O SPEECH BY THE PRIME MINISTEi, THE RT. HON.
R. G. MENZIES AT ORANGE ON MONDAY, THE 24TH
ocToB,. 3.960o_____
Mr. Chairman, Parliamentary colleagues, present and to come,
ladies and gentlemen:
One always has rather mixed feelings about a byelection.
I know that some of you think they are fun: they're
not really. They leave you with mixed feelings.
I'm sorry that we are having a by-election, because it
will seem very odd to me, and I think to you, no longer to have
a Howse in the Federal Parliament, because that is a name of
very great honour and distinction, not only here, but in
Australia. ( Applause)
But it will also, of course, , ive you the opportunity
of putting into Parliament, if you are disposed to elect my
supporter, Mr. W4allace Meares.
Now I want to confess to you that I have a certain
faint responsibility for his presence on the platform, because
I cajoled him a little on the subject of thlis by-election and
was delighted when I heard that he was submitting his name for
your choice. As a matter of fact he referred to his wife. I might
as well tell you, because these secrets arc bound to come out
( Laughter) that his wife's father '. as in politics with me.
, lell make the best of that, or the worst of it, as the case may
be. He represented a country electorate. My father sat in the
Parliament of Victoria with him, and he represented a country
electorate. I had an uncle who sat at that time in the Federal
Parliament, and he represented a country electorate.
In reality, Mrs Moares is bound to back her husband in
this campaign, because it means bringing him back into this neat
fold of politicians members of parliament, people who, at any
rate, have done something to serve their country in public
affairs. Now I noticed that he seemed to be a little modest
tonight about the fact that among his many qualifications is
that he is a very well-known, and favourably known, farmer of
great experience. That's a pretty good thing to be, if you're
going to be elected to represent a country constituency,
But as ho drove me in this afternoon from the airport
he was telling me the kind of thing that a new candidate for
Parliament can tell a battered old veteran like myself with
considerable interest, because Ican remember standing for
Parliament for the first time and all the arguments that went
on, all the rumours that were promoted. They are fascinating
things. The only trouble about them is, that although I go
back for 30 years, they've never changed in the whole of that
time. ( Laughter) He said to me that somebody had said to him, " You
know the trouble about you is that you won a competition of
some kind and therjfore you will be suspected of being an
' intellectual'" and I said " Well don't let that worry you
because I have a great number of critics, some of them very
highly paid '( Laughter) And they've never made up their minds
yet! Because they change the record about every fortnight as
to whether I'm a Jcreak-minded character who can never make up
his mind, which is one of the stories, or whether I'm a tyrant
and a bully, putting the whole Cabinet under my thumb, like a
tyrant".
Well I can't be both, I can't be both. And, of
course, as I can assure him, it's neither, He really won't be
accused of being an intellectual, whatever that word means.
He will be profoundly respected as a man who knows his business,
has lived in a community and served it in many, many ways and
has served this State in many, many ways.
Now, Sir, somebody reminded me today that this is the
first public speech that I will have made since I returned from
New York. And perhaps I ought to say a little to you about one
or two of the issues that are provoked in my mind by that fact.
I want to say in the first place that I hope nobody
here has any ambition, from the point of view of personal
comfort, to engage in these jet flights to Khrushchev, and back
again. ( Laughter) Because I can assure you they are very,
very exhausting. I wont to bed immediately after dinner on Friday night
and I got up for dinner on Saturday night, and got up for dinner
on Sunday night and apart from that I've been in a state of
coma ( Laughter) from which I have emerged, happily, in order to
come on to this platform where I have spoken before and
addressed this magnificent audience in Orange,
Orange always has a soft spot in my affections
because it has always been kind to me; whether it has agreed
with me or not it has always come out and listened. And that is
a good thing, for me if not for you,
But, Sir, without rehearsing matters that are by now
familiar to you I do want to say something about the issues, or
one or two of them which arose in Now York; because they are
issues which don't just concern a few diplomats sitting in a
large Assembly Hall, but which concern us very very closely.
