VISIT TO US, CANA. DA UlK
MONTREAL, CANADA
SPEECH BY THE PRIME MINISTER, MR HAROLD HOLT
AT MAYORAL DINNER, CITY HALL, MONTREAL JUNE, 1967
Mr. Mayor and Madame Drapeau:
It was a very happy decision of the Australian Government to
decide to be represented at the Montreal Exposition. Our motives were
largely stimulated by the friendship over so many years with the people of
Canada and our desire to join in celebrating the centennial of this great
country of yours.
You mentioned some of the origins we have in common and you
hrought to mind a little jingle that was originated about the early period that
you mentioned in the history of my own country:
" True patriots we, for be it understood
Wle left our country for our country's good."
But I think that our Mother Country, if it could look at the results that the
offspring have produced, would be sorry to have lost them and be very
proud of the achievements through those years. It is also, I understand, not
merely the centennial of Canada but the 325th anniversary of this beautiful
and historic city of Montreal. I say you have cause for a double celebration.
Although the principal purpose of my own visit here was to join
in celebrating Australia's special day, I feel that already there has been
added benefit for us from the very valuable discussions we held with your
Prime Minister and members of the Cabinet, the new knowledge that we have
acquired of the remarkable growth which has proceeded in Canada since my
own first visit here for the Parliamentary conference in Ottawa fifteen years
ago. I scarcely recognised Ottawa. I found it equally difficult to see
in the Montreal I had visited for only a short and inadequate few hours on
that occasion the beautiful city ou have here today. But we have a strong
feeling, and I was delighted to fhcS your Prime Minister echoing this,
sentiment that our two countriesfgrowing in strength with their economies
burgeoning, with their populations growing rather more rapidly than those
of other countries and with a special relationship with some of the m jor
powers of the world you oniented principally as you have been 4n the past
towards the North Atlantic and the North America, we with a growing and
special place in Asia and the Pacific. If we can contrive to keep closer
together in the years ahead than we have in the past, if we can think closely
together on the great international questions which will affect the future
of mankind, then I am certain that Canada and Australia together will be
able to make a significant impact for constructive and useful purposes on
the thinking of other countries of the world, and it is with that object in
mind I have pressed your Prime Minister to come and visit our country. / 2
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I hope there will be an increasing stream of Canadians who will
find if they attempt the journey that it is not so formidable an undertaking
as they might have imagined. There are some very agreeable stopping
points along the way Tahiti, if you must practice your French; there is
Honolulu, if you wish to see how a multi-racial community has turned that
lovely island into a thriving economy and a very enjoyable place to stay; and
then Australia, the oldest continent but with some of the youngest and the
liveliest people that you will find on the earth.
Je regrette profonddment, monsieur le Maire, que je ne peux
parler francais bien. Mon francais, mon professeur a mon ecole etait un
ecossais. Ainsi ce'st difficile pour moi parler en francais a vous.
Mon secretaire, however, in order to meet this situation, has given me these
lines which I am very happy to adopt. Vous avez une ville ancienne et
gracieuse et vous en avez fait cadeau a toutes les nations pour cette
exposition brillante. Au nom del'Australie, je vous apporte nos meilleurs
souhaits et nos congratulations les plus cordiales et chaleureuses.
You must be tremendously gratified with the success which has
already become evident for this imaginative courageously planned,
ambitiously projected exposition. You, Mr Mayor, have become something
of an institution in your own right. I became very envious when I learned
that of the 48 members of your council, you can count upon the regular
support of 45 of them. That is a majority which any politician like myself
would very much envy but I am sure that it is due to your own drive, your
own courage, your own enterprise that this marvellous exposition has been
brought into being and has become a success to be admired around the world.
We are greatly looking forward to visiting it ourselves. We are
proud that Australia should be accorded its own national day of celebration.
I hope we shall prove worthy of it. I am told that just about four times as
many people have visited our pavilion as was estimated for us, in advance.
I don't claim that it is because those who want to rest there find themselves
addressed by people like myself as they recline in those chairs; indeed,
it has been cut down quite considerably. Well, if that is a mark of popularity,
perhaps I should take that hint myself and content myself with saying on
behalf of all my party here with me and indeed on behalf of Australia, which
is proud to be represented here with you and I am sure will derive advantage
from our presence with you, the best wishes for the continuing success of the
Exposition and our warmest congratulations, Mr Mayor and your gracious
wife, and to all associated with you in this marvellously conceived project.