VISIT TO THE US AND
CANADI9
SYDNEY, N. S. W.
DEPARTURE. PRESS CONFERENCE GIVEN BY TH
PRIME MINISTER, MR JOHN, GORTON, AT-M IW%
AIRPORT 29 MARCH 1969
PRIME MINISTER Would you like me to read out the messages we have
sent to the United States and Mrs Eisenhower one was a personal
tribute sent to President Nixon
Q. Could you read the personal tribute to Eisenhower that
you sent to President Nixon?
PM: This was sent by us to President Nixon:
" TODAY ALL AUSTRALIANS ARE SHARING WITH
YOU AND WITH THE AMERICAN PEOPLE A DEEP SENSE OF
GRIEF AT THE DEATH OF GENERAL EISENHOWER.
" WE MOURN HIM AS A LEADER OF MEN WHO
SERVED HIS COUNTRY AS PRESIDENT WITH DEVOTION AND
HONOUR. WE MOURN HIM AS A LEADER IN THE FIGHT FOR
THE FREEDOM OF NATIONS. HE LED THE CRUSADE IN
EUROPE AND BORE THE AWESOME BURDEN OF SUPREME
COMMANDER IN WORLD WAR II WITH COURAGE, SKILL AND
THE HIGHEST QUALITIES OF LEADERSHIP. HE ACCOMPI1SHED
A GREAT VICTORY FOR THE FORCES OF ENLIGHTENMENT
AND HUMAN DIGNITY IN THE WORLD.
" HE RESPONDED TO HIS COUNTRY'S SUMMONS TO
THE HIGHEST OFFICE IN THE LAND WHEN OTHER MEN
MIGHT HAVE SAID ' I HAVE DONE ENOUGH'. AND AS
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, HE LED THE MOST
POWERFUL OF THE FREE PEOPLES OF THE WORLD AT A
CRUCIAL TIME IN WORLD HISTORY, AFTERWARDS HE
CONTINUED TO DEVOTE HIS GREAT HUMAN RESOURCES TO
THE ISSUES OF HIS TIME.
" AUSTRALIANS, AS DO PEOPLE THROUGHOUT THE
WORLD, SALUTE HIS ACHIEVEMENTS AND MOURN HIS
PASSING.
That is the message thmt we have sent. ,2
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Q. W-har-are-the iain-twpics tharyou. wil1he discussing
when you-meet-members -of-the Administration?
PM: Well now, of course, I will not be able to have
discussions with the President in the way it was planned that we
should have them. But I will still be having talks with the Secretary
of State and with the Secretary of Defence, and I imagine though
this is not yet quite clear with the Secretary of the Treasury.
I wil also be talking to some Presidential aides Mr Kissinger,
for example, and this, I think, will be a most useful preliminary
exercise, though I am sorry that the high level talks will not now
be able to take place. These will be initial talks, and I think they
will be of value for the time when, as I hope in May or June
depending on the President's agenda we can have thle talks
which were scheduled-to have been held this time. Then, of course,
the Canadian visit will go on as planned.
Q. Will you be seeking an assurance that the Americans
will remain in South-East Asia after the Vietnam war ends?
PM: I will be seeking to discover the current thining
of the American Administration in regard to that rather than
seeking assurances or otherwise. I want to try to discover the
actual thinking at the moment.
Q. Will you be discussing the use of nuclear weapons
at Gape Keraudren?
PM: L Well, we never intended to use a nuclear weapon at
Gape Keraudren in Western Aus tr alia. What we had thought would
happen there would be that the Sentinel Mining Company, which hias
iron ore leases, would join with us our own Atomic En ergy
Commission and the United States Atomic Energy Commission in a
feasibility study for the blasting out of a crater which could be
turnedI into a harbour. This is not nuclear weapons in any shape
or form. But it looks as if the Sentinel Mining Company now has
doubts as to the economit feasibility of using such a harbour, having
re-examined the grade of ore and various things of this kind. So
this particular project is probably and I say probably unlikely
to go ahead, but both our own Atomic Energy Commission and the
United States Atomic Energy Commission will be examining whether
there is somewhere on our West or North-West coast a situation
where a harbour is wanted and where this kind of experiment can
take place.
Q. Do you feel that the closenesofte between
Australia and America depends on your/ reiationship with Mr Nixon
the kind of personal friendship you strike up with him?
PM: Not really. But I think the ties between Australia and
the United States probably transcend personal relationships of any
two individuals. I think they can be reinforced considerably if two
individuals, one a Prime Minister and one a President are, as it
were, on the same wavelength, understand each other and trust
each other. I believe this applies to the United States or, for that
matter, to the Uniited Kingdom. / 3
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Q. "' DQYWi-tinkthaLxreC& atacks on your personal life
and your lead~ ership will affect your standing in the United States?
PM: I don't think they will at all. There have been two
I think they are part of a campaign. One seemed to be concerned
with some story about I don't want to use names, but I suppose
I have to Miss Minelli, whom I have met once in my life, and who,
in accord with her mother and sister and everybody else concerned,
threw that out the window. The other was an attack which I don't
really thoroughly understand even to this day. It seemed to be
concerned with whether one w. ght to go and visit someone at one
o'clock or half past one, if one is asked to or not. Since there was
no suggestion from even the self -styled accuser, of impropriety, I
am not quite sure what it is all about,
Q. Your talks with Mr Trudeau, of course, will go ahead
as scheduled. Can you elaborate a little on this?
PM: Well, only to this extent that the Canadians have
indicated or Mr Trudeau when I met him in London indicated that
he felt that he and his country should have a closer relationship
with the Pacific area than they had had before. Now, I wculd like
to explore that to see what part of the Pacific area that he is
specifically interested in, to see what form his interest takes.
do notice that he has said something concerning wheat sales, and this,
of course, is of great importance to us in Australia too. These
matters, I think, could be of significance to both our countries
but I only say " could be of significance". They are worth exploring.