Because they are the great issues of peace and war and international
understanding. I had never attended a mooting of the General Assembly
at the United Nations before and believe me it: s an astonishing
experience. There are the representatives of 98 count'rios, r. bout
15 or 16 new members this year some of them countries, the very
names of which you probably have no riore hoard of than I had
before they t. ere declared and admitted 98 r-.-' i-ions represented
in what has sometimes been described as " the Parliament of the
' Jorld". It isn't a Parliament of the World in reality; but it
is a great debating forum for the world. And this year to that
Assoebly there went a very high pircentage of the heads of
government in the world, I confess to you I wasn't very keen
on that. I think that that puts the Assembly a little out of
proportion. But at any rate Khrushchev decided to , o and then
began, by various means, to persuade other people to go and,
in the long run, I arrived quiet] y ( Laughter) as the last and
the least of all of them. And it was an astonishing performance.
Khrushchev is not negligible m an, I don't need to
say that to yov: he is ; hys-. cally st2ong, roug., mentally
rough and shrewd. Ho has a iathe.-nine sei. se o-l ihat I hope I
might be allowed to call " farm-ya.-d hvaour' ( Lai. ghter, applause)
And he very socn di:; clos , d his ha:.. d.
Sam refo:' ring to this rattc' because there are still
people in Australia, I regret to -ho iegar'. all these
0 j.
fulminations of his as something remote from our lives, people
who haven't realisod that his men in this country, his se: vants
and advocates in this country are the Australian Coraunists. A
lot of people haven't quite wakened up to that fact.
But he wont along to this Assembly with certain
things in his mind.
First of all he was going to attack the Secretary-
General of the United Nations. And he made some plastering
attacks on Mr. Ham. narskjold who, after all, is the Chief
Executive Officer of the United Nations and ought not to be
involved in answering personal attacks. But he made them. He
played hard for a vote against the Secretary-General. He failed
miserably to secure it. He had no support on that issue, except
such support as he could get from his satellites. I wish you
all could have been there to see how it works.
Australia, by some grave injustico no doubt, sat in
the back row. I know it very well because it's an awful long
way from the back row to the rostrum. It's a real route march
to go down there, to open your mouth. But if somebody wants to
take a point of order he has to walk so far, from where I was
sitting, that by the time he reaches the rostrum he's forgotten
what the point of order was. ( Laughter) Itis quite a place
this. But, over on that side sat the Soviet Union, with
their battered desks in front of them. ( Laughter) Every time
Khrushchev wanted to create a demonstration against some speaker,
whose views didn't suit him, he would raise his fist like
this, and then proceed to harmer on the desk. And the moment
he raised his fists all the members of his delegation hammered,
all the people from the satellite countries, like Roumania and
Poland, all round, they're all looking, they took their cue and
they hammered their desks.
You've never seen such a complete admission, and it's
a very important one, that there are satellite countries in
Europe, owned and controlled, body and soul, by the Soviet
Union. Mark that point. -IJ will be told as we have been
told before that the Government of Poland, the Government of
East Germany, the Government of Roumania, the Government of
wherever it may be, Czechoslovakia, that these are ill local,
independent, democratic bodies. All I can say is that when
the hand went up they all applauded, they all beat on their
desk. They took their orders instantly from the master of the
Soviet Union. I made some point about this when, on your behalf, I
spoke in that Assembly, by saying that I had never listened to
such hypocritical nonsense in my life as the talk that Khrushchev
had made about " colonialism" when he was, himself, the head of
the greatest colonial power in the world. ( Applause)
And that when, on another occasion in one of his
speeches, he had said that freedo, must be given to colonial
people, I said I ventured to hope that that went for Poland
and Roumania and Czechoslovakia and Latvia and all these other
European countries. Because if it did, it would be the
greatest contribution to freedom that the world had seen since
the war. But of course it doesn't mean that. They are his
servants. Now that is one thing that I beg of all of you to
have in mind.
