\ 1F R'S 104
ASIAN TOUR 1967Q IAPR961
VISIT TO LAOS Q18RAg"
ARRIVAL PRESS STATEMENT BY THE PRIME MINISTER
OF AUSTRALIA, THE RT. HON. HAROLD HOLT, MP'.
I welcome the opportunity to make personal contact and
discuss mutual problems and interests with the Prime Minister, His
Highness Prince Souvanna Phouma, and the members of the Royal Lao
Government, and to see what I can in the time available of the Lao people
and their country. I am grateful for the invitation of the Royal Lao Government
to visit Laos which enables me to do these things.
I am also most grateful, as well as honoured, that His
Majesty the King has seen fit to accord me an audience and a luncheon
tomorrow at Luang Prabang.
We were glad to receive His Majesty's son, the Crown
Prince, in Australia on a State visit in 1965.
His Majesty's brother, as Charge d'Affaires in Canberra
has, of course, kept me and my government informed of developments in
Laos and I might add, has told me of the beauties of Luang Prabang.
My visit to Laos fits into the pattern of visits which, as
you may know, I am paying to Australia's neighbours. We have come to
realise how clesely and inextricably our fortunes are bound up with those
of our neighbours, and we are now making further efforts to come to
understand these neighbours better. In recent years, Laos and Australia
have developed close and continuing contacts with each other through our
Embassies in each other's capitals, as well as through our co-operative
ventures under the Colombo Plan, in ECAFE and the Mekong Committee,
and in the Asian Development Bank, to mention only a few organisations.
I believe it essential for Australia and its neighbours such
as Laos to maintain and improve their contact and mutual comprehension,
and jointly to tackle the problem of more rapid development in the area.
On the basis of the experience we have had and the skills we have acquired
in Australia, we have tried to assist within our resources to help Laos'
efforts to develop as quickly as possible.
Our aid under the Colombo Plan has been varied.
Communications are, of course, a basic problem in
Australia, and it was fitting that our first project immediately after the
independence of Laos was the provision of substantial quantities of roadmaking
equipment designed to assist in the re-opening of the road systems.
More recently, we have continued this interest in communications with
the provision of radio receivers and of material for the Lao National
Radio and the two transmitters and mast for the Luang Prabang station
which will be arriving shortly. / 2
-2
For the rest, our aid, which last year was in the vicinity
of $ US 1, 300, 000, comprises especially our participation in the
financial-stabilisation programme, including the Foreign. Exchange
Operations Fund and our Commodihy Tmport Programme, the development
of our livestock improvemaent project at Na Pheng, tlhe provision of the
bulk of the school supplies required by the Lao primary schools, our
financial contribution to the construction of the Nam Ngum Dam, and the
provision of some 35 scholarships a year in Australia and of some experts
here. We are also acutely aware of the military problems of the
area, including those of Laos.
In 1962, the proud, free, peaceful peaple of Laos accepted
neutrality internationally through the Geneva Accords. Though we
ourselves were not a party to those Accords, we nevertheless accepted
them and have respected them. We respect fully the neutral status of
Laos. We shared the Lao disappointment, not long after the Accords
had been signed, to find that one signatory, North Viet Nam, had not withdrawn
its troops but, on the contrary, and particularly as its aggression against
South Viet Nam increased, was violating Laotian territory both in order to
infiltrate thousands of troops through Laos to South Viet Nam and in order
to dominate certain areas of Laos,
We hatve watched with admiration the response of the Lao
people to this Invasion.
We are aware of the burden which the maintenance of its
defence forces imposes on Laos in terms of manpower and finance.
We are aware of the toll of soldiers and civilians, and the
suffering of the wounded soldiers and injured or dispossessed civilians.
We have admired the progress which the Lao Army has made
over the past two years or more in clearing out the enemy from Governmentheld
areas and creating a protective screen behind which the economic
development of Laos can proceed.
Mrs. Holt and I are looking forward very much to our visit.
We shall meet again at the press conference arranged
towards the end of my visit when I shall be glad to deal with the questions
you may wish to put to me.
APRIL 1st. 1967