SSPEECH BY THE PRIME MINISTER, THE RT. HON. iR. G
MENZIESA HARVAD UNI 16 TH JUNE 16I0
Sir and ladies and gentlemen:
I have had a very, very exciting 22 hours in E: arvar.,
I arrived at 5 o'clock last evering. I came into this famous
yard. I lit a cigar, hoping that there was no local rule
against it, and I occupied any one of the fourteen thouosnd
seats available to me. I had an idea that when there were
other people on the platform, there would be a biggor audience.
But at any rate I sat in a seat and I meditated on . life; and
studied Harvard for the first time, I blush to say. I saw
respectable looking gentlemon, like myself, walking along with
red bands on their hats marked with such symbols as " 1935~:.
( Applause) The mystic puzzled a little, because I noticed,
as a rule, what I took to be a wife who also was " 19351; and
then a quite grown up daughter also branded '" 1935 ( Laughter)
and a somewhat disorderly small child of about 5 years old
( Laughter) also marked " 1935" ( Laughter). A little reflection,
of course, gave me the clue, but it was puzzling for a " tart.
And then I thought I would like to sec the Undergraduate
on the spot. I had made up my mind that all undergraduates
in the United States of America would not only have
the characteristic uhtidiness of undergraduates, but that they
would have nothing to do with any old world customs if they
were here. And so I sat and comfortably thought, "' ell,
there's one thing: this not being Groat Britain, I ,: ill not
see any umbrellas carried". Well my ear was pleasantly
attacked by the choir which was then rehearsing and which I
regret to say started rehearsing and woke me up in the
President's house this morning. ( Laughter) But they had been
rehearsing. And they came out. Do you know that every third
man carried an umbrella? ( Laughter) Oh!' What a disillusionment
this was for me. The only thing that really delighted me was to
discover that no one was so old fashioned as to carry he
umbrella by the handle, by the crook, or whatever you rmay call
it: it was usually seized a little lower down as if for
purposes of self-defence. This delightful reconciliation of
the spirit of the pionjor and the habits of the old world movel
me very greatly. ( Laughter, Applause)
And then of course this morning, when : oung Mr, Davis,
who I should think is destined to be the best known :-an in the
world inside five years, gave his Latin oration do you
remembor? so superbly done that L understood most of it
myself. ( Laughter) Full of a vein of irony which, in my days
as an undergraduate, was reserved e---lusively for classical
Professors. All they had to do tas . o look as if they were
being funny and, so far as we were concerned, they ' woer funny.
( Laughter) Well, Sir, Igive you those somewhat irrelev. nt and
impertinent observations, because really this is a great day for
me. I've had the great pleasure of having a lot to do,
particularly in recent years, with the development of
Universities in Australia and as I am a graduate of ,. n
Australian Univursity nysolf, an honour paid by this most
famous body is one that I appreciate quite beyond tl. puwcr of
words to express. And of course to the political loader, ilrost a chronic
political leader of the Australian nation, it means oven nore,
Because on this day, through you, the most powerful nation in
the world offers a courtesy, so co speak, to one of -he
smallest nations in the world, weak. in numbors, ut strong in
will, a nation whose future is bound up with yours nC. the
body of whose intollectual? and spiritual charactur forr.:. s part
of a great common tradition.
2.
Sir, you have honoured me by asking no to speak. I
would not want to acknowledge that honour by offering you the
coammonplaces of that rather escapist piety of sentiment which
characterises after-dinner oratory. You know what I mean?
Most of you have suffered from it: I have practised it.
( Laughter) And because I want to avoid that I don't want to
say to you that " wo are cousins" because, quite demonstrably,
we're not: we get on much too well for that. I won't say
that we have the same kind of parliamentary democracy, because
we have not" we in Australia live in a constant blur of goodnatured
bowildormont at some of the " oddities" of your
constitutional processes. And in case you think that that is
a gross impertinence, I want to say that that is a bewildernent
that I have found is shared by most of the Americans I moot.
( Laughter) But, Sir, we do have great things in common; so
great that if we avoid insanity in the English-speaking world,
we shall always be friends and allies. ( Applause) To preserve
this friendship, we are to face up to our tasks, accept our
responsibilities with some favour, and I hope with some
affection, but certainly without fear.
Today, Sir, fear is our greatest eneny. So far, a
century of the nost brilliant scientific achievement, of growing
political consciousness, of material advanconent, has been
marred by fear, suspicion, and actual hatred, to a degree without
modern precedent. Many have developed a fear of life and its probloes,
so that if I may say so with respect the psychiatrists
flourish like the green bay tree. Many of us have learned to
fear our own unruly impulses and the individuality which is our
divine gift, and we therefore seek the protection of conformity.