0 Then, in the next place he began to make a pla. y for
the support of the new nations. Now, if we go back five years
and have a look at the nap of Africa, a vastly important country
to us never forget where we are living ( here we are with
Indonesia above us, Asia there and Africa there, Africa with
over 200 million people) five years ago not one part of
Africa, except South Africa, was completely free, independent,
self-governing. And in the last five years, principally owing
to the humane policies of the United Kingdom, country after
country has come to its freedom. ( Applause) Ghana, Upper
Volta, Nigeria. All these remarkable places are now free selfgoverning
communities. And because there are now a dozen of
them the Soviet leader decided that this was the time, either
to cajole then, or to threaten then into supporting the
Corimunist scheme. Now it's all right for us, we're only ten million
people. But we have a magnificent tradition of freedom.
( Applause) Je are not to be frightened, as I pointed out to
him, by threats or by cajolery. We're in the tradition of
freedom. Jo stand on our own feet.
But countries with rather loss of that tradition,
entering tentatively upon their new experiment in life their
new power to rule themselves may easily be affected by
threats, or by a somewhat violent form of persuasion.
All I want to say to you is that I am sure that in
those tactics he completely failed. Because these new nations
at any rate understand this: that if they are to exercise
their powers as new nations, they must exercise those powers
with dignity and with self-respect. And there was neither
dignity nor self-respect in the way in which the Communist case
was thundered at them.
And therefore I believe, and my colleague, the Attorney-
General who was there also, was telling me only this
morning that he was strongly of the same opinion, I believe,
that Khrushchev's tactics with these people failed, that he
overdid it and that in fact he left them with a rather low
opinion, not only of his manners, which are, of course,
deplorable, but re not so important as all that, but with a
very low opinion of his -enuine respect for them.
Because if I come before an audience which I respect
I don't behave like a buffoon; I don't go on putting on an act
and thumping things and knocking the table and pushing
everything over as if I were wanting to direct attention to
myself. If I did that here, you would all go home and say,
" It was good fun; what a fool'.' and that, after all, Jallce,
wouldn't be quite the object of the exercise. ( Laughter)
And so in that respect I think that he failed.
But there was one respect in which I felt disturbed
about what went on. . And I want you all to think about this
because this conc. rns us so intimately.
Time after time, speech after speech, he and his
satellites kept talking about colonialism, stirring up
bitterness, bittomrness in the minds of people who, as H:: rold
Macnillan pointed out, were present only because they wore no
longer colonials, who wore present only because they had become
free independent people.
.' nd yet he went on and these other people uont on and
I'll quote a phrase that I used in my own speech " in order to
create in their minds a spirit of retrospective bitterness", to
concentrate their minds on their disabilities of the past. and
by so doing to try to induce them to hate Great Britain, to
hate the nations who had boon the colonial authority.
And of course this is intelligible for the Communist,
because the Communist has no religion of love. Ho thrives on
hatred. And here were those nn, trying to blow up in the
minds of these people hatred, hatred of the people who had
boon, true, their colonial masters and who had helped thoe: 1 to a
state of freedom and assisted then in the establishment of their
own Governmient. Sir, that is a vastly dangerous state of mind;
something to be discouraged, I believe, at all costs.
I took whatever opportunity presented itself to me to
remind some of the leaders of these Governments, some of whom
are close personal friends of nine, how bad a thing this was.
But you know there is a certain " mob psychology" about
the Khrushchevs in the world, a certain feeling, shared by
Hitler and Goebbols, that if you keep on saying it, and saying
it, and saying it long enough, somebody will be affected by it,
somebody will believe it.
Now, Sir, I don't want to elaborate those matters, but
I do just want to say this to you: that I came away from this
Assembly feeling, on the whole, rather disturbed, feeling that
these enormous efforts that were being put forward, not to
pacify the world, but to embitter it, to increase hostilities,
presented a rather grim outlook.
