SPEECH BY TUB PRIME MINISTER
OPENING CEREMONY OF THE COMMONWEALTH HEADS or GOVERNMENT MEETING
NASSAU# THE BAHAMAS 16 OCTOBER 1965
EMBARGO UNTIL DELIVERY
We Commonwealth leaders assembled here at Nassau are the
inheritors of a great tradition. It. is the tradition of
a Commonwealth emerged from Empirej like most great traditions
it is not without flaw or blemish.
But the very fact that we are a Commuonwealth that has emerged
from Empire with a greater measure of common purpose is itself
a measure of the strength of this tradition.
Let us at the outset of this Meeting ask ourselves the question
what have been the elements, the secret if you like, of
that strength? And let us ask that queation seeking to find
in the answer a guide in discharging our high responsibilities.
If I could put it in a simple phrase, I believe the essence
of that strength has been in an understanding of the -limits
of power.
Let me be precise. In the immediate post-war period, it
would have been possible for Britain to maintain for longer
than it did the colonia~ l status of the Indian sub-continent.
It had the instruments of power to do so, but it understood
the limits of that power.
And those limits were understood through a xroper perception
of the force of other rights and interests which together
constituted a countervailing power. These included the right
and determination of peoples to be free to determine their
different destinies; and it included an enlightened self-interest
on the part of a Britain which understood that, in the long
term, its own economic* political and strategic concurns
would be better protected by accommodating the new realities.
2. Y OY2
This countervailing powar Is not so MusceptkblO to measurement
as the power that can be accounted in battaliana, aquadrons
and the elements of military and economic we& ponry. Dut
all our hietory as a Commvionwalth has shown that it is no
loes real for that reason. It has an inexorabla ca~ pacity
to grow and ultimately to overcome those who would take refuge
in this sterile accounting of conventional power.
Some would argue that# at times, tuhe limits of power have
not been understood sufficiantly early. It has been argued
of 3ritain. it has been equally argued of Auatralis, in
relation to Papuai Now Guinea.
But I rapeat, we assemle as a unique institution representing
a quarter of the world's population, one third of its sovereign
and independent nations, meating as equalo bacac~ ue, however
falteringly at times, we have together learned the limits
of power.
Anrd that learning process has given the Commonwealth a particular
capacity to recognioe in time the need for changal to discern
civilised directiono for change; and, at important moment.,
to be an effective agent for change.
If my answer then to this question what is the secret of
the strength of our Commonwealth tradition is correct,
I believe it can usefully inform our approach to the major
issues beforo us in the coming week.
Without doubt the predominant of these is, and ahould be,
South Africa~, an issue of historic concern to the Comonwalth.
If ever thero was & i regime which should have learnt from
our experience the leason of the limits of power it is that
in South. Af rica.
They are the sterile accountants of our day wtho would measure
their capacity to insulate themsealves against tho presoure
of inevitable change by the size of their military arsenal.
They are wrong. For the force of that countorvailing power
is growing, it is inexorable and it is unquenchabla. The
spirit of man and women yearning to be fre, to have that
right to daterminG thsir own dectiny will not be extineuished.
it will not be extinguishe~ d, however brutally that arsenal
is unleashed upon themn.
The world that ia witness to evento in South Africa is bacoming
increasingly impatient. I believe it ir3 loafting to uo to
draw upon our tradition, to seek to apply to IDouth Africa
the lesions we have learned from our own experiencv.
This will require us to strengthen, by our decisions, the
countervailing power that is growing by the day within and
outside South Africa.
This will require us to examine and to be prepared to implement
the option of further effective economic sanctions.
But just as importantly it will require us to sustain the
flame of enlightened self-interest that has now been lit
in South Africa, and is manifest in the recent talks in Lusaka
between representatives of South African business and the
ANC. For the fact is that all the economic capacity that
haa been established in South Africa and which now disproportionatel)
benefits the few, will only endure and be available for the
benefit of all if a new, free and just South Africa io created.
Equally, Australia believoo that all nations have a duty
to encourage the two super powers to recognise the limits
of power. They have the capacity not only to destroy each
other a thousand times over but indeed to obliterate the
human race from the face of this planet. This threat, and
the aquandering of resources it entails, is now central to
the concerno of mankind.
And so, while repudiating the illusory calla of unilateral
disarmament, we from thin Commonwealth have the opportunity
to bring the pressure of our resolution upon the super powers
to understand and discharge their obligations to all peoples
to work for the progressive reduction of nuclear arsenals
through balanced and verifiable agreements.
The peoples of the South Pacific have themselves projected
this resolve by their recent successful introduction of the
South 7scific Nuclear ? ree Zone Treaty.
Pinally, in our deliberations in the economic area we should
acknowledge the limits of power. Australia believes that
wo live in an era in which recognition of the mutual benefits
of a multilateral trading system are in danger of disnppoaring.
Increasingly there are those who would embrace the ultimataly
self-defeating power of protectionism. This ic a dangerous
outlook, and one which we should seek, by our work together,
to dispel.
We have learned from our experience, we reflect in our tradition,
that conflict can give way to harmony. We rightly accept
a3 an article of chared faith that the colour of people'@
skin is as irrelevant as the colour of their eyes to their
political, economic and social rights.
Let us by our approach to our tack in the coming days, and
by the docicions we take, not only confirm this article of
faith within thi Comonwoalth but seek to maka it a roality
for all those who look to us for help.