' TT i!? ET! NG OFYT'ii' -HEDERAL C KRqCI Li? p
L_ 13BLP.! I P'" f~ i Qi? ThLD ~ T CABEW
ON 13tLh NO19R 1S20
Spe.; ch by the Pr ,; ne M, in ister, the 21. Honft, G. M enzies
Mr0 President, -adies and Gcntlemen;
I nk I ou ghhtt o b eg i nn by m!, king ra persona. cxplna11tion.
I am not really 2osponsiblc for these tw; ins. ( Laug hter) The reason
YI asn1 her1 this moriing tha, st I v. as soim( ewhare els3. Tha" t's
a vry sensible reason, I was opening the Colo bo Plcan Conference
in felbourne, I viornt domw. n yes t erday. Just before I left tho news
was broken to me about thse t;: ins, so vihen I . rrived in ~ Jlboune
I drove straight dow., n to havo a look nt tlhm. I didn't r-cognise
them in the picture in the ' ISun" this hiornizig or -lh. tevc-r paper you
rcad. ( L= ughter) One of them in th-. t picture looks singularly like
Jiinston Chuchill ( Laughter) The other one'Is features were not
visible because he was bellolw; ing, but mj son assure-s me that he
bears a striking resemblanc to Lindsay Haissett the cricketer
( Laughter) So life is like -this and h-ving got over this shock, 1
ocened the(' olem--bo Plan Confernc fnd here T jr
I think I ought to begin by rnking one or two personal
references, The-first I an sure you woulci a11 wish mc to make is to
B3ob illoughby, Bob Tiilloughby is emost a-bloe aind devoted servant
of this Party, ( hear, hoar) There's no doubt about tha,' t. Bu t in
spite of the uncomfortable positicn he is in, he will go down. in
historiy as the only dievoted and a-bl se-rvnt of the Liberal POnriy
who ever wiont fishing on horseback. ( L-'-aghtcr) And I must say thiat
I scize the opoortunity of speaking abou-t him in a friendly way because
110,! s really been a very remark! able man for us ever since he wis a boy.
The second thi. ng I ould like31 to say is a-bout the President
one of my very oldest a1nd closest and stoutest political associatesa
wondrrful man who lways pre-tends that he's not. That's Phil
McBride. ( i_ pplusc) He vijas kind enough to send me an indication of
what he was going to say, this morning and I cast my eye over it and
I saw that with his swxl we. ll, 111 say no more7 than that he said
that I VIoulcl say something to you about far-reaching events shaping tin
history of the i.. orld at the mo-omnt. rfhaI;' a good assignment0
( Lau. vghter) But I can say so-mething about some of them and perhaps in
a chee-rful zay, because if' there's one * thing that stands out in this
calndar year so far, it is that though our majority has been ; kctchy,
our moralo hlas been good. ( Hear, hr) And I, mysl1f, fel that we,
have made distinct progress in the politicl field in the last nine
or ten months. Only the future can prcve whether that's true or fallse,
but I feel i. t and I think ost of us at Canberra ;, ould feel that that
Wa-s so, Our opposition hasn't been trmendously effective. It's been
aanddd eda s tof orin onuurm boewrns pbeuotp leI , ctnh y' t htvhei n kb aededne din tog oodre mfiiagrhktaibnlgy sihn aptae-. lent9
Thcrcefre, I can report to you most hopfully about our Federal
political position,
dl noi, Hr. Pre sident, you sai. t sometAhing about farreaching
events shaping history, I won't endcavour to cover that
ground but I -, would ] ike to say soofthing or or purhaps three of
them, The first relates to recent cvcnt-t. s in relation to Cuba, w* hi ch
are not events confining theminsulve s to Ce ba! but I rbec, i ieve eve
of most tremendous histoi. c significanc F ma7y vrvy well be in due
-2
croiitrse that -people vic look ' Lack -" nd wri. tc . aut these things and.
