ST. STEPHEN'S DAY CELEBRATIONS
PADDINGTON TOWN HALL,-SYDNEY AUGUST. 1966
Speech by the Prime Minister, Mr Harold Holt
Mr Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen:
This is for me a very happy arnd stirring occasion because
: I come to you both as the present Head of the Australian Government and
also, as our Chairman has reminded you, as the former Minister, who
can regard himself in a sense as the godfather of many of you in this room
tonight. I have had now, many years of service as the head of a
Department in an Australian Government, altogether, I suppose, about
18 or 19 years. Seven of those years were spen! with the portfolio of
Immigration and I don't recall any time in my public life which gave me
a warmer and richer sense of satisfaction than those years I 3pent as
Minister of that portfolio, helping to build the Australian nation that
is progressing year by year into the promising future that awaits us.
Now this function tonight is, I think, a very happy
expression of the blending into the Australian community life of the
traditions, the customs, the cherished recollections of many
nationalities who have come to settle in this country. I know that for
the Hungarian people, the celebration of St. Stephen's Day is an
occasion of great significance, an occasion of intimate recollection,
perhaps even nostalgic recollection of the history of a people who have
contributed so much in the history of mankind to the development of
the human personality. Although many of you today are fully Australian, both
in the legal sense and in the sense of the full adoption of your new
country, we can think of you for the purposes of our gathering here
tonight as the Hungarian community in Australia. And here you are
recollecting the things that help to build character and personality
hope in the years that were with you before and in ihe years that are
with you in your adopted homeland.
Now one could imagine that in a less favourable
environment a national community such as the Hungarians might have
wanted to conduct an occasion such as this exclusively to themselves,
but it is a mark of your own feeling of Australian citizenship that you
gladly welcome into this gathering the head of the Australian Government,
other Parliamentary representatives and many Australian friends. Now
we appreciate this. You may recall, some of you, that several years ago,
as Minister for Immigration, I was at a gathering at which the
Hungarians were represented and the other national groups in the
community life of Sydney, and I said then that they must not imagine that
we Australians of native birth in any way resented the fact that the
national groups should maintain their customs and their traditions, sing
the songs of their country, and preserve those things which they cherish
from their former homeland. Now we meant that, and I remember
illustrating that comment with a reference to the Scots in Australia, and
no-one could wear weirder costumes than the Scots. Certainly no-one
could play weirder music than the Scots and yet Australians had managed
to tolerate them very satisfactorily for many years.
The Hungarians, of course, have their own special
attributes. I was told many years ago that the most beautiful women / 2
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in the* Worlcanie from Hungary. ( Applause) I don't want to lose too
many Australian votes by saying that the Aussie girls can't match the
Hungarian girls, but i. am quite certain that we have lost nothing from
your presence as a continuing element in our midst.
Now it is a stirring thought, ladies and gentlemen, that
in the Australia of today, one in every five is either a migrant of the
post-war period or a child born to migrant parents. Indeed, if you take
the younger age groups in this country, one in every four is a migrant
of this post-war period. One in every four in employment in our
manufacturing industry. One in five of the work force of the nation.
This constitutes a very considerable addition to our national strength, but
also in subtle and sometimes undiscernible ways, personalities, the
traditions and habits of life of those who have come to join us are making
their impact on the life of the Australian people. I speak as a fourth
generation Australian when I say I think it is a very much pleasanter life that
we enjoy today because of the variety that has been brought to us by so many
national groups who have come to join our community in these post-war years.
In that influence, the music, the culture, the science and the
skills of the Hungarian people have also made a significant contribution.
Tonight you celebrate an influence in your lives which has
been something moulding character, something which has served as an
inspiration over the centuries for the Hungarian people in order to
preserve an identity, an identity through centuries of domination; whether
that domination lasted for a short or long period of time, it has sought at
times to crush the spirit of the Hungarian people and their own traditions.
And yet such has been the strength of character, the toughness of fibre
of' the people of Hungary that you have preserved that entity and the
traditions which you are cherishing here tonight.
