PRIME ITSTER'S VISIT TO U. S. AND U. K.
XCHANGE OF TOASTS . fE-N T. E DENT OF TE UNITED
LUN\ XTLON I Tfi' WHITE H3TJE 14th July, 1966.
Kr. Prime M inister and my friends:
A house twice visited by a good friend is a house twice
blessed. So, Lr. Prime rainister, we welcome you back here to the
White house and we are very grateful that you were able to arrange'
your very busy schedule so as to return and pay us a visit.
While you were away, I spoke to my countrymen, and I hope to
yours also, about the Pacific area that we share with many of our
! sian friends. I said the other night, and i should like to reemphasize
it now, that I believe that the Pacific is the great
testing ground of man's yearning for independence, order, and for a
peaceful and productive life. Prime hinister, if we can win
that test in the Pacific we may very well have won the fruits of
oeace for all of our fellow men in the world we would hope, perhaps,
for all time. But if we lose it in the Pacific, we will have lost
achievement and hope, perhaps, for all time too. -3ut we shall not
lose the test, because A--iericans and Australians and Vietnamese,
Mew Zealanders and Koreans, and our other allies shall prove in the
Pacific that agression cannot succeed on an continent, in any
country, against any people in the world in the 20th century. The
Pacific is not an ocean. It is not a region. It is a crucible
in which the free, proud, and peaceful world of tomorrow is today
moulding and taking its shape. 6o, as we meet here this aftbrnoon,
the winds of hope arc blowing fresh and strong off the Pacific and
they are blowing throughout free Asia. Wo are partners in stirring
that excitement. Yes, Lir. Prime ipinister, the partners in
creating the b1iThn dollar Asian Development Aank. Wo are partners
in developing the ekong iver Delta, in denying those who would
destroy the promise of stability and growth, aiid in encoureging
those who would make that promise a reality. And that is the
reat and urgent work that, after your extremely important meetings
in London and here, you will return to Australia to advance, ir.
Prime inister. So today you leave us, not only as our trusted
partner and our cherished friend, but as a man who has left much
behind while the bravery and the nobility of the Australian people,
a new generation of Americans, are living the lessons that their
fathers learned.
I see in front of me Captain Stevens, a teacher at West
Point. It was 25 years ago, that I got out of bed in Townsville
one morning about 3 o'clock with Colonel Stevens, with whom I had
roomed. He died that day over Lae and Salamaua. He left a
little five year old boy, who is now this teacher at West Point,
to carry on for him. But we learned that quarter of a century
ago, Mr. Prime Minister, that one can never ask for finer comrades
on the battlefield, or more willing colleagues in the works of
peace than our Pacific brothers, our Australian allies. And so
it is our prayer today that God grant that your young men and ours
will soon return from conflict to enjoy the peace that we seek so
fervently together. And, until they do return, we will stand
shoulder to shoulder supporting them all the way.
So, gentlemen, I should like to ask you to toast that
bright hope and its living symbol, the very able, courageous, and
distinguished Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia,
Mr. Holt.
2.
M1r. President and gentlemen:
Any man who had been honoured by a luncheon given to him by
the President of this great democracy would treasure that as a
memory for a lifetime. To be so honoured twice in so short a
space of time is not merely a great honour to me and my country,
but it has been tremendously gratifying to my colleagues as they
notified me by cable from Australia. What you have done by your
warm gesture, Mr. President, is a further strand strengthening
these close bonds which have developed between us.
Since I was last with you I have been acroos the Atlantic
to London. As you know, my main purposes in coming abroad were
to see you and to develop a warmer and closer, more intimate
relationship with you. You had kindly suggested that, and so, in
his place, had the Prime M~ inister of Great Britain. I have gone
through this process with Harold W-ilson in London. Last Sunday'
night at Chequers, that historic establishment of Britisn Prime
Ministers, after his wife and mine had left us for the evening,
he kicked his shoes off and lay down on a counch and for three
hours we settled the problems of the world. I told him, Mr.
President, that you had been so generous to me that I felt that if
I had asked you for the Statue of Liberty you would have gladly
g iven it to He said " Wdhy didn't you ask hirm for Fort Knox?"
Wll, he may have felt that it would have been handy. But
earlier in that evening he had taken me on a conducted tour
which you w. zere kind enough to do this for me last night at the
w-ijhite House of Chequers. At one point of the establishment
there is a picture by Rernbrandt illustrating the fable of " The
Lion and the Mouse". It is a wonderful picture, of course,
greatly celebrated and beautifully painted. But when Choquers
was occupied by Winston Churchill, Vlntnused to study this.
He was, as you know, an amateur painter. In fact I think he was
almost a professional painter by the fees he got toward the end.
But he studied the picture. Perhaps it was failing eyesight, or
Rembrandt had left something to the imaination, but he said " I
cannot see the mouse". So he painted in the mouse on the picture,
and there it is. And so you have Rembrandt and Churchill on
this particular picturo. But there was a moral in it, of course,
for me. My countrymen won't like me describing them, as mice.
Indood we produce the largest rat in the world. It stumps itself
along and calls itself a kangaroo. But I remember the moral of
the fable was that little friends may prove great friends. In a
sense, my country is a little friend, because there are less than
12 million of us. But I think of the men that this country
produced when there were 2i million of you and you signed the
Declaration of Independence. I have often rnrvelled at the
greatness of the men you produced from that small conmunity at
that time. I think it was Smuts who said that the great countries
are the countries which produce great men, and you produced great
men as early as the period in w-hich you had something less than
2-2 million. Washington, him'self, Jefferson, Franklin, Alexander
Hamiulton. You know the list of them so much better than I. But
these are Lien whose names stand in the cor1non heritage of
democracy and freedom around tho world.
