I. SPEECH BY THE PRIME MINISTER, THE RT. HON. R. G. MENZIES
AT NATURALISATION CEREMONY, PERTH, ON 24TH JULI, 9Q6l.
Sir, Parliamentary colleagues, and ladies and gentlemen:
I want to say a few words to those who are, tonight, taking a step
which in the life of any human being is a very, very important one. Those of us
who have had the good fortune to be born in a country, to live in it, to-enjoy
its life, to take our citizenship for granted, can't know very much about what is
involved in pulling up the roots of the family and moving into another country,
moving right across the world and entering into a new life, and a new
citizenship. This is a very remarkable event.
Whenever I think about it I say to myself " What does persuadq people
to move from one country to another?" I might ask you ladies and gentlem3n
tonight, " What was it that persuaded you to leave your ancient home, and to come
here?" There have been times in the world's history when people loft their own
country because they were, in effect, driven out of it we have seen something
of that in the modern world; we have seen something of that in the last
thirty years of human history people being compelled to leave hone, so to
speak, because home was no longer home, no longer the kind of home they wanted
to live in. These are the tragic events of modern history. And when that
event happens to anybody there must be one passion in the heart, and that is to
go to the country where those things can't happen to you, to come out of a
country whoa~ freedom has been snatched away from it, and to come to a country
where freedom will be defended by everybody, whatever political party he may
belong to,. whatever religion he may profess, where everybody is agreed that we
are free people, free, as Mr. Cash says, to pray as we want to pray, to speak awe
want to speak, to assemble as we want to assemble.
Well, of course, there have been other movements in the world's recent
history or modern history in which people left and came to another country
because they saw in that'new country an opportunity which they didn't see at
home: not driven out, but drawn out by the prospect of a new life.
In case any of you who are being naturalised tonight think that we
political fellows here on the platform are tr-ating you as if you were scanething
apart, let me say this to you: there is not a man on this platform, and not a
woman on this platform, who didn't have a grandfather, or a great-grandfather,
who came to Australia he might not have been called at that time a " migrant",
or a " new Australian" ( Laughter, applause) so you know we are all the same,
aren't we? Don't let yourself feel that you are a sort of something apart,
something odd in the Australian community, because you are not. Let me tell you-
I'll speak only for myself: on my father's side, my grandfather and my
grandmother came to Australia from Scotland. Now any Scot here tonight would say
" What a mistake". ( Laughter) " To leave Scotland to come here'." But they came
here and looking back on it I've no doubt they said, " A very good country to go
to, Australia, because although we will be ' new Australians' when we get there,
our grandson will be Prime Minister"' ( Laughtor, applause) You make a note of
that. Put little Willy's name down. ( Laughter) Stranger things have
happened. On my mother's side my grandparents came out because my
grandfather on her side thought that there was gold in Australia. Instead of
looking for it in Kalgoorlie, which might have been a rather successful thing to
do, he looked for it in vain in another part, in the State of Victoria. He was,
I suppose, a new Australian. I don'-t know.
You see the point I am getting at? Your grandchildren will be as much
old native-born Australians as I am today. ( Applause) And so I want to say to
you: don't feel odd, Some of you may face language difficulties, although I am
staggered at the skill and speed with which people learn to speak, not only
English, but Australian ( Laughter) you know, a slight complication upon
standard English. But don't be worried if you think that you speak our
language indifferently. I remember I had a colleague, once, a genial character,
rather rough and ready, to use our idiom, who had to receive a French football
team. They arrived and the leader of the team said to my colleague, " Excuse,
please, I don't speak English very well" and my colleague, with a flash of
candour said, " Don't worry about that, old boy, neither do ( Loughter)
But all those things are passing phases. It is quite true that many
of us had grandparents who came here from what we call the " old country", from
England, from Scotland, Wales, from Ireland, wherever it might be, and so there
were none of these problems of language, although even there there were some
some. And many of you have come from ancient countries in Europe and you have
different tongues, different backgrounds, marvellous histories, marvellous
literature, marvellous music. You carry with you an enormous store in the mind
and in the heart. These are tremendous contributions to Australia. It was said
a little while ago that migration has meant something tremendous to Australia in
the post-war years and I want to repeat it. It is tremendously true.