in that Pre sident K. rjric dy' ac tion in rla t ion. to Cuba, was one of
,. bre tarn-iLng points in moderin pclit . co 1 history, in mcoern internationol
history0. . App]. ause) T hA-ae no apologies whtvrto ma,, ke when 1
tell you that when his was coming through, ve were about to
be~ gkn Cabiincet meeting, and we dliscussed Jt, ( and we agrced that I
should go in at half p~ ast tw,, o when theC House,, mot and maku a c]. ear-01out
s9tat( ement on this matt er. There are al. l sorts of peopl~ e who want you
to hcs-itate andC Say9" 701 lot's Sec w--hat somecbody else suys0 " a
wvill b-the rcactions her-or there," The fact is that the Statemcint
e.~ odn . behalf ct Iiustra li-wls the firs: t ett~ c; in su6po! ort -that
Presi-dent Konnedyv had from Lny 1C-ou-ntr. y. f he_: ar) ( Aplase Ad
as I am sure tha-t, likc nyseif, youo attach onomous J. sportance to
AUs rji-* a bein-g en rapport wi-th the United Statos of A'mrica ii-thfle
defence of ourti soemrity and the scurity of the freUe world. youa will
un1derst-and, 1 Iho w J. imr. portant thi as fro-m oiur point Of vi. cw.
I su-0-oss that * L. i-Je aLre i-eocle in Tnhta T knoi-w that there
arc-.~ pe hr tha L h g. iO.( Tfr Plmtrratina i s to be
s~ lightLv isoitationi . st, pr4s nx; e; nuf. OtOr to u'se
tb( e: 1mrqe ite -:; roinI1 ic on-liod. 1thl-ink peculepl of-J
this kind, and there are oi~ c 1. lo on t1he lf-wing of our op~ onents
w# ho think-that pCOrpic of A -' tninmda st ha. ve IALd ! a trem endous
aw,. akeningr in thr-li-st termL or fou~-ocnr rhv, hey ha~ ve senthe
prodding, the pushing, the th: s~ nrgof the SvicA Union halte d i~ n
Cuba and indced,, retrceat in Cub, beaue ne( ri-,, in r~ iep-srntIn!" ' an
~ mmenpoYoe fu. cunr rid beimry, h4Iimsclf, o-f .' tr ng miinc. a ndl
oviros ~ saic4 ' This i~ s yo stop., I haeboon 3 ookirip foxr this,
bdoi ng for thi4-s for two or throC yar. I 1hi1ve ha,_ d teo orInt
of di;_ seu. ssi_' ng thirj,-s with Prcs i. dent ,.,', iush, 3hc-v tis) mmr is 11o A. o
He'Vs an earthy,. robust crc o btf'orL those tom or--three yeIar , s
ha; 1ve been. syn to oro of my friet-n ds, and indecd t many of my
friendls, is jncued-e," ic. th. tU a e1 " ilumense3 powier, with i'nmerise
T-Owo-' 1behind him -ai. ther-efoe he must be o~ hcr t ' Ii P.. rlsident of
the TUnit-ed S-tatoe oDr the PrILmc ii a of Grecat Britain the timeinast.
come ahen that man vzwill si~ t Jrwn, physica lly or mecta-ph or ica 1] y
opposite6 KhrusD1. hcv-and -ie. ll himd 1" 1-iis is vwh1, orc youA stop" ( and make
Khrujshchev baoli ev Thirtt' s theC esseatial point, Bcausa old K9
you know, r,_ gardq most1 of the Jstr talk as bluff, Ile smiles a-nd
shrugs, hi s shoulders am.' seys., ll the-y won' t do anything,"
Now$ on -this oeoasion~ acti. on hI occurrd, strength has been
maifsta nd in the.. result, this is the first good thinry that has
happened fra the point o:_ L v'o h free vcrld since -the d wcr
bcgro+. n0( Hear, hear) are not to bstabout it e ": re ntt
pretend that this is uh end of the contest, Of course it isn't. But
i~ t Ls 0. measure, a step, aa exhibitionT of ultriainta h ol
has nu-' d-' ed fo , long tlime , Land * iat tb1Le world now has.
Trhese. left-wingerS t h i rowL\ s ri 1 to stand aloof. Well
T sup1~ cse there is something rathier comfortable bout Au.-strali-a
standIng a-loof f1ro. m. her fr.( Is,, lout iul. we be hbape y if' our friends
stood LsIlof from Aucstrali-a.: a Tlite-v ne-ver thin. k Of ti; they never
thirl. of rnatual agreemenclts as haviipg fl -tw--way operat ion, Itner
to these lotwnoewio ( fter Zal1, no doubt, esr the
ComImunist success in -the l. ong Imm, it nerOccurs t1-o them to thinkc
that all those things go twor, 1. ays, " Jo arc, a smal. l country, a
relat)_-ively wieak country and Great Britain is a rol. ively large
coun-try a-nd the United S3tatos of c aL AVvo ra tl lag conr with
enormnous strength. B~ t all thebl,( co-antriJes nced friends.. It's
very importanlt to lbe among them..
