fATEMB~ NT BY TIM, PRIME MINISTER, MR. HAROLD HOLT
SYDNEY AIRPORT ON HIS RETURN FROM HIS TOUR OF
SOUTH EAST ASIA. 1st May, 19GG
Well, gentlemen, I don't propose to say a great deal
in detail here for very obvious and good reasono.. The first
is that just having come off a rather long and tiring flight
after what has been a very heavy programme, literally more than
sixteen hours a day in active operation of one kind or another,
this is not the state of mind or body in which to make
carefully considered statements about matters of the degree of
importance that I havre been deLling with. And the other good
reason is that in these circumstances, the first detailed report
I should be making is to my colleagues in Cabinet and then to
the-Parliament. I expect to be talking to my colleagues on
Tuesday mornino when we will have a meeting of Cabinet, and
either that same day or on one of the later dates in the week,
to Parliament. But I can say in general terms tj~ iat this journey has
been one of the most rewarding experiences of a lifetime and I
am going to derive tCremaendous benefit from it for myself
personally in the strength of conviction it will b~ in to
judgments and assessments of particular situations, and -the
value it will possess, I believe, for my colleagues as I am
abole to contribute on a better informed basis to our discussions
on external and defence matters. There is no effective
substitute, as most of us have discovered, for contact directly
on the spot, either with a situation or with personalities, and
this has proved very true in relation to the quite exntensive
journey I have undertaken. Although I have only been away
from Australia for some ten days, we have covered discussions
in four countries in that time and I must haire visited twenty
or more significant locations either of military operation or
extensive governmental activity. For example, I have been
talking about the Singapore naval base for many years but it
wasn't until now that I was able to ins-pect it and get a
thorough briefing on operations there, fly over the area by
helicopter and come back with a pretty clear idea of what was
going on there. In Viet Ham, although the issues have been clear
enough in my mind for a firm judgment to be made and for the
government to have definite policies in relation to Viet Nam,
it is only when you are on the spot and see for yourself what
is going on, sometining of the atmosphere of the city, that
these matters tend to fall into perspective. For eizample, you
read day by day of episodes occurring in Saigon arid people
get the impression that the place is in a state of turmoil,
that chaotic condiLions exist in the city. Saigon has a
population of just on two million people and it is rather like
the reporting that gjoes on about a bu! hfire in Australia as
read by somebody in London. They wonder whether we are all
in a holocaust. Wlell, as vie know, it could be occurring
1,500 miles from where we are. And in Saigon, life goes on
a little more hazardous than in some other places, but the life
of the city goes on, affected by the dioruptive action which
the coimunists bring to it. For example, I was asking about
-their electricity supply, which is clearly inadequate for a
city of that dimension, and they were telling me about the
hydro electric power which they had in the north, but every
time they f ixed it uap, the~ iet Cong cuit thc wires so tney had
no electricity from that hydro-electric station.
W~ hen you came Ito our own troops you get pictures
from read i nj day by day accounts of what is going on there, of
our troops having a very heavy time almost on an uninterrupted
cycle of operations. W17ell, of course, this is not the way the
Army fuinctions. They do engage in operations of a very
uncomfortable and dangerous kind, but then they come back to
the camp. They are there in camp for refurbishing, refreshing
and spending, some of them, a bit of time on rotation at Vung Tau
which is the recreational seaside centre we have taken aid
equipped for just this very purpose. Some of their time they
go out on their programmnes of civic action to which we attach
a good deal of importance as the positive constructive side of
helping a people less fortunate and less able to look after
themselves, and the need for this is clearly perceived and now
determinedly pursued by the Government of South Viet Nam and by
the American authorities concerned and by our own troops. But
in a variety of ways, the reality differs from the impressions
which one might have otherwise have gained. There are some
things which one can report as definite improvements over what
we have known before. The standard of the Ar~ my cooks has
certainly improved since the last world war not just because
they turned it on for me but '-hey excplained that their cooks now
go thirough food school training and they are a pretty keen lot.
I had a buffet meal with the boys at Bien Hoa which I uwouldn't
have found surpassed at eell, who 1. will I givie a boost to?
the Chevron Hilton or the Southern Cross aiotel or any of
tiese other illustrious establishments.
And another thing which represents a great improvement
is that fatalities from battle casualties are occurrinU at only
half the rate taat occurred in Korea and the Second World War
because thanks to this helicopter service, they get the wounded
men out of the battle area to ei-Lher a casualty station or a
hospital in about less than half the time that they have ever
been able to achieve in earlier . battles.
There are various points of interest of that kind
which one encounters and I -merely mention them illustratively
again to illustrate that all is not grim in the life that ia led
by the troops there.
I paid visits to Terendak and Butterworth two of our
stations in Malaysia and they are most; delightful camp establishmnents,
lovely green lawns, swimmuing pools. At Terendak,
the men had just left for their tour of duty in Borneo but I
met some 450 wives there, in charming suimmer frocks with
small children darting about in all directions. It wras an
indication of an aspect of military service which we don't
normally read about and I merely mention these matters because
I think that a journey of this sort does enable one to get a
better balanced perspective.
But as to the main purpose, this, I t~ iink, has been
well publicised. originally my idea and thirs goes back to
my first days in office was to seize the opportunity as early
as it presen-Led itself, of visiting our troops in thie field.
A This has now been done and I have, I think, visited most of
the centres, if not all the principal centres in South East
Asia in wnich we have our troops stationed. And I found
them in splendid spirits with morale high. Those who had
been there any length of time were, naturally enough, looking
forward to coming back to Australia, but I found no
indications of any dissatisfaction with conditions in the
service or the life they were living. They were keen, alert,
obviously enthusiastic about the job they were doing, with
a clear idea those that I talked to, anyhow of the need
for them being there and what the job was all about.
And when you reflect on it, in the four countries
they have all been facing the same threat, perhaps in differing
degree, and the degree of intensity has varied fromi time to
time. It wasn't so long ago that i. was the communist guerilla
activity in Malaysia that was giving us the concern. The
communist activity continues there as it does in Borneo. In
Thailand they are concerned abouL'-increased communist probing
and infill-ration and, of course, you find it exemplified in
its most active form currently in Viet Nam.
So that in the countries I visited, it was of great
value to have talked closely, intimately with the heads of
œ jovernment and be taken completely into their confidence as
to their view of things and the even%' s-occurring in their
country. I feel that Australia has strengthened its friendship
in each of these areas and that is one of the continuing
dividends which we shall derive from the visit.
Now this is almost beginning to take the character
of a report to Parliament and I said at the outset this was
not to happen. But I feel encouraged by what I have seen.
I hope to report fully on it to my fellow Australians, but I
can say this with great certainty, that if they had gone
through the same ex~ perience with me they would share my pride
in the quality, character and ability of service which is being
given by so many Australian men and some Australian women in
these various theatres which I have visited.
I could just add, perhaps, a postscript about the
National Servicemen. There were a few that I encountered
who had gone forward either as special units or as part of
some advance party, and both they and the men of the Regular
Army were clearly going to get along very well together.
They were welcomed by the Regular Army volunteers. I believe
that the National Servicemen will add a chapter to Australian
military history of which they will be proud and which we will
come to applaud.