THEF A1\ EfRICAN AUSTRALIAN ASSOCIATION
YOiK, U. S. A.
SpDeec bthe Primre Minister. the Rt. Hon. Sir Robert MenzLe.
Now, I thioughit I would just like to say a littl'-3e to you
about an aspect or ipahaps two aspects, of 114ton~ betoa
our countries. It is far maore th'an a pos-;--randi-* al flour-ish to s y that
the United States and Austraiia are d'woted friends th-au~ s
elementary, vle all know that, wo know that this relalionshIil ljhas come
abutinwa ad n thiat it is no w, I ventur-e to Say, cna
of those tin-s we hor( 1y need -to 01, e1 suuoriderstepnd oach"
other, I-n tne interv al'S o f -i ~ ittle liveljy reci-rmination, we
like each other., we, havc great initerests in co~ Tm~ fl:
T. here ar-e ocyni-. s as I said the othaer dsy -at the White
House who thiink thiat we fl-ove a sort of cupjb oa love because we
look to you, th e United States of Araefr. rE tri protect us to be
our friend in times of ne-d. I su~ pp07a, t 0Cflfl-! i CQlyq ; a t t ha3t
is perfectly true2 but It is much m-ore, 0 Grue to ' Say t ve rA d
ourselves as uoncerned 4-11 ccio ot!-in rJ J~ ary tei_-ms Land in
civiñ L terms withi the Un-ited Stat es because we do hnappen to bo the'
sam,, e ki'Lnd of peopie and ' T7 do iaprif thiat'a no-t too weak a
, rord, to believe pasoionatle. y-in c. LiC samc -thing the same valuas,,
And when twro fri endly na~ cioris one gr. eat and one small
happon to ha,) ve L;[ Lis robust, fcitht in cor.-: n, I dionit thbii-k we need
to argue 2bout hoiw bbmg. cgi . er one is tho~ llpn th-e othe2 whnat
contr-ibution one imakas -to tiiis or the oth; er malkes to that,
Thre truth is that i* Ln our relaltions with you, not cnly1: are
thiey wonderful fro-m our point o f v4iew%, but tihey are reciprocal,
thoiy imTpor obli get ions onour p-.; rtbig 0lWhh ewl
at all. timoes honourably dischrge ard thre3fore -we are friend& s',
I know of,-no c-ircum~ stan. ce that could conyiceivably arise
in the iworld that woiild ma-ke us ene-mies. ut do let ime repeat
scmething I have sai. d before today. You are tha grcatos, t power
inteworld and sometines in fact, perhaps reasonably L'rcquenty
you admit iJt, But you ar~ e the greatest power in th-e -w.. orld tkhe
greatest in physical. resour-ces thie greatest, wrhen it comes to the
point, in that moral fo-rce that can be exercised by a0 great and
civilised people,
And like all great powers in the history of the world, you
have made rather-more critics than friends, I was going to say
onemries, maybe. You. have becn & ble to help scores of nations a
lo fpeople don't lilke being hielpe-d., Thecy takLe help, they see
the intrinsaic merit of the help., but at the back, of their minds
there J. s a sort of f& pling cf -6sent~ ment, W'hy does he have all
those things whean I don~ t? Thnis is thie oldest thing in -the world.
Nowv, Sir, this is pcrtu of the low of life arnd the main thing
is that we are not to be discouraged in wc11l-doing h causa thei
am-ount of gra'titudo t'rat is -to be nodce is inadequa-te. T he i
are oodth-ngs to bo. doro arnd th_ er e are go3od things thiat oughlt
tore godn * enu'. as goo . ip i. thsrn hy will pay
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their dividends in world progress and in world peace.
In the second place, of course we are right down there
off the South-East of Asia and we have immediate problems, almost
on our doorstep. And it is to the great credit of the Uni-ted
States that it has assumed a role in the solution of those
problems which is historically of tremendous importance. But we
are there and we are a long way away,
We have next to us Indonesia, 80 or 90 million people;
a lovely country, a country whicL has a form of government which
is no doubt one of those intr: im forms of government in which
power tends to be concentrated in one hand or one set of hands,
We have one ambition as far as Indonesia is concerned, and that
is that we should bc good neighbours and friendly neighbou rs and
live in peace and occasionally make some contribution to the
much-needed economic improvement of that country.
Further north there is Malaysia and at this very
Smoment, Indonesia, through the head of its government, breathes
threatenings and slaughter against Malaysia. The world can't
be indifferent to this state of affairs becausu let me remind
everybody, if you need to be reminded Malaysia is a country
which has grown out of Malaya. has grown out of the British colony
of Malaya and the British colonies in Borneo Sabah in the north
and Sarawak farther south. This fcrr of government, this national
entity Malaysia, represents one of the frequent triumphs of
British policy in this century, for Britain, the greatest colonial
power in the nineteenth century, has been the greatest decolonising
power since the Second World lWar.
Malaya represents the classical example of how a colony
achieves its independence and self-government, with reasonably
trained people to take a hand in the administration with a
healthy economy. Mclaya is a museum piece, except that it is
very much alive in this field and now, of course voluntarily
as the United Nations has found the two Borneo Territories
and Singapore have been added and we have Mlaysiao Malaysia,
a member of the United Nations,.... Malaysia which, being
challenged to the validity of its creation, persuaded the
* Secretary-General of the United Nations to send a mission and
to make an investigation and to make a report,... Malaysia
enjoying a guarantee from Great Britain of her military security
against military aggression,.... Malaysia, enjoying a guarantee
given by Australia, through my own mouth in the Australian
Parliament, that should there be attempts made to overthrow
her independence or her integrity, we will ourselves come to the
assistance of Great Britain in her defence.
