STA. TE BANQUE T AT PARLIAMENT HOUSE, CANBERRA,
IN HONOUR OF THEIR MAJESTIES THE KING AND
2UB OF THAILAND
2,8THAUGUST 1262~
Speech by-the Prime Minister, Rt. Hon. R. G. Menzies
Your Majesties, Your Excellencies, Your Serene Highnesses
and Ladies and Gentlemen ( I call you all that, whether you
come from the Senate or the House of Representatives)
We have now come to that pleasant period of the
Dinner when I am, and following me, Mr. Whl ' tlam, your
humble instruments to offer some words of welcome to the
King and Queen of Thailand. ( Applause)
I must say, Your Majesties, that this seems to be
an entirely unnecessary and almost iri'elevant performance
because you have not had your experience in various parts of
the world witnout realising that here, in the capital of
Australia, you have received a welcome in the minds and hearts
of all our people. ( Applause) And as a sense of welcome is
far more a matter of feeling than words I don't need to
elaborate. I am sure that I have some Idea as to how you
feel. I -think I would like to say, on behalf of some
of my colloagues at least, the travelling members of the
Government, that we are infinitely grateful to you for
iaving advanced your visit to Australia by a week so that,
in the last few days and tomorrow, Tbhe Prime Minister and
the Deputy Prime Minister and the Treasurer might have the
opportunity of seeing you both, of welcoming you, because
otherwise, the three of us to say nothing of anybody else,
were bent on a journey to Lndon to discuss the scmewhat
theological problem called the Common Market. ( Laughter).
But I would like to tell all my Parliamentary colleagues that
Their Majesties couldn't have been more kind or more understanding
and they advanced their time by a week and the result
is that those to whom I havu referred, including myself, will
at any rate be able to bid farewell to them tomorrow in decent
order and form and then as they travel to the less privileged
parts of Australia ( Laughter), some of us will travel to what
might or might not be the less privileged part of the Commonwealth.
Anyhow it has worked out very happily.
And I don't say that Your Majesties just beca use
it has turned out to be convenient from our point of view.
I myself, and I am su-, e my colleagues will agree with me,
will always be delighted to think that our departure for
London for this vastly important conference occurred at a
time when we had had the great pleasure, the great opportunity
for two or three days in Canberra of having some of your own
charm brushed off on us so that we might take it with us as
a happy memory. ( Applause).
Itts very interesting to look back on recent history.
I know that there are people in this Parliament, Your Majesty,
well, I presented a number of them to you and said these were
my opponents and I know that some of them think that really
I've been here long enough ( Laughter) and this Your Majesty
is a feeling I entirely share, but even an old doddering
fellow like myself looking back over the last ten years, can
realise what reoluhionary changes have come in the world.
eo o/
2
The:' e was a time not so " Long ago when your country was known
uo the ignorant outsiders as Siam when we looked at it and
said, " Oh yes, tht' somewhere L Asia you know and
long way away." I've come to realise very vividly
that for me or for any other politician in Australia to
tIVravel from here to Perth, all inside Australia, is only
two or three hours less than travelling to Bangk~ ok. We
have in the modern world in point of time become close
neighbours and I am happy to believe.~ Your Majesties, that
we have become close friends. ( Hear, hear) ( Applause),
We are, of course, friends by treaty because we
both subscribe to the South East Asia Treaty and it's a good
thing to be a friend by treaty, but it's a better thing to
be friends in the heart, in the spirit and in the mind.
( Hear, hear) ( Applause).
I was saying to myself last night, I think it
was last night, you never know in Canberra ( Laughter) that
we have all sorts of great things in common your ancient
country our modern, new country we have wonderfuhl things
in common, and the first of thq perhaps, is * T'hat we are both
monarchies, ( Hear, hear) and, Sir, speaking tlo you, His
Majesty the King and to you, Her Majesty the Queen, in this
country I can say with no reservations whatever that just as
in Australia we are all the Queen's men and women ( Applause)
so in our country we are all delighted to see a King and
a Lueen presiding over a country which has literally centuries
of history behind it. And so, Sir, we have that and we have
a love of peace, a profound love of peace in our hearts; we
have, I believe I may say, a deep sense in both countries,
though we occasionally affect to conceal it, a profound sense
of spiritaal values. Neither you, nor your country nor this
country has a prosaic dull belief that the only values in
the world are material values, We share this with you,
We share with you, though we haven't so many
marvellous examples of it to our hand as you have, a love
of beauty a nice kind of love to have, in a world that is
so frequently ugly, ( Applause) And, Sir, as I suggested,
we both have a sense of history; your history going back
in your own country for, what, seven hundred yeors; our
history going back in our own country for one hundred and
fifty, near enough0 But going back beyond that, to a country
whose roots are in the very soil of history, far removed as
they were from you in point of space and at that time i~ n
point of tirmes But when you come to Australia derived~ as
we are from that old civilisation, the old faiths and the
old loyalties you are coming to a country which, of all
countries in this part of the world, is destined to undei-stard
yours, to be friendly with yours and to look back, as we all
will, on this Visit of yours as an occasion on which we met
with great respect and profound affection two great people
who were also our friends, ( Hear, hear) ( Applause),,
Your Majesties, this is one of those precious
occasions in Parliamentary history when there is unanimity
on both sides of Parliament and I am going to ask my friend
the Acting Leader of the Opposition, Mr. Vlhitlam, to support
me. ( Applause).