And as I believe that the cure for nost of these
things is an enlightened and sensible public opinion, I'n taking
the trouble to speak to you about it. Because, for this purpose
you are public opinion. We must be clear. And, above all
things, we must be firm in defnce of the matters that we stand
for. No~ w, Sir, there are two things that follow upon that.
eo stand for a freedom of the mind that is, again, in our
tradition. We are the inheritors of British liberty. And
among its greatest defenders in the world! ( Applause) This is
a splendid thing. And a threat, of course, is always present
to the mind. But above that, or rather, beyond that in one sense,
beyond that, is the constant threat to the very integrity of
our country. I hope nobody supposes that by some mysterious
act of divine providence we are destined always to be
independent and free, ten millions of us, eleven, twelve,
whatever the nunbers may be. Because that is not true.
We will retain our right to live here, our right to
develop industries, our right to cultivate our soil, our right
to breed our flocks and herds, only so long as we have in this
world not only the will to resist aggression ourselves but
groat and powerful friends who will stand by us in that task.
( Applause) There is a bit of a disposition in soie quarters, and
in some muddled ninds, to believe that it's all right so long
as we speak everybody fair; as long as we are quiet and
agreeable, nobody will touch us.
There is one newspaper in Sydney, you may have heard
of it, I don't need to name it, which is not, you might say,
entirely devoted to ie. ( Laughter) Do you follow me? It's
6.
done its best to get rid of me for t: renty solid yea-s without
success. But I didn't think the day would ever come when a
newspaper that would describe itself, I suppose, as conservative
perhaps, I don't know, would attack the Primn Minister of
Australia because he thought it was of prime importance to
retain the friendship and co-operation of Great Britain and the
United States. Yet the other day, after I had made a somewhat longiinded
statement, I fear, to Parliament about ny expedition,
this very newspaper referred to ny activities as " currying
favour" with the United States and Britain. Currying favourl
According to them ry prime duty was to " curry favour" with
neutral countries. I wonder what would happen, you think about itp I
wonder what would happen if this country of ours becaie involved
in war and I had to say I was so busy currying favour with
neutral countries, who by definition couldn't cone to our help,
that I forgot all about keeping our bridges up with our mother
country and with the United States of ierica who are the great
fighting defenders of freedom in the world. ( Applause) And
our greatest friends. ( Applause)
Sir, these tiings need only to be stated to explain
thoeselvos. There is too much woolly thinking on those matters.
I will -o through ny life, I hope, believing that I know who
our friends are and that we ought to be close to then.
Do you remember how all this arose? It's a tedious
narrative by now, but you might like to hear it, at first hand.
I arrived at this assembly and found that five nations
were putting down a resolution. Who were the five? The five
wore Yugoslavia ( Tito), United Arab Republic ( Nasser) Ghana
( Nkrumah), Indonesia ( Soekarno), and India ( Mr. Nehru). A
resolution? ! Jhat was the resolution? This is why they don't
like me: they say I behaved scandalously. I should have
supported it. The resolution was that President Eisnhower and Mr.
Khrushchev should moot: not that the United States and the
Soviet Union should oeet, but that the President of the United
States, who is L1r. Eisenhower, and Hr. Khrushchev should meet,
each of then having made it perfectly plain that he wasn't
going to root the other. Eisenhower, because he had said
categorically, " Y) u roloese these people from the aircraft,
the RB47, or submit their case to proper international trial,
otherwise I won't see you". Answer, " Nothing doing". And in
his turn, Khrushchev saying " I won't neet Eisenhower until I
have anspology for the U2". And in this state of affairs five
nations, two of whom, it is true, belong to the Conronwealth,
the other three of whom most certainly don't, five nations put
down a resolution which was bound to be completoly futile.
And in the second place they cre having an election in
the United States, a Presidential election. Candidates are
having television dcb:: tes and -11 sorts of other horrors.