Irre m bo Soe c1sao ing a. spcech n the ' aerican
Conqress, taking thais as my, text., 1 said, " You ko9righ1t through
the l1iu_ 1-t0en* th century and inlto. the tx-irntieth century, Great Br. itain
waS the greates) t pow% cr in the; wold. 1 many fri. ends did she have?
,, ot Not nary. in Europe there was resentment there is
resentiment of gr At power, there i~ s alw.-ays jealousy of gr et
) w e. i Th. e whole skill of Br. itishi dip]. omacy in thl-e nine-teenth centujr
, was ce -r-cised in ordar to prevent unmity, resentime; nt, in this
LEdropea-n eoiuntry7 or that fremn blecoming too c. 1o-ar,. If the French
raferrkcd to Grela Br. itain as " oefiiol bion", it wlas a m-, x. e
manifestation of this fact thart in thei history of nations enormous,
power will always produce, or, the re-bound a. s it might be, honstiliti" es,
jea]. oas-Jes, re3sentUMents0 And so., T said " You, th initce tts
now the greatust power in the w orld, have -pl. ty of-, critics, Plenty
of' opponents. Some of those whfom-you ha~ ve helped most resent the
holp nest. You re ltike Great Britain in the nin-e-teenth century, you
nfereu nd an Iam ha-ppy to say, s can say about Great Britin
itself that wo, in Autaiare yo-ur frio-nds," 1Mid they uonderstood
this cc-fnileteiy, And it's true,. Vic arc not to blow out our bags and
think t'Uha-t we ara -the iptatpeo-ple w-vho detonTAine the cuirent of
events. That's not right. But we are al. ways to realise tha~ t a
W counrtry like-our owin which inifest-s i1ts fredhpand associati on
always has, in the Long riu. ng a-p:;-opor Lndvanta. ge frcnm it. An d
the-ef ore I re ject thuSe 1( 1deas of isoilatilonisi: i, But f or those-,
Swho like to suggest, -to hint~ aitl that we oughi-t to be neutralist,
W keep out of troublo., they muist hc_ ve le-ar. ned a lot i~ n the la-st tort.-
n~ ight. Aftor the, grc--t oxporntent of non. n)--lig-r. ment in the whole
of Asia has been Inidia and ndia f inds horse-lif, ha., ving kept L_ her
bridge., ys with Coriunist China9having int3erpreted the 7.. Iest to
Comm,-tunist1 Chi-na and having so_, ujht' ! 3id very properly too to
inteorpret Coirziunist China to t* lh kJest, now finds hers-. 1f, in breach
of every -u-e of deconey, iltwaded by Corn-nnist China, fighting, and
in a sense. fighi--ing for, her life. I thl. in'k -this will. have scrile effect
on neutralist ideas in the world. ?' edorri h-istory contalins no record
Sof any neutral ation hich9 by its neuitrality, 0 chieoved JL1mmu1-nity from
Wattack1 ( and wihen it is attacked, it needs friends, and when i~ t needs
friends, it -nust, tthat extent, forget about non-alighment and say,
" iConte and help Jell, we've no;-ver been non-aligred, vie' ye never
Sbeen neutrcal0 have all our lin-s cut and-' ha-ve h. ad tLhcr, out for
V many year-. S I. r 0 don't need to make " any specilal n-ppeals, Nowi I want
to say no mnore about that. I imerely say that I -think that this
episode the e-pisode in Cu ba and the episode in India will
have a marked. effc. t on contemporary history and. the effect wi-lL be
one which ought to be entirely favoura-bie to our owni ideas and oLU own
nationa---l sccurity, Ntohwr~. -sascodmte ht I wauld like to mention,
M1r. President and that is the declaration made by thue A. L. P. in
fa-vour of a nuc'-ear-fre-e S-outhern Hemiphe, his a at li..
emerged0 This is the.-! Labour I'Par ty's policy0This is a by-prod uclt
of what I've chosen to call is! ola1_ ticenism or hooing-to -be---lef t-al one.