Now, these are very large, very large matters and I
sometimes wonder whether people understand them or what it is
all about. Why shouldn't Malaysia be free and independent, just
as much as Indonesia? Why shouldn't she? Why should we have
to listen to all these silly words like " neo-colonialism" which
is the last invention of the polysyllabic attackers of the world?
Neo-colonialism: Here is ialaysia, an independent country, free, entitled
to be free, entitled to all the protection that can be given by
the United Nations and the United Nations Charter, and yet every
few weeks you read that another threat is made, that a few more
troops are put in across the border, that there is an infiltration
that goes on and orn and threats to " crush" Malaysia. a * of. e/ 3
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Malaysia has made no threats against Indonesia none
at all. The only threatening party, I regret to say, is Indonesia
itself. And in that state of affairs and this is the real point
I want to put to you in that state of affairs, you will constantly
find pressures for more and more conferences.
Might I with great submission offer a slight warning
about conferences? I know that a ccnference every now and again
is vital tremendously important. I know that many of the
procedures of the United Nations represents a high form of
conference between nations. I know that every now and then some
great nations will induce a conference between two squaobling
nations in order to see whether it cannot lend its good offices
in producing a settlement, Cyprus is a recent example.
But when energies are diverted to bring t', o nations
together in conference over a matter like Malaysia, I just want
to say to you, that unless there is the utmost good iaith on both
sides, then that conference will hurt one and help the other
that such a corference may turn out to be, in itself, an appeasing
process which gi" es an advantage to the aggressor.
Now I know that it was no less a man than the great
Winston Churchill himself who said in that homely and splendid
fashion of his: " It's better to jaw-. jaw, than war-war." And a
lot of us have seized on this. All I wan-to say to you is that
remark did not mean that Winston thou ht that undrr all circumstances,
" jaw-jaw" should prevail, because if he had, all the views
I uier heard expressed by him in relation to the pre--rnr years
would be falified. Now what happens? There is a conference about Malaysia.
Tunku Abdul Rahman, a splendid man with no trreat against
Indonesia but with a vital interest to defend his own frontiers and
the freedom of his oTn States, goes to a conference. The Tunku
says: " Well, iirst of all, I won't go unless I have some assurance
that your infiltration into my country with arms with forces
regular ana irregular, is going to come to an en nd ndthat there
is a formula devised for a phased withdrawal when the political
conference begihs." And then somebody is bound to heave a sigh
of relief and say: " WJel isn't this good? We have now got them
coming into conference and this is it."
But what happens when the conference goes on? Does
anybody here really believe that Indonesian forces are not still
finding their way into Borneo? Does anybody really believe that
any withdrawal that might have occurred is more than merely
nominal here or here or here? Does anybody doubt
that on this matter time runs against the Tunku and that time
runs against Malaysia? If the aggressor can have his way across
the frontier, then of course the morale of the local people
begins to suffer and the whole conception of Malaysia may find
itself weakened. Now that doesn't mean that you want to go and become
involved in a war. It is ridiculous to think of anybody being at
war with Indonesia a country not under threat and whose orderly
development everybody is willing to assist. But it does mean that
before we put too much pressure on Malaysia to concede something
here or there, or go into an unconditional conference, we ought
to remember that there are conferences and conferences, some
capable of altering the whole history of the world for the better
and some regarded as a mere cover for further advance and further
attack by one of the parties to the conference. 000 0
Now, I am afraid I perhaps haven't explained that to you
very clearly. But the one thing that I find as I go around the
world that really troubles me a little is that I think that we
ere a bit disposed today to say: " ell, we want a quiet life and
if we can just get people to talk to each other that will dispose
of that problem for the next week or two." And frankly, except
on cond. tions of the utmost good faith on both sides, I distrust
such conferences. Then, of course, that's not the only place. We have South
Vietnam in which we are very happy in a small way to be able to
assist the United States in what I venture to describe as a " film,
clear policy." I know there are people iho can tell you it is
wrong, that it can't succeed, that the whole solution in this part
of the world is as General de Gaulle would say " There must oe
a po] litical solution." I venture to doubt it very much. I think
that there must be a presentation of firmness, not of provocation,
but of firmness, in relation to South Vietnam.
All we want in this world today is some smashing victory
by Communist Cnina ir South-Last Asia, some removal of the forces
of freedom fiom this zone, and the whole history of the world will
be altered. And whbt I permit myself to remember is that the
whole history of Australia vill be altered.
We must be together, we must be firm, we must not be
provocative but above all, if I may say so, we don't want to be
unduly misled by ideas that the pcifect answer in what was Indo-
China the perfect answer in the whole area, including South
Vietnam is a declaration of neutrality, A country that is
neutral with more than 600,000,000 Chinese on its flanks and its
friendr thousands of miles away, is not likely to remain neutral
for very long.
Now all these are matters of great argument,
I am glad i am speaking after Governor Stevenson because
he would no doubt take me apart on a great number of these matters,
but I just wanted to take the opportunity of stating once more
how identical cur interests are, of indicating to you one or two
of the dangers of which I think we might beware in our joint
enterprise, and to conclude by saying, as I began, that whichever
way it goes, my little country, and your great country, will be
together through thick and thin.