I go around Australia a good deal in order to have the pleasure of
having one man out of ten say " Good on you" do you know that idiom? a:. d the
other ten saying " Baaa'" All this, of course, is the veryproof of freedom in
Australia. Prime Ministers here don't go around with a posse of police around
them: they just go around. Sometimes people are friendly; and sometimes they
are not. And the Prime Minister hopes for the best, being by nature and
experience a good high-spirited fellow, you see.
But when I look around this country, for whose political leadership,
rightly or wrongly, I have been responsible for a long, long time, I can't
imagine that Australia would be as prosperous, as happy, as forward looking,
today, if it hadn't been for this remarkable inflow of good people into
Australia. ( Applause)
It has been a wonderful thing for us and I want every one of you who
will be naturalised tonight to realise that this is not all one way. We are not
just being nice to you: we are grateful to you. And you are not just to be
grateful to us for having received you: I want you to feel a proper pride in
what you find yourselves able to do in Australia. In some of the greatest
. ndustries that I know of in Australia the progress would have been a mere
fraction of what it is today if it hadn't been for hundreds of thousands cf
people coming in willing to work, willing to contribute, willing to become good
contributing citizens of Australia. Anybody who knows anything about our great
industries will realise at once that what we call the great migration programme
has been of immeasurable benefit.
So I just want to say to you: don't be nervous, as if you were in a
strange land, because, as I explained to you before, your grandsons willbe on
the same footing as I am tonight. There is no occasion to feel nervous or
strange. Don't feel that any man's hand is against you. Because the only really
unpopular people in Australia are politicians and football umpires. ( Laughter)
It is a great thing, a difficult thing for you, the parents, a
difficult thing; a difficult thing for you who, having reached mature years have
had to make this great change, I know, a tremendously difficult decision to make.
But for your children, for your children, this is the land of opportunity., I am
perfectly certain that nobody who looks at it along these lines will ever doubt
that it was a great thing tc come here. We are a friendlypeople. We are not
stuffy. We are not consumed by snobberies of class, or some of this nonsense
that has beset some of the older countries of the world. You are in an
essentially democratic country where every man has a chance to stand on his own
feet, and every woman, and to be taken at his or her own true value by other
people. Nothing could be better than that: to be free, to feel that there is no
shadow over you, to feel that there is none of the paraphernalia of dictatorship
in this country, that we are, in the truest sense, a friendly community, a
brotherhood, and a sisterhood of people.
And so we are, in Australia where any boyor girl has a vi: ta of
opportunity which can be marched along provided there is ability and character
and courage and determination a country of freedom, of equality before -the law,
a country which governs itself at its own will, through the people it chooses,
without compulsion of anybody else, to serve it in Parliament or municipal life.
This is, I am proud to say, in ray opinion the freest country in the worl.
h. egihgth tandA nds aiyt . iins 7 fosor r a-llothfope aronirseiansogn s waIt. at t " tell don'yto u look ! Aoow okn a-r. ear n. rewa t-po ml
o a bt no blt. o -naene r . nh her was. aKe no m ake abou
that, An. I i. l be surprised ii. ou of this . eneration of meople who ' iave come
to Australia from the oh couwtntries of he worl we don't fin P ime inisters
and Premiers and Judges and Chief Justices.. peple of gret, dis/ inctin
serving Australia. . id t-nat,. prosoe very , i rac; ive I -ope . oup find
it very attractive Therefore I say'to you ie6come'" I am ae2. ghted . t you
have taken this decioion, am sure that it good to-yout an I am
positively certain that it is cod for Australia, ( Applause)