( Laughter) ' And on November 8th, three days after Wallace
Meares is elected the member for C_-lare ( A. pplause) on November
8th, only three days later while ! allace is looking at his
dirty shoes and hoping ( Laughter) that the campaign rules still
obtain, they are geing to elect a new President of the United
States. Now c. uld you imagine anything sillier than to be
calling on President Eisenhower t, have a personal meoting, a
personal meeting, hen in a few weeks' time his successor is
going to be elected.
0 7.
But that wasn't the thalo of it. That was a minor
point. It's a strong one, but it's a minor point.
I took -reat exception to this resolution. I know
I'n a very bad follow for having done it: I didn't intorpret
Australian opinion. I'll take your opinion on it, and thoro are
protty good Australians horo.(., pplauso)
I said, " Look, tho tine whon the negotiations woro
broken off was in Paris, uihon there wlas to be Surimit Mooting
of four-powoes". And of course they are the obvious four powrs,
because they are the only powers in the world with atonic
woapons, they are the only powors in the world uho, jointly or
severally, could hurl the ;. hiole of mankind into destruction.
Those are the four great powers with atomic rosurces; they are
theao people who -ought to noet.
Go back to Paris, so to speak. Got on with the
Sumit Mooting whliich was broken off by Khrushchev hi:. s-lf.
Thorefore we -ught not to be going through the foolish
exercise of telling two peoplo, who won't nmeet, that we w: Tuld
like them to loading horses to the water, when ' Joek now they
won't drink. lJo ouit to be realistic on this natter. Let's face
up to the fact that the only hope for the wiorld is that the
four great atomic powers should get to , othor and try to harior
out sonthing that will reduce the burden of armarents, that
will get rid, as far as possible, of nuclear weapons testing,
that will, to use my own phrase there, " opon a docor into,
perhaps, a more spacious chambor in the life of ireon and of
womon" WTasn't this right? Tasn't this good sense? To -ove
an amendment Wich said, " Go back to the Sui: iit". Don't talk
about impracticable things. Let the four ruprese-ntatives, when
the now President of tho United States has booeen eoctoA let thean
n. ot together and lot ther. mnean business, and lot thor see
whether they con't take the first stop, or two stops, or three
stops to relieving the great and terrible tension that exists
in the world. I proposed this, not at somobody else's request just
at my own. I felt I know that I was expressing the coanuonsonso
of ny own people. ( Applause)
-nd the intorosting thing is that although there are
all sorts of rather silly roaarks being miade by this rather
silly paper about it, the fact is, first I'm not tak. ing then
in order of timne the five power resolution by nidnioht, or a
little aftuer, was withdrawn, so that it was not put to a vote
and was not carried.
And in the second place ny resolution was voted for
by three out of the four atonic powers Great 3ritain, .1erica,
France and not vted against by the Soviet Union. They
2bstained. . nd whon, a few days later I had so; ething well over
an hour's privat discussih with ir. Khrushchev himsolf, he
mode it quite cle" ar that he was in fav) ur of a Summn. it
Conforence. ( Applauso)
It soons to ne to be rather od when we reemober that
, ustralians are lpractical people there m1ay be somo who don't
understand thon yet, but practical people we ore in ustralia
0
and it soos a little odd that because the Prime Minister of
.' ustralia puts up a practical proposal, a proposal which I
venture t3 prophesy will find itself supported by the actual
fact of a Summ; rit Mooting before we're a, yoer older, it sccs
quite surprising to mo that that should be a subject for attack.
But there is another aspect of this Y. atter that I want
to say somthing to you about.