We, your fellow Australians, can rejoice with you in an
occasion which is moving to you and because of that becomes significant
for us. The things which St. Stephen worked for and brought into your
country are to be found in their own form in this country of ours. He was
a great statesman, a great reformer. He was devoted to his people. He
gave them a religious fervour and faith which has withstood the test of
pressures through the centuries. It is proper that the memory of this
great man, influencing the development of your national history should
be honoured in this way. We in Australia can't point, in the life of our
own country, to centuries of history and tradition. Those of us who come
of British stock, even if we are removed, as I am, by three generations
as a fourth generation Australian, we still have a heritage which has
shaped the institutions of this country, and I believe that you, too, have
come to appreciate that democratic heritage.
Here you can breathe the air of freedom. Here you can find
opportunity. Here you have found the incentive which has enabled you to
build a life, a prosperous life, a happy life, a secure life in the community
of Australian people. Because you and we cherish that spirit of freedom,
we are determined to play our part in its preservation, either inside our
own country, or if the challenge comes outside our shores. The Australian
people in two world wars fought on European soil and suffered nearly
half a million cas~ ualties in the cause of freedom. So it is not surprising
that at this time Australian men, some of them of Hungarian origin, are now
in Viet Nam, fighting again for the cause.
Freedom extends to our institutions. We can point to free
elections. W can point to a free press. But we must always remember
that freedom is never free in the sense that freedom can be preserved
without cost. And some of you in this room tonight fought a battle for
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freedom, and you went into exile from your own country only when it was
clear that if you did not, freedom could not be preserved.
I remember very vividly in 1957 going in Austria to the
border and watching the points across which there were still many
Hungarians coming. I went to the camps in which there were still
many Hungarian refugees seeking a new homeland, and it was as the
result of the arrangements that we were then able to make that some
14, 000 of you came to this country. And what was Hungary's loss
became Australia's gain.
You have shown a high sense of responsibility in the
country of your adoption. I don't think I know any national group which
has a higher proportion of its settlers taking up naturalisation inside
Australia. I have had through my time as Prime Minister, and then
through the years, the longer years as Minister for Immigration, no
cause that I can recall to regret, through any episode which has occurred,
that we should have welcomed so many of you here. You have done well,
you have behaved as responsible, contributing citizens to Ai~ stralian causes
and we value your presence with us.
The ideals which St. S t ephen gave you, you have cherished
with us and they have contributed to our own Australian way of life, and it
is the hope of myself and my colleagues that over the years ahead you will
continue to find happiness with us, that your prosperity will march with
the prosperity of the Australian nation. A grea~ t Australian Governor-
General in the person of Viscount Slim, whom some of you will remember,
wrote to me recently and said, " What a fascinating time to be Prime
Minister of Australia" and what a fascinating time to be part of Australia,
part of its growth, part of its promise, part of the years, the shining years
which we see ahead of us, because we have every confidence that given
freedom from war, given opportunities for the development of our national
resources, this country will become one of the leading nations of the world.
Wc have no wish to lead or to be in the rating of leadership
or amongst the leading nations simply for selfish ends. We know that
left to ourselves, we can build a life a happy life, but there are
responsibilities, and we haven't shrunk from them whether in the military
field or in the field of international aid, and perhaps the events of the psist
few days in Viet Nam are symbolic of the Australia of the future. Brave
men serving their country with devotion, skill and courage, and helpirgto
build the greater Australia of the years ahead.
Now in that growth and greatness, your community will be
playing its part. It will be helping us with the variety which comes from
centuries of culture in which we have had no part, but you can become part
and your traditions can become part of that Australian nation made up of
people of many nationalities. I believe we have succeeded in avoiding
some of the problems and errors which developed inside the United States.
We studied what had happened with their migration programme and we
applied those lessons in the development of our own, So it is that we have
had far fewer social problems, far fewer nati;-mal frictions. Indeed, with
a Good Neighbour M-. vement joining in the work of integration, we have
had an experience which has proved itself to be the greatest peace-time
achievement of the Australian people. You are part of our success and
tonight we salute you for the way in which you have joined with us and
become an integral part of an Australian family.
I wish you all happiness in the years ahead and together
may we go on to build the Australia to which we all aspire.