Remarks in Connection With the Parvin Foundation Awards

I WOULD LIKE to express my satisfaction at participating in this ceremony. The trustees of the Parvin Foundation made two wise decisions this year. First, was to present the award to Dag Hammarskjold, who so richly deserved it, whose efforts were not for any national victory but rather were for peace, whose efforts to make the United Nations stronger, to develop it in accordance with the needs of our time, to make it not an institution powerless to control great events but a participant in them, in the direction of easing the tensions which are so much of our every-day life. So he richly deserved the award.

And with his untimely and tragic death, I believe the trustees of the Parvin Foundation have made an equally wise decision in awarding the fifty thousand dollars to the school at Leopoldville so that young men from this most important and vital Republic can play a part in bringing the rule of law to their own lives and have an influence throughout all of Africa.

I think that this is the kind of work which we in this country strongly favor. I'm hopeful that the judgment of the trustees and the suggestion of the trustees--that others will participate in strengthening this school--that that judgment and advice will be followed.

I certainly strongly endorse this initial effort, and I'm gratified that we have here today representatives of the Republic of the Congo, and to have heard their warm endorsement of this work and of this man for whom the Chair is named.

I congratulate those associated with it, and I think all of us will benefit from the educated young men and women who pass through this school and come to know Dag Hammarskjold and the things for which he stood.