This resolution said " twu people". I'll just use
then by nario Eisenhowe:, Khrushchov. W1hat about Hacnillan,
and Do Gaulle? ' Jhy should they be out of this picture? Don't
they count? Has Groat Britain suddenly become neutral? It's
just as well for us that she hasn't. Has France suddenly
becone neutral? Just as well for us that she hasn't, Why
should they be out -f this?
fnd m. y answer t it is this, and I put it quite
plainly; There is too much of this niserable propa-anda toing
on, and it g-os on through the Corimunist journals and Conmunist
agitators in our own country that the one great issue in the
world is between ciAmerican capitalisn and Comnunism, as
represented by the Soviet Union. And that ail the rest of us
are innocent bystanders with no intorjst, except to see how
these two big peopl .; ot on with each other.
L.. dies and gentlcon, if that wore the truth, and I
denounce it as a -o. nstrous falsohood, but if that were the
truth, then presumably Great Britain, Canada, France, Jestern
Germany, Italy, theo 3nolux powers, ustralia, New Zealand, w. o
could all * o neutral, because we don't c unt, we don't c unt.
The argument is betwioon Aorica and the Soviet Union. I be:
of youl beware of false prophets; beware of that kind of
propagIanda. There are no people in the world who have a
reazter vested interest in free denocracy and a greator vested
opposition in us to Connunism, than the people of Australia.
( Applause) Now, Sir, perhaps I've said enough about those
uatters, bocause I'vo boon told, unsuccessfully for a long tine
now, that we'ro not vtry interested in foreign affairs in
1ustralia Hell I've never believed it. And I believe it loss
every year that , oos by. Because no country has booeen mnore
affected by foreign .: ffairs than we have. (. pplause) And no
c.) untry has, man for man, population for population, a better
right to have a view and oxpress a view in the councils of the
world in order to solve, or help to solve, the problo: Is of
peace and And therofore, I have booeen talking to you about
something that is every bit as important to the resident of
Orange or of this area, as it is to any other frooee independent
peison in the whole of the Coraonw; alth or, for that matter,
in the whole of the world.
Sir, it's a satisfaction to o to know two things.
One is that I believe that our ties with Great Britain and the
Comonwealth countries and our ties with the United States of
oerica were never strongor than thi-y are now. ( Applause)
In the case of the United tatos they are immeasurably stronger
than they were when mny Govcrnm. ont came into office at the end
of 1949 ( Applauso) . nd all I nooeed to say to you is that, along the lines
that I have boon discussing with y u, you nmay rely on us to
stand firmn in our loyalties, in our friendships, and in our
detestation of everything that Communism stands for.
NoJJ, Sir, before I finish perhaps I ought to say a
0 9.
word or two about the local scene. I haven't yet had a chance
of discovo: cing what all the orgu: zont is about on the local
scene they tell me it's quite a quiet election. 3ut there is
one thing I want to say to you about it.
14e have a Liberal candidate. Here he is. ( Applause)
There is no need to tell you he is m.-y nan. I would be griovously
disturbed if he didn't become the ner. mber for Calare.
But, Sir, there is also a Country Party crndidato.
-nd every time you have a candidate from each of the two parties
naking up the Goviern: nt, there is a toe: mptation for supporters
of one candidate or another to be raising issues of discord.
Now I i ant to say to you, I hope you won't fall into that. I
hope everybody will roalise that, just as I want nothing half so
much as to see you put No. 1 against 1. llaco Mearos' namen so I
want to see you put No. 2 against the Country Party candidato's
namc. And if you're Country Party supporters, then I want to
see that your second preference doesn't -o astray, but that it
goes to the Liberal candidate.
Y : u will get all sorts of people who make all sorts of
funny little clail-ms and funny little arsgunnts. I've presided
over the longest Governnent, in point of tiro, that has ever
existed in Australia. 1And fron the first day until the last it
has been composed of Liberal Ministers , and Country Party
iMinisters. iMost of then arc Liberal mrinisters because of the
balance of nu. mbers in the House. But for eleven years we have
worked togethor, thought togethor. I have the iost profound
respect f,, r m!: y Country Party colloagices.
