SPEECH BY HIS M4AJESTY KING EJM1BOL OF THAILAND
AT THE STATE BANQUET HELD AT PARTLIAMENT HOUSE,
CANIBERRA ON 28TH AUGUST, 1 962.
I am going to dispense myself of calling you
Excellencies and so on ( hear, hear) ( applause) because
it takes time,
I just wish to thank you for this demonstration,
just to tell you how much we are touched, And we are
very grateful to the Government and people of Australia
for the warm welcome.
Thank you for the kind words, Mr. Menzies, and may
I add that we have advanced our Visit because no Visit
would be complete without meeting you here.
And thankt you also, Mr, Whitlam, for your kind
words. I will tell you something about Thailand, that
" Thai" means freedom, but before that, I will have to
tell you about a little conversation we had just now,
Mr. Prime Minister and myself, as to how it comes that
we had to put on this very stiff costume ( Laughter) and
I think that many of you would agree with me that it is
really uncomfortable,, ( Hear, hear) ( Applause).
But I also had to mention something else first
as a politeness but not only as a politeness, that we
are very sensible to the kind attention of His Excellency
the Administrator, Sir Dallas and Lady Brooks ( Hear, hear)
( Applause). They have greeted us in a very kindly way
and we are really grateful,
It has been a long desire for us to visit this
great country of Australia, We have heard so much about
the beauty of the land its flora and fauna and above
all, that this country has so many resources, natural
resources, and with these natural resources, Australians
have made much progress with hard work, and now Australia
has become the greatest nation the greatest industrial
nation, in South East Asia. ( Applause)
Mr. Prime Minister, you have said just now that we
have many things in common the Thai nation and the
Australian nation and would add something else, that
we have also the love, the ideal of freedom, of justice.
The Thai people have kept their freedom and they are Thai,
that means free,, They have kept -their freedom with hard
work also and not only hard work, but blood. They have
defended themselves and they have tried to build up their
country all ifDugh the years centuries, as you have said,
always fighting, keeping their freedom and that is why
our people are proud to be Thai, ( Applause)
We have a long history but perhaps you don't know
that we have a long history of democracy also, Seven
hundred years ago, a King in -the old. Capital of Sukhothi
had an edict and had carved in stone about freedom of trade
and also he had a gong beforea his palace where any of his
subjects could come and sound it; he would be received
by the King and would get justice if there was any grievance,
( Applause) I call that democracy, ( hoar, hear) that anybody
can have justice, arid this is se-ven hundred years ago and
all through history, we have this sense of justice anA liberty.
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Now about tha relations between our two countries.
In the past, you called Thailand, or Siam, a country in
the Far East but you saw that Far East that was from
Europe, not from Australia, Now you have become Australians
and our country is not the Far East, it is the Near North.
( hear, hear) ( Applause). And for tqis reason I can say
that we are much closer now, and the number of our students
who come here is increasing. I hope that this movement
will go on; that means that we will have more students
coming here and I hope also that there will be more
Australians coming to our country, so that we can understand
each other better with knowledge and understanding and
real knowledge, not the knowledge of hearsay ( hear, hear).
( Applause) 0
Apart from this kind of relatlon, we have also the
relations with the organizations, that is the United Nations,
the Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East, the
South East Asia Treaty Organization and the Colombo Plan.
I don't have to say that I would like to urge more and more
co-operation in the support of these organizations*
About the recent events in Laos) we were very pleased
to see your reaction and you sent some of your forces into
Thailand, We have visited them and I think it is a very
good thing that they have come. It has demonstrated that
both countries are ready to stand against any aggression
and ready quickly. Back home we are very grateful for
this quick action. ( Applause) Not because we get your
help but because we see that Australians realise now that
Thailand is in fact the front line defence of Australia,
( Hear, hear) ( Applause).
To come back to similarities we have. We have
many more similarities not only in the field of freedom
or sense of duty or all that has been mentioned, but in
industry we have also the same trend of similarities,
You have th wool9 we have silk but the animal or the
beast that produces wool is much bigger than the insect
that prcduces silk ( Laughter) but it is similar, In
sports, Australians we know excel in tennis and we, our
boys and girls, also excel in badminton. ( Applause)
But here again, your tenni. s is much bigger than badminton
and eveA in the faunza, we have in Thailand some birds,
sparrows. You have sparrows, but they are much bigger.
( Laughter) Donvt laugh, because we call the ostrich o: the
emu the foreign sparrow. ( Laughter) I could go on with the
kangaroo also that you are so proud of. We call it jingJo,
but we call also the jingjo a little animal like this which
is like a waterbug much smaller than your product.
In Australia we can see now that you have everything
in much bigger dimensions than the things we have in our
country. Even the doctor is flying; he is a flying doctor.
We have only the very humble mobile units. ( Laughter)
But the principal thing is not size, We have something
in common which is the most important, and that is a warm
heart. ( Hear, hear) ( Applause)
Mr, Prime Minister, you have been to Thailand many
times, and each time it was a different time now the
first time, it was in 1940? Yes, that is a long time ago.
But he was the Prime Minister. and then each time he went to
Thailand he was still the Prime Ministers, so I just want to
congratulate h-im for this record in uremiership. ( Applause).
o0o o oo./ 3
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I hea-r that you have been bothered by something
on your visits, that is the mosquitoes, You dontt like them
much, It is a shame because perhaps we could receive you
mar. y more times and perhaps we should have the pleasure to
meet you more often. That is why we have to come here to
meet you. ( Laughter) In coming here , We bring the greetings
of the Thai people, 27 million of them, to all your people
in Australia their goodwill, their good wishes, and to
commemorate this Visit, we bring as a token of our friendship,
as a token of our goodwill, this model of the Royal Barge.
( Applause). I dcnut know to whom I will give it because
if I give it to the Prime Ministerg Mr. Whitlam will protest,
so I just want to give this model of the Royal Barge to this
building. ( Hear, hear) ( Applause) And I hope you will
receive it on behalf of the building, ( Uaughter) But as
the building has no hands, I will ask both Mr. Menzies and
Mr, Whitlam to receive it so that perhaps you will have
unanimity in this alsoo ( Laughter) ( Applause) If you don't,
it would be a shame; it would fall down and break into so
many pieces that you could not put it together,
Now I want to wish everly success and prosperity
to this Commonwealth of Australia. My best wishes to the
Government, to the Parliament including the Opposition and
thus to the whole nation and to all the people in this
country, of this nation, of Australia,
Thank you, ( Applause),