Q. I take it, Mr Gorton, there was no chance of having
earlier talks with Mr Nixon?
PM: Oh no. No. He has been touring Europe, and indeed,
originally, I was to be the first political head of state that he was to
talk with or rather head of government that he was to talk with.
Mr Trudeau has spoken to him, but there was no chance of anyb~ ody
really eomi~ g to the United States before. Now, we will have to
fit in the next visit as best we can, and I think from messages I
have received, both President Nixon and myself would like this to be
done as soon as is possible for him and his itinerary and me and
my itinerary, although I would bend mine quite a lot to fit in with
his.
Q. Sir, does this mean, withthe period of mourning
extending to five days , that you are prepared to extend ywur visit to
the United States and Ca n ada
PM: No. I think that the period of mourning for General
Eisenhower would be likely to be more than five days andi I haven't
any intention at the moment of extending the visit. Rather from the
messages that one received, one would be over there examining with
the relevant people whether the meeting that was scheduledto take / 4
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PM ( Contd.) place this time with the President not with the other Secretaries
but with the President could-possihbly take place in May or early
June, which I would hope.
Q. Sir, do you feel, being one of the first political heads
of state to have talks with President Nixon , that you will play a part
in formulating his ideas as far as South -East Asia is concerned
influencing him before his ideas become hardened, seeing that he
has just come into office?
PM: I would hope, as in the case of talks between reasonable
people, that suggestions could be made by me which would be taken
into consideration by him, and suggestions could be made by him
which would be taken into consideration by me.
Q. Mr Gorton, if I can ask a question on the security
of South-East Asia, do you feel that the recent fighting between Russia
and China has lessened the threat of China to the area?
PM: I think that is a matter of sufficiently high policy and
a matter so impossible to define in any precise way that I couldn't
probably answer that question. There does appear and I say
" tappear" for some time to have been some tension between Russia
and China in the border areas between the two of them, and it has
flared up recently. But what effect that has on the policies of either
country I don't believe we have properly assessed as yet.
Mr Eggleton I think the Prime Minister has an announcement of
special interest to Sydney to make, so would the local Members
concerned come and sit near the PM?
PM: This is an announcemnent which is perhaps of most
interest to people in the Sydney area, and particularly in the area
around Mascot. I have flanking me the three Federal Members who
are concerned with it. They are conccrned with it, if I may say so,
to my cost, because they have taken up so much of my time about
it, because their constituents are concerned with it, and it deals
with the situation of an alternate airport to the one we are sitting
in at the present moment. Now, I will read it to you This is
as a result of an examira tion by the Department of Civil Aviation
and report to myself and it concerns the Towra Point, which is
just across the bay and which has been considered as a possible
site for an alternate airport. I have been in touch with the Department
of Civil Aviation and the Minister of Civil Aviation on this matter.
This is the gist of the announcement
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PM ( Contd.) place this time with the President not with the other Secretaries
but with the President coulcposily take place in May or early
June, which I would hope.
Q. Sir, do you feel, being one of the first political heads
of state to have talks with President Nixon , that you will play a part
in formulating his ideas as far as South -East Asia is concerned
influencing him before his ideas become hardened, seeing that he
has just come into office?
PM: I would~ hope, as in the case of talks between reasonable
people, that suggestions could be made by me which would be taken
into consideration by him, and suggestions could be made by him
which would be taken into consideration by me.
Q. Mr Gorton, if I can ask a question on the security
of South-East Asia, do you feel that the recent fighting between Russia
and China has lessened the threat of China to the area?
PM: I think that is a matter of sufficiently high policy and
a matter so impossible to define in any precise way that 1 couldn't
probably answer that question. There does appear and I say
" 1appear" for some time to have been some tension between Russia
and China in the border areas between the two of them, and it has
flared up recently. But what effect that has on the policies of either
country I don't believe we have properly assessed as yet.
Mr Eggleton I think the Prime Minister has an announcement of
special interest to Sydney to make, so would the local Members
concerned come and sit near the PM?
PM: This is an announcement which is perhaps of most
interest to people in the Sydney area, and particularly in the area
around Mascot. I have flanking me the three Federal Members who
are concerned with it. They are conccrned with it, if 1 may say so,
to my cost, because they have taken up so much of my time about
it, because their constituents are concerned with it, and it deals
with the situation of an alt e~ rnate airport to the one we are sitting
in at the present moment. Now, I will read it to you This is
as a result of an examina tion by the Department of Civil Aviation
and report to myself and it concerns the Towra Point, which is
just across the bay and which has been considered as a possible
site for an alternate airport. I have been in touch with the Department
of Civil Aviation and the Minister of Civil Aviation on this matter.
This is the gist of the announcement
PM ( Contd,); " The community noise problem involved in
-the operation. of jet aircraft in the Towra Point area
would be so severe, that the Minister for Civil Aviation
has advised me that he has decided to direct the
Interdepartmental Committee, convened to consider
the future airport needs of Sydney, to exclude this
site from its consideration,
" While accepting that the advantages which
modern aviation brings to the community as a whole are
considerable, I nevertheless feel that our airport
planning must avoid the imposition of an unacceptable
noise burden on any particular section of the community.
This I believe would be the situation if we went ahead
with jet airport development at Towra Point,
Accordingly I have told the Minister for Civil Aviation
that I concur in his decision not to give further
consideration to possible future jet operations at
Towra Point.
This is of interest, as I say, to people living around this area
and I take this opportunity with my colleagues, who have pressed
it on me so strongly, to make this announcement.
Thank you.