ASIAN TOUR 1967 LAOS
SPEECH GIVEN BY TIE PRIME, MINISTER,-MR._ HAROLD HOLT
AT THE STATE DINNER IN VIENTIANE 1APIL, 197
Your Highnesses, Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen:
First, Mr. Prime Minister, may I thank you very
warmly for the welcome you have given to me and Mrs. Holt
and all those who have accompanied us here to Laos. We
found the warmth of welcome extended to us on our arrival
today confirmed by all the experience which has since come
to us during a memorable day in this capital city of your
count ry. It is something of an occasion for my own country
when for the first time in our history its Prime Minister
makes a visit to this historic country and its notable
capital of Vientiane, and we have appreciated greatly the
ma~ nner in which you have welcomed us here.
We welcome, Prime Minister, your assumption of
the leadership of your country. We were confident that
under that leadership your country would grow in strength
and would attract support and confidence. We ourselves
were confident in that belief and we congratulate you that
this confidence has been so strongly evidenced in the
elections which brought you added strength when they were
last held. This visit I am making reflects the interest of
Australia in an area of the world which previously did not
exercise our attention very much. It is only in comparatively
recent years wie have come to realize how deeply involved our
own future and wiellbeing are in the future and wellbeing of
the countries to our north, our nei.-hbours ol' the countries
of South East Asia in particular and of the Asian and Pacific
regions generally. It is particularly gratifying to me that you should
have admitted me, as I understand th 3 first visiting foreign
Prime Minister, to be allowed to enter your Cabinet and have
talks there in confidence with you and with your colleagues.
We have greatly valued this discussion. We feel that this
has led to a better understanding of the problems of your
country. kWe believe that it will be of assistance to us in
the decisions which wie shall be making in future as to how
we can best bring assistance and encouragement to you.
Vie respect the neutrality which is the officioal policy
of your country and which has been assured to you if others
observe that assurance under the Geneva agreement. We know
that, like ourselves, you have an urgent desire for a stable
and continuing peace, that in a condition of peace you hope
to be able to develop a country which has knowun so ma,, ny rzivages,
both fromi nature and from man in years that have gone by. We
know that, because of the security probleLm you face, there is
only a fraction of your budget that you can devote -to
constructive purposes, cons-1r'uctive works th:. tU will help to
build a better life for your people. a s
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Australia is well aw,-are of the inroads which defence
expenditure makes upon the national resources of finance and of
manpower and we have found it necessary in our contribution to
our own security and that of others in the area in which we live
to double our expenditure on defence over a period of four years,
and this Irs meant that less money is available for our own
development, less money than we would wvish to see applied is
available for the assistance of others. But despite these
demands we have done what we could to bring assistance to others,
and I was delighted to find the ready recognition on your own
part of the value which this assistance has meant to your own
country. It is fashionable for some who do not wish you well and
do not wii-sh us well, to describe this process of assistance as a
new type of colonialism, the neo-colonialist of the propaganda
which you and I read about so often. So far as Australia is
concerned, we emphatically reject any such interpretation of the
help we have been trying to give. For our pa-. rt this is genuine
help, help designed to assist others to a better way of life.
Of course every country which gives assistance has a
motive of self-interest, one sort or acnothler, but thu self-interest
which I believe is uppermost in the minds of those giving
assistance around the world at this time is a sincere desire to
build a better world, to enable countries less fortunate, less
able to make provision for themselves because of military threat
or because of poverty of resources, to ca-rry on the work of
progress in their country as a consequence of the aid which more
fortunate countries can bring to them.
a basis oAf nylo aanid, wn, o* th ichi t'Auuh st) r. nayl icao nidsit iaobnl, e ntoo t giwviet h iasn yg iovebnl ignoatti oonn
on the part of the aid receiver. It is gladly given in the hope
thalt this will help to make a better life for the people of that
country. We recognise the problems and the difficulties which
face your owin country. We have admired the courage of your
Prime Minister in leading the country with such distinction and
in uniting the Laotian people in the face of tremendous
difficulties. We have also admired the progress that your
Prime Minister has brought about and the stability he has achieved.
I am very pleased that under his leadership the bonds of friendship
have grown to such an extent between the, two countries. This kind
of friendship, I hope, will continue in the future.