My Deputy Prino Ministe , Mr. McEwen, I think, Sir,
one of the reat non of this c. untry. ( Aipplause) But if he
wro here with me he would say at onco, with me I've hoard
him say it elsewhere that in the whole tine that we have sat
together, eleven years, there has never been a matter decided
in the Cabinet on Party lines, never once.
oe exchange our views. People make proposals; they
are thrashed out. ' To end up by etting the com-z: on sense of the
-Cabinet. Anybody who wants to make nischief between the Liberal
Party candidate and the Country Party candidate or between the
Liberal Party and the Country Party in this by-election is
opposed, primnarily, to the Governinont. Because a coQ posito
Govorment lives on hariony, and falls to pieces with discord.
Jo've had eleven years of supreme harrmony and I boj of all of
you: don't have that disturbed. Nobody can secure any
benefit from discords other than those who want to bring the
Gove rn~:-ent down.
You've got candidates here and, as I've said, in the
case of Mr. Meares, I find it hard to believe that you could
find a man miore qualified to express the practical view of the
. an on the land, and indeed, when he comes to Parlianent in
Canberra, he will find himself sitting, in 1. y o~ m Party7 in
company with soenothing : ver 20 people who represont similar
constituencies. And so at this by-oelction, No. 1, give us the benefit
of your backing. I d' n't know -hat the Labour Party has been
saying about these thin s that have happened overseas. I know
that poor Mr. Calwoll is now eobarrassed by riches. He's ) ot a
daily colunn in a newspapor, and a weekly broadcast soncwhere
else, and a Moot the Press here, or there. He never stops,
except to take his foot out of his mouth. ( Laughter, applause)
I dn't know , rhat his views are, or w'hat the views of
his party nay be. But I have done my best to tall you ' rht ur
views are, 2. nd fhat wer stand for, -" nd I'll be tho -ost
surprised rman in i1ustralia if yu.) u do) n't give us your
enthusiastic support. ( Applause)
Interview at Bathurst .4. irport after 14CetinF
Intorvicwor-Mr. K. McIntosh:
Now,. 1 Sir, w _ uld you like to tell our listeners your
imipre ssions of theeeting to) night, and any other relevant
information that y'ou think niht be of intorest to ttie cl) ctors
in this area?
Prime iiiniste: Jell this is nit the first tie th t I h-ve
spoken in Orane, by a long chalk, and I've h d soe very good
i.ñ etings here in m-y tine. But tonight is the ratrst r.: ting
I'vO ever had therc, . ost enthusiast! ic. I was deigted With
it, I thought that iHr. 11oaros -ad a-2v ery, very good
ipression on a. large Oran -o audience, and T ca; o away froi:, the
mocting fueling e xtremely confidant about the result of the
electio) n. Bcauso, after all, Orange is very, very
imprtnt centre, a-nd thei votes there are a very co'nsiderable
factor in the Clere loctrate. I thought theo whole at:-: isph , io
of the neting couldn't ha-ve be--n better.
It seemed from~ i the speech that y) u made, Sir, which we
had on the air at 9 o'clock incidentally, before you finished
speakin, that you were very il.-pressed with the 1-roa as a, wliole
and you d1" id make the c; i. e. onts ab. out ha: ving beon in Orange be3fore.
wioe c quite iYn-ip s.; se,) 1d w.-ith the speoch tliat yo) u " id mae; the
hockling was non-xistent.
PrieMinister: That's right, non-existent. It's the only tineo
in my life when I haven't m.-inded the absence ' of interjectors
bccauso the audienco w. as quick, it was ale-rt, it tok every
p int .2. nd I found a note oxf enthiusiasL, in it iTich I thinkc is
very ood. is, f curs, very propr because I've
never seen the-i c juntry looking be,, tter. Ad if thi'o country were
lookin., bad no doubt the GovrmE. nt . r. w) uld be blameo d for it.
nd so I am always quite willing" to take a little bit o-f the
credit fo: r the fact that the rin has been falling and the
pastures are , reon. I 13loing, erwrd ruch vy to seem
Mr. heoaros at Canberra.