ASIAN TOUR 1967 CAMBODIA ARo,
TOAST PROPOSED BY PRINCE NORODOM SIHANOUJK
AT GALA DINNER FOR THE PRIME MINISTER,
MR. HAROLD HOLT, AT PHNOM PENH. 29th March, 1967.
It is with great pleasure that I welcome this evening the
eminent Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia, the Right
Honourable Mr. Harold Holt and those distinguished personages who
accompany him. May I assure them of the warmth of the welcome that
awaits them, and express the hope that they, for their part, will enjoy
their brief stay amongst us.
I likewise assure you personally Mr. Prime Minister,
of the great significance we Cambodians attach to this, the first occasion
on which the Head of an Australian Government has paid us an offical
visit, and of our appreciation of the opportunity thus afforded us of personal
and friendly contacts between the members of our respective governments.
I would likewise stress that your presence here this evening
constitutes proof that different political options and social conceptions
do not represent an insuperable barrier to the establishment of cordial
relations between governments and peoples, nor do they preclude the
possibility of co-operation to mutual advantage on mtters of common
interest. Indeed, I would even make so bold as to claim that Khmer/
Australian relations provide a world distracted by imperialist ambitions,
and driven by national and economic rivalries with a shining example,
not merely of peaceful but of fruitful and cordial co-existence. Moreover,
the formula we have hit upon to produce such a state of affairs is a simple
one, that of conforming in scrupulous fashion to the principle that all
nations are equal, to that of give-and-take, coupled with a refusal to
intervene in each other's internal affairs.
Another factor which has contributed to the establishment
of these cordial relations has been the provision of aid in various forms,
and of a most practical sort provided unconditionally by your government
including consignments of motorpumps for irrigation purposes, material
for our railways, and equipment for our capital, and for the recently
founded sea port which bears my name.
We may be flattering ourselves unduly in regard to the
assistance Australia has generously sent us in the light of a reward
to the Khmer people for the untiring efforts they have been making
ever since National Independence was recovered, to remedy Cambodia's
formerly backward state and to equip it socially, economically and
industrially with all the appurtenances of a modern nation.
There are good m~ asons for assuming, however, that the
rapid progress Cambodia has been making in every field has not
attracted the attention it merits, and that the belief is still prevalent
in the outside world that our country is a stagnant backwater where
as one Australian newspaper expressed it " last year no industrial
development of any sort has taken place". We have been devoting
much time and energy to dissipating this mistake by providing foreign
peoples with an opportunity to come to th~ eir own condusions in regard / 2.
-2
zo the-progrmss-azhieved under the '" Sangkum" regime. in the course
of the past-eleven years.
One of the methods we adcpted was the creation cf a
mobile exhibition of Cambodian achievements during the period in
question, and of sending it abroad with a view to dissipating this
mistken impression of our couitry. Visitors to this-exhibition
in the m an y countries where it has opened its doors almost invariably
exclaim " We had no idea Cambodia was so progressive, why it even
boasts national industries and factories. This aspect of the progress
Cambodia has made, Mr. Prime Minister, you will have an opportunity
to verify in person.
It is our sole ambition, however, as it is our passionate
desire to be allowed to complete the task to which we have set our
hand, free of threats to our national independence. For, were the
Khmer people to be robbed of their national independence, they would
be deprived of their present incentive to pursue their efforts, and would
relapse into that state of apathy which prevailed at the time of the French
protectorate, a moral condition which gave rise to the legend that the
Khmers were an idle and obtuse race, lacking the mental capacity to
acquire scientific or technical knowledge of any srt or description.
If the erroneous nature of such an assumption has been
demonstrated today, this should be ascribed to the impetus given by
the recovery of national independence. But national independence
perforce implies the absence of threats to territorial integrity. But
certain great powers are presuming to call in question today the
intangible nature of our present frontiers, obli vious of the fact that
the " shoe is in fact on the other foot", as Cambodia possesses historic
claims to territories at present being administered by neighbouring
governments, We are however, a sensible, pragmatic people, who
have no desire to stir up the embers oi pas-, quarrels or forgotten wars.
All we ask is to be allowed to live in peace within our present frontiers.
National independence likewise places us under an obligation
to resist attempts from an y quarter to reduce the status of our country to
that of a satellite. This obligation, reinforced by our firm conviction that
it must be respected, disproved the " thesis" propunded by those who seek
to disparage our motives to the effect that our neutral policy is biassed
in favour of the" socialist camp" and implen-e nted in suchy fashion as to
cause the maximum of embarrassment to the " free" world.
But such an assumption is demolished by the very close and
cordial nature of our relations with countries like Australia and France,
the governments of which harbour no designs on the territories of their
neighbours and cop~' 1uct their foreign policy in conformity with those
principles of reciprocal respect and some best calculated not only to
safeguard national interests, but to ensure the prosperity and happiness
of the peoples confided to their charge.
And it is with this assurance, and in this belief that I ask
you, your E~ cellencies, ladies and gentlemen, to join me in this toast
to the health of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth Second, to the health
of His Excellency Mr. Harold Holt, Madame Holt, and those Australian
friends of curs present here this evening, to the prosperity of Australia,
and to the happiness of its people ( di) to the friendship to bind our two
countries and peoples together.