PRL. -INISTR'S TOUR OF SOUTH-EAST ASIA
Speech by the Prime Minister, Mr. Harold Holt
at Government Hodse Dinner in Bangkok, Thailand 26TH APRIL, 1966
Your Royal Highness, Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,
I thank you, Prime K inister, for your kind expression
of welcome tonight and I thank your Government and people for the
warmth and hospitality which I and my party have enjoyed since our
arrival. It was my great privilege to have an audience with His
Majesty this afternoon.
I am delighted to pay this official visit to your
country so soon after your own visit to Australia on which you
were accompanied by senior 1.1inisters of your Government.
Your visit to Australia was a source of great satisfaction
and encouragement to my Government.
Although this is my first visit as Prime 1. inister, I
have visited Thailand on previous occasions and on each occasion
I have had the pleasure if I may use the words you have
employed of observing at close range the way of life and tiinking
of the Thai people.
Your way of life is indeed peaceful and freedom-loving,
in keeping with the beautiful environment of your country.
A visitor like myself sees something of your rich
cultural heritage in the beauty of form and colour of your
traditional building and works of art and handicrafts.
This heritage, there can be no doubt, lives in the
hearts of your people.
You have referred, Prime Minister, to the positive role
of Australia in this region.
VIe in Australia have come to expect from Thailand a
beneficial and deeply-informed contribution to regional affairs.
Your country, with its long history of sovereign
independence and its deep-rooted national life, has surely a
most significant part to play in the future.
Australia's origins and traditions arc very different
fron your own. le have no cor'parable background of long participation
in the affairs of South-East Asia.
Our two countries, however, work closuly together in
fruitful association. The friendship and close co-operation which Thailand
extends to us greatly enhances our feeling that we have a
constructive part to play in the region as a whole.
As modern Governments we share the same goals of bringing
to our pcoples the fruits of prosperity and national development.
Our two countries both take a comprehensive view of the
problems of the region.
* 4e look outwa. rds towards regional co-operation and the
sharing of skills and technology.
Australia and Thailand recognize that the security of
the region is vital to the stability and progress to which we are
dedicated. Our two countries arc fully conscious of the critical
nature of the struggle now being waged to ensure the freedom and
independence of' the region.
, iec share the same conviction that through our own efforts
and in partnership with the effort of others this historic struggle
can be won. May I now invite all of you to join me in a toast to the
good health and happiness of His Excellency tV. i Prime Minister of
Thailand, tfo-the continued advancement of Thailand, and to the
further strengthening of the close relations oar two countries
now enjoy.