KARACHI: President Ayub Khan yesterday said that the present emergency has taught us a number of lessons. One lesson that we should particularly take to heart, he stressed, is the need for austerity in our personal as well as social life.

“There is no room for ostentatious living, conspicuous consumption and waste of any kind in our present national circumstances,” he said.

The President, who was addressing the nation in his first-of-the-month broadcast last evening, further said that we have learnt to work in unison. The united will of the people, he added, will be our strongest shield against the designs of those who do not wish us well.

Praying that “May God bless our efforts”, the President said, “united, we shall brave all dangers and weather all storms”.

[Meanwhile, as reported by agencies from Peking,] China will not take part in a world disarmament conference as proposed by the United Nations, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said today [Dec 1]. He said China would not have anything to do with the UN or any conference connected with it until her “legitimate rights in the United Nations” were restored.

The UN General Assembly voted on Monday to hold a world disarmament conference not later than 1967 to which all countries — including China — would be invited. In reply to a question, the spokesman [said]: “The world Disarmament Conference to be convened is based on a resolution of the United Nations and we will certainly not take part in it. Under the United States’ control, the United Nations has all along maintained a hostile attitude towards our country.

“China will never enter into any relations with the United Nations ... before the restoration of her legitimate rights in the United Nations and the expulsion of the Chiang Kai-shek clique from that organisation.”

Published in Dawn, December 2nd, 2015