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PRIME MINISTER
SPEECHES BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
AND THE PRIME MINISTER OF AUSTRALIA
ARRIVAL CEREMONY AT THE WHITE HOUSE
10.30 A. M. TUESDAY 27 JULY 1976
PRESIDENT FORD: Prime Minister Fraser, Mrs Fraser, Ladies
and Gentlemen: In this Bicentennial Year, the United States has
been honoured to welcome the leaders of many, many friendly
nations, and we are especially and particularly pleased that
the Prime Minister of Australia has come to Washington, D. C.,
our nation's capital.
Australia is especially close to the hearts of
Americans throughout our country. The American and
Australian people share common roots, common similarities
and the strongest affinities. We hold in common a devotion
to the preservation of liberty, not only in our own
countries, but throughout the world. We share great
responsibilities for assisting the emergence of a more just
and stable international order.
Mr Prime Minister, our countries have long been
allies in war as well as in peace. We have worked together
to support other free nations and to improve the condition
of less fortunate people.
Our two governments have a tradition of close
consultation that will be continued in our meetings today.
Australia is assuming increased responsibilities on a
worldwide basis. Its position on international issues
has not been narrowly confined to self-interest, but has
taken on a wider view that we share in this country.
2.
We respect this friendly and independent voice
across the Pacific. We welcome Australia's important
contribution to stability and progress in the Pacific
region and in the world at large.
Mr Prime Minister, you are deeply conscious of
the need to preserve a global balance among the Great Powers.
We sincerely appreciate Australia's support for our foreign
policy. We assure you that the United States will remain a
strong and faithful ally, worthy of Australia's trust.
Australia its Government and its Citizens
has done much to celebrate the American Bicentennial.
Festivals have been held in Australia; performers have
come to the United States and Australia will endow a
Chair of Australian Studies at Harvard University.
We thank you, and all Australians, for those
warm expressions of friendship.
Mr Prime Minister, you are a very welcome visitor
to our nation's capital. I look forward to my discussions
with you and the continuing close relationships with
Australia and its people, our natural friends and allies
in every sphere of life.
PRIME MINISTER FRASER:
Mr President, my wife and I thank you for your
most warm and moving welcome to Washington.
It is now six years since I was last in the
United States and it is good to be back in this Bicentennial
Year. Mr President, the revolution that you are
celebrating this year was a great triumph for the then
radical idea that man could be free, that a free people
could not only survive and wcrk together, but that they
could create a better society than had existed in the
world before. It is from your revolution that we traced the
birth of our own nation in 1788. Our two countries have
travelled far since that time. We have both demonstrated
the vitality and strength of democracy. We have both
been able to build societies which are just and which
enshrine freedom. / 3
That we have similar ideals is not a matter of'
mere coincidence. America's inderpendence, and its
subsequent development as onc of the world's great
civilizations, has been an inspiration and an example,
especiall[ y to younger na-tions such as my own. In this
Bicentennial Year, it is a debt to which we are pleased
to pay tribute. Like you, we value our independence. We do
not expect others to assume our responsibilities. Over
time, however, our paths have come to run, to an
increasing extent, in parallel.
Comradeship in arms, on a number of occasions,
has been the basis for a closeness; the sharing of purpose,
which has, I feel, been to the benefit and comfort of both
our countries. Over the last 30 years, it has fallen to the
United States to provide leadership for the western world.
You have our continuing support in this difficult role.
For the sake of world peace and for the ideals we share,
it is essential, Mr President, that this leadership
continue and Australia has every confidence and knowledge
that it will. We live in a world that continues to hold many
dangers and challenges to human dignity. Many countries are
confronted by appalling problems of poverty, hunger, disease.
The developed countries face their own problems of inflation
and unacceptably high rates of unemployment.
These are challenges to be faced together,
contributing whereever we can to their just and practical
solution. In responding to them, the world will look, as
it has so often in the past, to the United States to play
a prominent role.
It is in recognition of this, and the determination
that Australia will play its full part, that I make this
journey to the United States in this Bicentennial Year.
Mr President, I look forward to my discussions
with you and other members of your Government and to the
opportunity to be among the American people on this occasion.
Thank you very much, Mr President, for your
hospitality.