I talked about myself. Perhaps I could return to that for
a moment, because wie have so mny d~ istinguished press representatives
and columnists -and people of that sort here. I had a recent
example in London of how. important correct reporting can be. Ir!
wife was interviewed by the press while she was there and was asked
what she had been doing. Naturally, being the wife of a politician,
she was quite cautious about this. So they asked her if she had
been doing any shopping. You know nothing can embarrass a politician
3.
any more than to have it reported that his wife had been doing a
lot of expensive shopping. So she said that she had bought a
couple of white rice. This was solemnly reported back in
Australia. Then the cables started to flow in the most intriguing
jargon of the Public Service of the Commonwealth, pointing out
that the import of white mice into Australia was prohibited under
our quarantine arrangements; that these white iuce would have to
be exterminated if they arrived. It would be very embarrassing
for all concerned if the wife of the Primie Minister had to be
subjected to this treatment. Now if the press had only added what
was the fact, that these white mice were made of china and were
designed for our grandchildren, then everybody would have been
happy. But I have had, Mr. President, on this journey, memorable
unforgettable, and very stirring experiences. And you, Sir, have
contributed notably to these in ways which my country will not
forget and certainly I shall not. And then in England, of course,
Ihave these memories also.
But one would expect to find some disap pointments along the
way, and I found one here. I found one when Iwent to England.
Perhaps there wore others, but these are the ones I mention. The
disappointment I found here was to discover how little of the total
story of what is going on in the Pacific area was reaching you
through the columns of the press. There was a vivid, dramatic,
day-to-day reporting of the military operations in South Vietnam
and this, I suppose, is the first war which has been fought on a
television screen for most people, and, therefore, not necessarily
the most objectively understood by most people. And so I was
disappointed that, while I knew of the feeling and appreciation that
your own Adm~ inistration has for this area and its problems, and you
have , iven elophent tostiin-on to that in the words you have given to
us this lunchtime, it was to me, I repeat, a disappointment that wie
didn't hear more of what was going on in this area of the world
which contains half the human race, which, by the end of the centu. ry,
will contain rather more than half the human race, because the rate
of increase there is significantly greater than in the area of
Western Europe or even in these United States. But you and your
colleagues have shown your ovin awareness of the problems of that
area and your determination to play a significant part in seeing
those of us who live there through the challenges and through the
opportunities which lie ahead for us. In England I found some
disappointment in the fact that Great Britain, and even more so the
other countries of Western Eurcpe, seem to be almost oblivious to
the existence of that area of the world, almost as if they had quite
deliberately turned their backs upon a large part of life, history,
and experience in these modern tinies, because so much that is
stirring and exciting in these modern times is occurring in this
area of the world. To brine out the best in the people of a country
you need a cause that will stir the pulse. We have, I am glad to
say, several such causes moving in my own country at this time.
The problem of developing a large continent, of brigng people in
from so many different countries, the challenge of great projects
which have to be opened up, the comparatively recent discovery
Perha: s I should, in saying this, mollify what one has said in a
critical vein of these other countries, because it is only in
comparatively recent times that in Australia, have become
conscious and sensitive to the fact that we, by force of qeography
and circumstances and the history of the future, have a significant
place in Asia and, in particular, in the Asia of tomorrow--. These
were the disappointments.
4.
On the other hand, Mr. President, I was to find in the United
Kingdom an expression, by the Prime Minister, of determination to
support your presence in Vict. iun, of recognition of the need for
the two great democracies of the United States and the United
Kingdom to maintain a close ck-oradeship in the affairs of the world.
And you will shortly be vis: t. d by the Prime Minister, again keeping
close and warm the link betm. cn these two democracies whose leadership
means so much to the we. l-being of mankind. But the primary
responsibility of that leadc" hip falls upon you as the head of the
mighty nation which these days loads the free world. It is an
awesome responsibility and it ib fortunate for all of us who value
freedom, the opportunities, c.-d liberties of free men that vie should
have, as the leader of this , reat democracy in turn leading the
free world, a man of your o cco: u rage, character and resolution.
And the lesson that we shall. uarry out to the rest of the world and,
indeed, I know this is the ju'! nent of the Prime Minister of Great
Britain, is that here wve have a man of resolution determined to see
the issues in Vietnam throua to the end, however difficult or long
that task may be. But you ' rid I, as men who have this stirring of
the pulse for the things thati can be done and perhaps because we
come from great open spaces and can draw a big fresh breath from
the country in which we live and breathe, that we tend to take the
long view, perhaps the visionary view. But the visions help to
provide the causes and the causes help to evoke the qualities that
are the best that lie within us. And we share this great cause in
the Asia of the future. This, to me, has been one of the really
heartening experiences of my journey to the Northern Hemisphere
from down under. Here in this country is the resolution to see
the job through where the difficulties lie and eager determination
to take up thEc oopportunities in comradeship and collaboration with
those of us who live in the sroa to make something of Asia which
will mark a new and hopeful phase in the history of mankind.
Mr. President, this is the sort of hope you leave with me
and which I take back to rmy country. And it is a stirring thing.
It is a comforting thing. It is a heartening thing to be ableto
feel that we can go on throu ih the many difficulties which face a
small people in a large continent with hundreds of millions of
people of different race, different history, different tradition,
different religion, different outlook, inmediately about us, but
confidently facing that future, because we believe that in our own
friendship, our own enterprise, our own willingness to join in the
task of Asia, we will build ourselves new friendships that will
see us through the difficulties that we face. And underlying it
all will be the knowledge that we have a friend, a very powerful
friend, whom you sy-bolize on this occasion. Thank you. for meaning
that strength and that inspiration that is heartening to us all.
In that spirit, from Australia, I salute the President of
the United States.