And they say, l'Well, now, let's start b-y saying that So-uth of' the
Equator be. ause that, Ilieei the So:)' uthern Hemisphere
ev-ything that v; e can do wi'll be dune to see that there i~ s no
niicle~ ar establishmecnt, no use, of nuo. lear weal-pons, no storing or
application of nuclear wea-pons. This is . a cordon sa-nitnire around
the wold the equ-_. tor, w-. ith 1Aanus Isla-nd south of it and our
Territories souLth of it of coi-rse, o'jrsc]. e south of it. " ell,
this to rde, as I said thie otherL' nig.-ht in Sydn! ey is the very definition
of suicide,, Beca,. use if i41t is su-m:.-osecd noean anything, it means thnat
wc mutlsay to ou~ r nular-pwer associctcs to Grant Britain, to the
United States of ATmrica -" ILook, sorry, we are delighted -to be with
youi. il') SEA'XTO, we are delight'ed. t: be w, i th you in INZUS, but if -there
is anly attack, you must unaerstan..-tha-. t unacr no circumstances do you
deploy nuclear w. e apons south of thc-. equator0 1Do you suppose that
the United States of Amrica wfcuid to! leraie such nonsense for half
a minuate? I jelly well kow~ v they wouldn't, you Supp'), ose they are_
going to enter into obliga_ 1tions with us as they have in bot)-L-h S" EATO
and ANZUS and then ble told byr us that if nuclear eaosare used
from the north of' thec equator and come down, they must Stand
munchance; they can t use any retaliatory w., ea-pons frorm our territory
or, indeed, if we hav ou afa n onry south of the equotor.
This is noDnsense0 It exhibits a comLIe te confusion of mnind. I don't
be'lieve myself that n,. c. 1car weapons ought to be spread iniiscriminate.-
ly around the wourld. I h( ave more than once indicated' that f or oursr-
l yes i-we do-n' t desire tf-ha-. ve nuclear weapons because, there Pre a
lo fcun-tries who don' t desire-to-have( _ nuclear weapc'_ ns0long
as the-y are-in th.-hanrds of' two,_ or threc great powers~, withL some
feeling of responsibilit1y, then the:-cha. nce of an accidental nuclear
war will be subs-tantiali. y dimiinishied c'nd) therefore we have never
saild, " Sprinkle them aroundJ." But suppose there is a grent war.
Do w~ e need to be w~ armonggex~ s suppoSe such a thing? Suppose there
is a, great cconf. Lict in the, wcrld, fand Suppose nuclc.-r wieCaOons are
being used., are woa so bent on scoIf-destructi on th,-t wie wo uld say
that iunder those cir; umstancos our groa-tt allies are to keep clear of
us and to) av,' id usingl our terr ito_-ry -to . laun) ch wcapons, althoutgh thAt
ight be the -olace from-, whi~ h to laciuh thnfor aL determining
strategic blo. hen I said ribmotuht. this in , Sydn ey, I noticed
my distinguished frien-1, the Leader of' the Opposition, said he
nppears make a statement eac'h weckend, Arthur doe-s " This is
sill1. y0 It, alrecady applias in Artaroti-ca," Did you notice that? As
so) me newsopapar sa-id, " Dow cuorq thle peniguins, to! re ds, no ta lk of
nuclear wr. I i'c na ' alking -about ,. ian beinig. s i g grat c utry
like ou-rs wh-ich will sni. ieday be much, greater an ab: t the ultimate
euity that-,-we must ha-, ve in the face of nuclea-r Cc mmu-anist attack0
119 there it iS0 I don't know. I get al] ittle virried a-bout the
Labor Party in my Pa-r., iamont, 1 know).-. nothing ib-out * tcone in
vo1.' k-r Heyv, b', vt I gt ' w rtr d about th one imy
Parliaiment,, becausc they Icwyits lbte , known, soecf thom, that
tbey have no ckcrnnecticn with the ( Comuists, yet they seem -to ha,, ve a
remoxkable coninity of id+ eas wi,_ th thei n o: Is-ie of these nmatters.
The other day s milebcdy took the ti+ reuble tc; send mei a copy of t-e
Comunist Rnvieow, awell printcud pa-per it ought to be, the
Coimmui . s t IParty ha--s more moneny to spendl tLha-n; I think, the Liberal
Pa,) rty. But there it is the Coimnujst Review. And there is apowerful
a-rtic'le by ' Mr. Ral. ph Gibso-n; who I th-ink once did no -the
honlour of stainding for K.. ooong bjut,, anyhow, he's a! very promi.-nent
intel]. cctu2. am,-ng -the Cor~ xmu-ists. Iaj I read You just two Passages
fromitan-' they are not without value?
