"The spectre of racial discrimination which has for so long cast its dark and evil shadow over much of this globe is slowly disappearing. Men are coming increasingly to be judged by their talents and abilities rather than the less meaningful and far more superficial standards of race and religion. But there yet remain those who in their bigotry and ignorance resist this flooding tide, and it is against these that our efforts must be directed.
"The struggle to win for our brothers in South Africa that status as free men, free to stand heads high among free men as equals, which so many million of Asians and Africans have attained but yesterday, goes on. Our duty is not discharged, our course is not run, our victory not won so long as apartheid, the illegitimised policy of the Government of South Africa, prevails in any area of the world.
"In South Africa an attempt has been made to legislate the inequality of the races. This attempt is doomed to failure. We here are all pledged not to pause in this strife until its emptiness and mockery are revealed for all to see and those who have used it for their own purposes have abjured this doctrine which is an insult to all men and to Almighty God in whose image we are created. But at the same time let us not bemuse ourselves with the notion that it is any more possible to legislate equality, for these matters concern attitudes and values over which intellect sadly exercises but little control.
"Let us not recoil in hatred against those who, even while protecting their freedom from bias and prejudice, reveal by their actions that the poison of racial discrimination has left its lasting effects, and by this reaction reveal that we, no less than they are prey to unreasoning emotion, that we, no less than they are susceptible to that virus which is called intolerance."
- Haile Selassie I
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