PRIJE MINISTER' S TOUR OF SOUTH-EAST ASI A
ANZAC DAY SPEECH M1ADE BY THlE PRILE h1INISTER.
IMR. HAROLD HOLT TO AUSTR', LI. AN AN-' ZE1;' JLNA' D FORCES~
AT BIEN HOA, SOUTH VIETNAM~. APRIL, 1966
It is 51 years today since Australian, New Zealand,
other British and allied forces stormed the heights of Gallipoli
and together wrote an imperishable chapter in the history of our
two countries. It wasn't a military success in that the objectives,
the military objectives, were not achieved, but it was a victory
of the spirit it revealed in young countries which hrnd not been
tested in a national strife of this kind before.
It tested qualities of character, of mateship of
manhood and the resolution to go on with the military task, and
because it developed so much significance for Australia and New
Zealand and because it ma~ rked our comradeship together in arms
and it crried with it the lessons for our couantrymnen of what the
cause of freedom can mean to a liberty-loving people.
Ye hove, from that time on, celebrated Anzac Day as
perhaps the most significant commemoration in our national
calendar, and wherever Australians and Nowi Zealanders are to be
found around the world today, they will be pauising and
commemorating this . nzac Day observance.
They will be commemorating the fallen, those who gave
their lives that we, in our turn, could know the blessings of
liberty. But they will also be coimmemorating the national
progress that we have mnadte, the progress that has bcen largcly
influenced by the inspirations that flowed out ol' the Gallipoli
tradition. And for you and for our own poople in our countries,
and those that are in other parts of the world, Anzac Day today
will be taking on a deeper significance in that here gathered
again on a field of battle remote from their own countries the
Anzacs are together again, fighting again, for the cause of
freedom. It is characteristic of this precious boon of freedom
that the battle for it is never finally won at any time or by any
generation of people: each generation in their turn have to take
up the challenge, the price of liberty is still eternal vigilance,
and our two peoples h! ave never waited for the battles to come to
them. They have clearly recognised the threat to liberty
when it has emerged and they have quickly responded to. the need
to come in resistance to it and again here today we see the
evidence that our two countries have recognised clearly in this
struggle in South Viet Nan a challenge to liberty not merely the
liberty of the South Viotnamese people, but to the liberty of free
peoples everywhere.
That is one of the factors which makes this, in my
judgment, an historic struggle because if success can be achieved
here then that will influence the lives of literally hundreds of
millions of people throughout Asia and, perhaps, less ciirectly
but importantly, it will influence what occurs around the rest of
the world. So you may feel that you are engaged in an historic
struggle and it is historic for one other good reason: that is
that, on few occasions, can it have been said in earlier military
history thant those who were actively enga gcd in the military tasks
have at the same time regarded as vital to complete success, that
they should engage in the constructive, positive task of assisting
the people of the threatened country to build~ a better order of
life for themselves. ';-hat yo-have been doin.. in your helpful, friendly
positive and constructive way to assist the people of the area in
which y'e served towards a better life, itself becomes a mode.
on which we would hope there c'an be build a very much greater
structure. It has been an inspiration to me to iind that in the
Government of South Viet Nam, in the forces of the United States
and other friendly forces and in our own ranks, there is this
determination to make the military victory a supplement to the
victory of' peace in building a better standard for the people.
You in your own way have added another bright chapter
to the story of Anzac.
You have conducted yourselves in the finest Anzac
tradition. I have hcaru. nothing but commendation wherever I have
turnG-d for the contribution that the Australian and New Zealand
Forces have xna: Ze.
We may be snail in number but it is the quality and
character of m-anhood that -makes its impact upon the people who
observe what wie are doing anu you have mcasured up to those tests
and have come through splendidly.
Your fellow countrymen feel a pride in you that will
make for them this Anzac Day one of the brightest in our
celebration of that long series.
They will wish that you comc successfully through your
engagemnents and that you will in uue course return to your two
countries which we can tref, sure as countrics of liberty countries
which rank amongst the most splendid in the world for what they
can give to their people.
So good luck to you all and en behalf, not merely of
the Government and peoplc of Australia, but cn behalf of the
Government and people of New Zealand as well, we congratulate you,
we thank you and we are proud of you.