If we seek to " Keep up with the Joneses", it is mostly because
we want to be like the Joneses and avoid the accusation of being
odd, or different, or conspicuous. We fear to be unpopular.
When we do something we regard as generous or helpful, we are
dismayed to find so much ingratitude. On quite a few occasions
I have been asked by prominent Americans why the superb
American international -enerosity of recent years has so
frequently been received in other countries with either covert
resentment or open hostility. My reply has always been that the
world power of the British in the 19th century may well have
inspired respect, but certainly it did not purchase popularity.
Power exacts its own reactions. Friendship cannot be bought,
and groat power however benevolently exercised will always
produce the most puzzling resentments. " Why should this rich
nation, why should this rich man, have more than I have?".
Sir, we are frequently invited to fear the potential
enemy. In destructive technology, we find him so clever, and we
forget that in the constructive sciences the contribution of the
free world is so infinitely greater than his. ( Applause) We
rejoice in power; but we sometimes fear and misunderstand the
responsibilities it brings. We are tempted to withdraw into
ourselves, to enjoy the fruits of our own labour rnd let the
world go by. And this, Sir, brings no to the point that I
want to r. ake today,
Tennyson is now, I believe, unfashionable among the
younger intellectuals. But he once wrote a few lines that have
been much misunderstood co-ionplace lines, if you like:
" io sailed wherever ship could sail,
We founded many a mighty state;
Pray God our greatness may not fail
For craven fear of being great"
.4 0 3.
Now, Sir, that wasn't just tub-thumping; that wasn't just an
old-fashioned forn of imperialism. It was brilliantly
perceptivo. It saw quite clearly that greatness imposes
responsibilities: that power which is morely enjoyod is a
nenace, but that power with responsibility can be, and will be,
the salvation of the w: orld.
The great free powers are on trial today: none more
so than the greatest of then, the United States of Am; erica.
The way in which they survive this trial will depend upon how
they rise to the splendid, but awful responsibility of power:
how bravely they guard the inner liberties of nan; how utterly
they cast out fear; how clearly their light shines before men;
how far they keep the feeling of adventure, and avoid the
dofonsivenoss of riches.
Sir, a desire for power soeems natural in mankind.
Among politicians and I an one it is, I believe regarded as
endoeic, the desire for powor. But the great men and the great
nations are those who, having achieved it, do not weakly recoil
from it, afraid of leadership, or rejoice in power for its own
sake and for the precarious comforts that it may bring.
The twentieth century r. ight so well have been the
golden century of civilisation. It has been bedevilled by the
lovers of power without responsibility. ' Jo don't denounce the
inflaous menory of Hitler because he gained and exercised power.
Much greater mnn than he gained and exercised power to defeat
and destroy him. Hitler is infamous, as are the other i: alrv'lent
dictators of our tine, because with all his power he had no
smallest sense of responsibility for the true good of men and
wo. men. He obtained power, and boca. e a monster.
Today, the communist threat is the result of another
and terrible misconception, or denial, of the duties of power.
If the men who cone and go because they do appear to come and
go as the controllers of the Soviet Union were content to
pursue their philosophy in their own land, because they believed
that their systom, so alien to us, was the one to give peace and
security and social justice and happiness to their own people,
we night well wonder, but we would stand aside, on the principle
of " live and let live". " ut when we see them as an aggrossive
force, aiming at the bending of hundreds of millions of free
people to their own will, we know that we are again witnossing
the search for power without responsibility.
What is the answer to power without responsibility?
It isn't power sirplicitor, though people are prepared to
believe that it is. " Get tough" has an appeal, particularly if
the slogan-makers and I suppose there might be some here if
not in my own country, before the year is out can stigmatise
those who wish to ngotiate as " appeasers". In a world such as
we live in, power is essential, but it is not all. The t-uth,
self-evident though it may be, is that the only answer to power
without responsibility is power with responsibility. ( Applause)
Sir, it isn't sufficient to say that this is the truth though
I believe it is. As usual, it is necessary to say what it means.
It is a matter of famous record, referred to by my
distinguished colloeaue M. Spaak just now, that in this placo
that very great nan George Marshall announced the greatest and
most generous aid plan in history. But greater oven than its
generosity was its intelligence. It was only a great power that
could give great aid to others. But the giving of that aid was
an acknowledgment of the responsibility that goes with power;
a responsibility based on an understanding of international facts
and of the true foundations of peace.
4.
