ASIAN TOUR 1967 SINGAPORE
ARRIVAL PRESS CONFERENCE GIVEN BY THE PRIME MINISTER
MR. HAROLD HOLT AT SINGAPORE AIRPORT 28TH MARCH, 1967
PRIME MINISTER: Gentlemen, I thought I'd just speak quite briefly to you and then
leave an opportunity for questions.
My friends from Australia who are coming around with me, I
understand, have agreed to let Singapore have the questions this
time rather than monopolise the time.
But I am very glad that as a consequence of my visit to four
countrias ofl the South East Asian and Pacific region, which I have
not previously visited, I am able to make this short but very
useful visit to Singapore again.
I am, of course, no stranger to Singapore. I'vye been here,
and through here, many times -over the years, but I always find
it both useful and very pleasant, certainly very pleasant to meet
members of your Government again and to talk usefully and
helpfully -with them, and I am looking forward tonight, in the
absence of your distinguished Prime Minister, to meeting an
old friend in the Acting Prime Minister, who very kindly is giving
a dinner for me.
My main purposes on this visit, as I've already indicated, will
be to make contact with four contries of the region, which I've not
previously visited, and I hope in this way to make Australia and
its policies better known in those countries, and at the same time,
because of the coverage which our own press will be giving to this
visit, to make these countries and their significance for Australia,
their leaders, and their people better know n to my own countrymen
in Australia. There is an increasing interest and recognition in Australia
of our growing involvement in the affairs of South East Asia and
the Pacific, of which region of course, we feel ourselves to be
a part. Geography brings us together and, at the same time,
there are mutual interests to be served.
We have an interest, as you do, in the security of the area,
its stability and its peaceful progress, and Australia is developing
an increasing trade with the countries of the area, generally speaking.
So these are all good reasons why we should get to know each other
better,. get to unlderstand each other's problems and, where we can
be mutually helpful, to act in that f ash icn. / 2.
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0 The countries which I shall be visiting all have a special
significance for us. They don't necessarily all pursue the
same policies, but, to takce an illustration, Cambodia,
Australia has a special relationship there in that we represent the
United States' interests in Cambodia, and we represent Cambodian
interests in South Vietnam.
So you will gather from this that my own country is able, in
that way, to act as a useful bridge of understanding and contact
between countries which don't have direct diplomatic relations
w it h each other at the Wres ent time.
I have spoken of stability, of our interest in stability in this
region. I hope that won't be interpreted as meaning some
conservative resistance to change. That is not how we view it.
We have ourselves, as I think we have demonstrated, a
national drive in our own development, and we aspire to rising
standards for our people and the maintencnce of social justice
and we look applaudingly at developments in other countries of
the region which have these objectives, the betterment of affairs
inside those countries and the processes of change which serve
to produce that betterment, but to us stability and security are
necessary ingredients in this process. If you don't have security
and you have instability, then you ca't go ahead in the same way
with orderly and peaceful progress.
But this is of the essence of my purpose on this occasion to
make better neighbours of good neighbours, more understanding
between those good neighbours It is for me an educational tour,
as I am sure it will be for those accompanying me, and, at the
same time, I hope it will not be without some educative process
for countries which have a significance for us and with which we
hope to live on terms of friendship and co-operation, building
our trade and our diplomatic relationships together.
Now having said that, gentlemen, perhaps you have some
questions you wish to put to me.
Q. Mr. Prime Minister, when Mr. Bowden, the British Commonwealth
Secretary, recently asked about the Australian attitude to the British
drawdow n of troops here, he said that he believed that the Australian
attitude was that you were less interested in the actual size of the
British presence than in the fact of the British presence. Does this
accurately reflect your views on the subject?
PM: Well, we understand all along that after the confrontation issue
had either ended or substantially abated, that the build-up of British
forces which had occurred to meet that situation would also abate
until you had something more closely approximating the preconfrontation
level of Brit ish forces in the area, an d it is a fact
that in my own discussions with Mr. Bowden I did make the point
to him that we were n ot so much concerned with the size of the
British Military Establishment in the area, but we did feel that it
was important, not so much in our interests we feel that our
security arrangements are adequate in any event but in the interests
of the area as a whole, and indeed in the interests of maintaining
British influence and prestige throughout this area, and indeed
through the world, that continuance of a British presence in an area
east of Suez which, after all, accommodates these days threef ifths
4 -3-
of the human race was, and remains, important, and so far as
I am aware that viewpoint has been well understood and accepted by
the British Government and has shaped its policies in relation to
this area ever since.
Q. Sir, do you expect to discuss the Vietnam War during your
present trip?
PM: I am not coming for that special purpose. Our own policy is
well known, our participation is well-known in the conflict there,
we ourselves are hoping that there can emerge a settlement which
will leave a just arn d enduring peace and which will enable these
conditions of stability and security I've spoken of as aspirations
to become realities in the area. But I'm afraid there has beaen
no encouragement in the events of recent weeks to support the hope
that there can be an early termination of hostilities or the kind of
settlement that we would hope to see emerge there. I'm not in
any way trying in the course of this visit to make some impact
on the attitudes of others on this Issue. For example, Cambodia
takes a different view of this matter from Australia. We can agree
to differ on this matter, it's not my purpose to attempt to persuade
the Government of Cambodia that they should alter their policies,
they're well capable of making up their own minds as to what their
policy should be.
Q. Mr. Prime Minister, will you be taking an opportunity while you
are in this area to visit Saigon this time?
PM: No, I have no plans to visit Saigon. Since I was there myself there
have been other visits by members of the Government and, of course,
by Senior Diplomatic and Service Representatives, and the total journey
I shall be making on this occasion has to be confined in 12 or 13 days,
that involves four countries other than visits such as this which bring
me to Singapore and Hongkong.
Q. On Indonesia is there any chance that you'll go to Indonesia either
at the end cf this visit ct in the near future?
PM: Well, not in the course of this visit and I've made no plans, but
I think it can be assumed that I would welcome a visit to Indonesia
when the Government of that country felt it was propitious for me to
do so. There have been visits by our own Minister for External
Aff airs, Mr. Hasluck, who has, I think, developed a good relationship
with the Government of Indonesia, and even through the difficult period
of confrontation we were able to maintain a line of friendship which I
know was welcomed there and which we were glad to hold out. We
joined with others in looking constructively at the Economic problems
of the country, and we hope that in the years ahead we'll develop
closer, more cordial and co-operative relations, particularly in the
areas of diplomacy and trade with Indonesia.