is conducting the business of the Assembly, can make these distinctions more easily than those who have to listen to him through interpretation. If the President conducts the business in French, for instance, then for those delegates who do not know French the matter has to be explained a little more clearly and in simple language and with emphasis on the points which have to be taken care of. Having had that experience of losing four votes in the election, although it made no difference in the result, I took very great care myself that when I announced the elections I should make the points which were likely to cause confusion in anybody's mind very clear. Sometimes it is very necessary to know how many names might be put down, whether of countries or of individuals, on a ballot paper; if more are put down the ballot paper is invalidated. The election went through, and perhaps at the outset I might say that throughout the 17th Session not a single point of order was raised on which I was called upon to make a ruling. So that even I could not test myself whether I would have proved adequate. Question : Upon being elected, what were your feelings towards the goals and objects of the President of the General Assembly? Did you think you were going to play a particular role in a particular direction ? Zafrulla : I had not thought of cataloguing them in any way, but I knew in the first place that my first duty was that the business of the Assembly should be conducted in an orderly manner and with dispatch, but dispatch should not mean hurrying through the items; it should merely mean that one should keep in mind the time factor and that the best use should be made of the time available. That is about the only matter on which I expressed an opinion ahead of my being elected. Somebody asked me in the Delegates' Lounge, "What is it that you intend to do when you become President?" I said, "For one thing, I intend to follow the British system of punctuality with regard to meetings rather than what has become normal in the United Nations. " I was asked what I meant and I said, "What I mean is that the second stroke of Big Ben when striking the hour of two in the afternoon, has