" The newi stage oi the arprepara~ tions of' the McI~ nziez
Government was dictatod by tijo Aerican im-pria_-li; sts
who want to maike A triaamornuclear w, a r base
directed rvgainst 1 eh ris ing peo) plce o-f South Ficst Asia.
in the light of this wc ca-n seeo the tremendo~ us im-. portance
ofthe A. L. 111 dcclara,, ticn in fLv(; ur o f nuclear-free
A ustra. lia aid La rKea-reSo) ut hern Hemisphere. That
decla-ration outs . Fz cos h p. icy ol' the United
States Governmient , nd , o
Vell, that's a gccd, forthright obsorvation. Th-n he goes on to say
to himslf, " Now how did such wisdom emerge œ ron the L. L. P. at long
last?" And he urvides the answer. " The A declaration is the
result of years of action by the forces w:-rking for peace." ( You know
who they aro) " Years of growing mass revulsion against the horror of
nuclear war." Then he goes on to make a glancing reference, as we
say in Parliament, to the r. massing and arching of hundreds in
Canberr, and that's had a big effect on Federal politicions. And
thereforc, he ends up saying, " These ideas are a part of Labor
Party trodition as reflected in the Hobart decisi: ns cf 1955, in
several suceches of Chifley and in the declaration against the use of
Australian military fores in Malaya. It is an urgent question for
the whole Labor movement that the AL. P. should ta. ke up the sanc stand
on Viet Nam and the other South Eastern countries as it has traken up
on Malaya0Now, here's a remarkable brotherhood of mind, dcn't you
think, with tho Communist boys taking croedit for this glittering
result. This well, this declaration and quite frankly, I am not
going to use its extravagant language, I wi: uld regard as preliminary
notice by the '. bar Party if it wins the ne1xt election, that it wi. ll
cancel the NZzU S pact. It must me-an that if it means anything,
unless scm. ey is f oolish enough to think that a great power like the
United Stats, suppcsing it becomes involved in a great struggle, is
going to allow its allies in the AZUS pact to retreat and say,
" Nothing doing. You must not launch any of your powerful attacks
from our soil." Ncw this is i serious natter, It is a iatter that
I have, myself, had the opportunity of discussing in ,' ashingtcn It
is not to be laughed off. Le. t the La. bor Party go into office and
let them apply this policy and I venture to say that the relations
that we have with the United States, so zealously built up over the
last ten or twelve years, will suffer an irremediable blow.
Now, Sir, * he next ma. tter th. t I thought I might say a word
to you about is, end I sup ose it can't be avoided, the Common
Market. Ian not going to encdeavour-say anything very fresh on
this matter because there is nothing very fresh to be said. I think
the outstannding dovelopment in the Common 1Market negotiations since
the Prime Miinisters' Conference has becn that the Givernment of the
United Kingdon has had an overwhelming vote in the Conservative Party
in favour -f g: oing in and only the other dlay, had an overwhelming
vcte in the House of Commons to support the stops that had been taken.
Now you may, as I sometimes do mysclf, 1wVrhne-teh er that is a very
good negotinting positin to be in. You nmay wonder whether it is a
very strong positi, n t; be sa. ying t' the Six when you are negotiating
with them, '" ell, look, we nust go in anyhow." I would have thought
it was not, but still, they kniw their business better than I do.