Here we have,. I believe, great scopo for the
inagination. We know that on our side, the groatost of all
wars was fought for froodom. But this did not have a puroly
selfish connotation. It didn't iean froodom for those who
already enjoyed it alone: for aeorica-ns and British and
Frenchaon and Australians and Canadians, and so on. No. It
meant freedon for all mon, including those hundreds of nillions
in countries Loving towards independence, for whom self-governnmont
is the greatest of all adventuros. WJhon you, in your groat
way, and we in our simall -ay, tax ourselves you ' Laxoursolvos;
we tax ourselves to help new nations, we are not being just
noro or less comfortably oenorous, and fooeeling good about it:
we are recognising the one-ness of humanity, and the profound
responsibilities of powor and of possessions. It isn't
philanthropy, but wisdon, to accept the task of guiding and
helping other nations and peoples so that they may acquire, not
only the institutions of frocLdom, but, iuclh mnore importantly,
those rising standards of living and of thought without which
free institutions will wither and 1ocay. True, we oay
properly adnit that we wish to restrain the expansive ., ove of
communisn. To this end, as in the case of the South-East .' sian
Treaty we enter into cilitary onga onemnts and nake nilitary
preparations. But, Sir, these will fail, unless, in those new
nations which stand at risk, oconomic growth is stimulated, the
development of the individual is pursued, and the comi: unist
powers find thornsolvos increasingly 2onfronted by coUnunitis
resolved to accept no slavery of the nind.
In the perforrance of our responsibilities there is no
time to. be lost. Since 1945 the hitherto littlo-known now world
moves rapidly to a series of now n] 7ionhoods. Look at Africa,
until recently a nest of colonies, where a score of now nations
are com. ing to birth. Are we to be just kind to theor, giving to
them that iwhich we fooeel we can comfortably afford, the " crumbs
from the rich nan's table", or will we see in their o; orgenco a
groat challonge to the wisdonm of western civilisation? Isn't
there a wise self-interest to serve, net a narrow selfishness for
self-protection, but a self-interest based on the understanding
that our own frodomn is depondent-upon the froodom of others:
that we can't have peace anL prosperity for ourselves alone,
Sir, i:; ay I venture to remind you of one of the great
econonic phonomona of our time? It is that, nationally speaking,
the gap between the " haves" and the " have nots" is becomiing
greater. I believe that this isn't true inside our own
boundaries, where social responsibilities, expressed in trms of
schenos and social welfare and social justice, have led to a
narrowing of the gap betwooeen riches and poverty. High and
graduated taxation is, within reasonable limits and subject to
logiti te grunblings, that we all understand so well, accopted
More and noro, in our own place, you in your country, I in
mine carry the burden of being " our brother's keepor".
But intornationally this, in spite of groat bfforts,
is not by any means true. Je live in an ag of amazing
technological growth. Aided by the most superb technical skill,
the groat industrial countries nake progress in almost, what I
night describe, as a non-nathematical fellow, gooT: otrical
progression. The luxury of yesterday becomes the i-_ ass-produced
conronplaco of toi: norrow. And so, nationally speaking, and in
the words of the old song, " the rich et richer". You will
remi: obor the second line for yourselves.
But, Sir, what of the new nations, the rcl. tivoly poor
nations, with sketchy or primitive industries, with little
technical skill and with, as yet, slmall facility for increasing
it? At best, their rate of mnatorial i-mprovemoent is arithretic. l
C not geometric. So far from catching up they are, in relative
terms, falling behind.
Now, Sir, this consideration quite clear as it
soees to me must give us all furiously to think. In face of
it, we can't rationally decide to do loss; we must do all that
we can, even though it means wo do a little less for ourselves.
" Charity begins at hom. e" they say. I've heard it many times in
the course of ny political life. It is a cynical proverb, and
in this world it is a shockingly false one.
I never come into the United States without fooling
something of the pulse and drama of your strength and your
growth. Your resources are so boundless; your productive
skill so boundless; your optimism ( that groat driving force)
so all-pervasive. More than any other country in the world,
you could, in an economic sense, go nearer to living to
yourselves and by yourselves. And yet your high destiny is to
use your strength to give light and leading and encourageoment
to the world. The measure of how you fulfil that destiny will,
if you will permit me with all humility to say it, be the
measure of your greatness. You have accepted the greatest
responsibilities in human history. In this famous placeo, the
father ( or mother) of so many who have served in high places
and have, in high or humble places, given leadership in the
fields of the mind and the spirit, may I pray that year by
year there will be more and more of your graduates who will
persuade their fellow-citizens, not only here but right around
the world, that just as rights are loss significant than duties,
so is strength admirable only for the resoonsibilities it
accepts and discharges. The free world, and that great area
of the world which lon. fs to be free, looks to you with
gratitude, but also with hope,
It is an honour, Sir, to be enrolled in your
brotherhood, and a rare privilege to be allowed to speak to you,
not so much for myself, as for Australia, your young but
determined friend. ( Applause)