, f& S 6L( byl -J.
PRIME MINISTER SATURDAY, 22 FEBRUARY, 1980
ADDRESS AT OPENING OF HELLENIC CLUB, CANBERRA
It really is a wonderful occasion, being asked to open this
Club which has had so much effort put into it and which has
been so evidently a very great success. To have a membership
of 4,000, and a rising one, is really a tribute to those~ who
conceived the Club in the first place and who conceived it not just
as a place where Australian Greeks may come and enjoy themselves
and make their friends, but as a place where all Australians
might meet in the spirit of multiculturism. So, all praise
and all credit to those who have conceived and who have worked
so hard for the establishment of this Club.
Indeed, i t is quite common to open a building, or a Club, that
has been used for a little while. This occasion is no exception.
But I think this is the first occasion in which I have been
asked to open a venture which has been so much a success that
after the opening I have been immediately asked to go and look
at the plans for expansion. Again, I think that is further
confirmation of the wisdom and the foresight of those who have
brought the Club to this particular point.
Hellenis : SMv4e ry much embodied in this Club's development,
and the conception of it. As Gilbert Murray, in The Legacy
of Greece, speaking on Hellenism and Ancient Greece described it:
" a thing of the spirit, not dependent on the race to which a
man belonged or on the place where he was born." It is very
plain that that spirit is very much a part of this Club. That
is the reason why I am so pleased to have been asked to
participate in this opening ceremony.
Greeks in Australia have been very much a part of Australian
history for a very long while. I have been able to find
that the first recordings of Greeks in Australia goes back
to the 1830s. A small group then from the Ionian Islands
established a wine industry at Camden. In 1898 the first
Greek Orthodox Church was established in Sydney. Now, there
are 120 parishes, 80 odd churches and half a million members.
It is clear that Greeks in Australia are a significant religious,
cultural, gocial and economic force, very much part of
Australia's life.
The contribution of the community to Australia has been great
and significant in many different fields. The sons and grandsons
1of Greece have certainly served Australia well down through
the years: Sir Nicholas Lorantis, philanthropist; George Polites
* of Greek parents; Gecrge Peponis, Captain of the Australian Rugby League
Team; Greeks in acaddmia and law and medicine, in pharmacy, in
commerce, have excelled and shown how much they can contribute
and are contributing to the Australia that we all know. / 2
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my most distinguished predecessor, Sir Robert Menzies, once
said: " we are all Greek because the Western culture was
spawned in Greece". That also, I think is very true.
Scholars have argued that Ancient Greece made man aware of
himself and of his infinite capacities. The contribution of
Greece and its people, and their influence, has been embedded
in the history of the centuries and it is embedded in today's
society and in today's values.
Athletisism derives from the Greek concept of striving and
contending. The great Greek athlete in ancient times, Hermes,
is immortalised in sculpture. To the Greeks, Hermes embodies
simplicity, balance, the pursuit of idealism, the joy of living
in fellowship and the striving after perfection, and how much
we should pursue that in these times.
The Olympic Games, as we all know, has been very much derived
from these ideals; the lamps of ancient Greek art inspired
the modern Olympics. The modern torch is given to and received
by other countries as the Olympic Gamnes have been held in recent
times.
But the values of Greece, the values of Olympia and of the*
Olympic Games sometimes do get lost in propaganda; sometimes
get lost-in the use to which the Games have been put, not once
in this century but more than once in this century. The
Government has been giving some thought to how in the future
the Olympic Games might well be able to proceed with propaganda
and politics really apart from it, as is meant to be in the
Olympic charter but which, if we face it fairly, is not so in
practice has not been so in practice over a great many years.
The hopes and ideals of the Olympics have rarely been matched
in practical effect. Perhaps the only way in which the Olympic
Games and the spirit of the Olympics, the ideal of the Olympics
can be preserved in the future is to make sure that the Olympic
movement has its own permanent home, to make sure that it cannot
be used for the politics of one country as a mark of approval
or of disapproval in the years ahead. The suggestion,---therefore,
that the Olympic Games should have a permanent home in Olympia,
a piece of ground dedicated by the Greek Government to the Olympic
movement, as has been suggested by the Greek Prime Minister, I
believe deserves the most serious consideration by the whole
Olympic movement and by national Olympic Committees right around
the world.
It is a decision that they would have to make. But I really
believe that they do need to make decisions that will enable the
Olympic Games to be held in future years fully in accord with
the spirit of the Olympic movement and not paying lip service to
that spirit as happens now and has happened so often in past years.
If the spirit of Hermes and of Olympia are to prevail down through
the years, the Government believes that that would be the best way
to achieve it. If that is the wish, ultimately, of the Olympic
movement, and it makes a decision in principle that it is prepared not
just to talk about it, then the Government will be prepared to
provide practical assistance to help the modern Olympic movement
find a permanent home in Greece. Government assistance would
be available for that.
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What is the spirit of the Olympic movement, as it ought to be,
is very much a part of the spirit of this Club: bringing
people together no matter what their background where they
can learn to know each other and make their friendships.
Again, I would like to congratulate all those who have been
a part of it. They have set an example which many others
could well follow in the way they lead their normal and daily
lives and I have very great pleasure, therefore, in declaring
this new Hellenic Club officially open. I wish many thousands
of people many hours of happiness and friendship within the
walls of the Club. I will look forward to seeing the expansion
of the development of. the Club down through the years.
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