But I think we have now got a point when, in all probability not
certain, of course; nothing is certain but in all probability, Great
Britain is going in. Therefore, we will have to think of this matter
increasingly as one of the facts of life. In all probability, within
twelve months, Great Britain will be a meiber of the European
o-munity. hat effect that xill have on the Comamnealth structure
I have spoken about at grma-t length with c-nsiderable empha. sis and I
don't want to argue about it. Personally, as you kno, I think that
loose confederati. ons either bre-k up or they get closer. They end
up by a dissolution of the idea or they end up as federations. That
has been the history in the United States; it has been the history
in the . e1st Indies where they began to think they had a federation
but because the pulling-apart forces were too great, it broke up and
now we h-ve a series of separate Conmonealth countries in thu ' West
Indies. In the Federation of RLhoLesi-. and Nysaland, where Sir Roy
6-
WplarnskXy Is struggling hard to pro-serve the Federation. though the
odds appeav to be sli-ghtly, at any rate9 against him,, the pullingapart
mrovement is on_-l Thersfore, .1 have rJesolved 01l th is
cons titutional thning in my owrn mind by saying, 11' W'el1 yoru go into
Euro-oe, you to" Ll us, and I believe you, tha t Iroi; don u want to go
in-, to a federation, you don't want tGo become a-state-in a federation
of Europe9 but you do want to got the advantages th-at can be got
out of aon economic union, Out of an increased home market, oto
-all t~ he prospect of grec er efficieoncy and lower costs and rruore
things to sell -around the world. We]. oi I understand tGhat, but if
you go in like that, you must want it to succeed, you mtust want
to get the highest possible measure ofl economic unity and the more
of that you get, the nearor you are to a political federation."'
W~ ell 91 I hop-I will be wrcong on tha matr out as nobody would
engage in the nonsense of going into the . nirope-on ComrmunitGy with
the i-. dea of breaking it up but Only with the idea of building into
it and holping it to b,-ai d itself to more and more unity and more
and more strength, then it seems t'Uo mo to be practically inevitable
tha-t feder-al ioolitical pri nciples will come to be applied9 that
theire w-i11i be a considerable concerting of political policies of
Lill sorts and that In the rosults, Groat BRxitain will tend to become
a State inaLrpenfdrain hat is not a vi( ew that is
universally hold., I heold i t myself very st( rongly and have expressed
it in the Con-ference in London as clearly as 1 could. The British
Governrnent Cdoesn't agree with it, 9 but the1y Will be akn thie
decision, and if they mrake theo decisi'on and. if their-m-ovemtent into
Europe becomes a ; rofound success %, rA if thiis str2ength1-ens the
econom.-y of Great Britain, * Uhn we w1. all be ha, bu-ewl
have to revilse some of otir idoas of whaIt the Comlinwealti. mer-ns.
Still, 9 I have had to revise so ma-l'ny myself in my own time that
porhiaps 1 can. r accormodate myself to ancthor revision,
But one thing doe; emerge from it, that the old
days of the patter-n of tria0de in * Lhe Co-rm-i: cnoalth11 based on free
ent:. Ie-and ornpreferen-es all thcse m-utual arran-gemrent4S that
have1 ben gon nfr: o marny years -are comifng to an end and
we willJ ther-efore increasingly havc, to stand on our own fee u and
pursue our own trcding poJlioics ar. d, try -to persuade countries all
round the world to agalrzee witii thir> That means tL-wo things for usone
that cuir alrod great act-ivity of Promot~ ing overseas -trade
wigL-. 1. have to be increase; od more and riore. We are suacceeding, I think,
raLhor rakbyf-rm whait conversatis I've had, in getting more
and Yrore ranfcue~ in Australia to Lndorst-and that they must
nanuffa cture for export a s well as for1 the local mi-arket. because until1
we have roaeh. ed a stage in wwuetrnla exports Of manufactures
ass2Jine a subscantial place i: i oiur export income, we will be subject
to recurring t.:: oublas aboat onlJances o" payments because our Dsto
iw. ill depend almocst entirsly on whLetire-r wool goes up ox-wool goes
down or' whether-there hias been a droughtl in wh-eat Or whether sonething
1happens aroun. th-e wo-fld
EXPOrt" s Of' manuf( actures a". e ever the next ten to
twnyyears, ' vita], to( a heanthiy state of Australia's bale,_ nces, anid
. L think that more wvad mnore manufacturers 3re roalising thnat0
have not quite a few,. whio havo told mc that they ha,-ve . oome to realise
t. hat in order to get trni-E extra b1usi~ nes-s i~ t would pay them t11o 3ell
w. ithout pro-FJJt or to sel]. at a loss in order to ' Lind their way into
an overseas market and this'. of courso, is true bec~ ause their
turnover is goLig to have a grreat re,, lation to their ultimate costs
in Australia and we oan~ t have these -thYings done by pushing up the
cost) of the prima-wa'y industries, They are now, and they will be for
many, many years' to corie, t~ qe vryc: Koart o-f' ou. r international
economic existence. The second aspect of thnat matter is one that I made
somae reference to this mo-. ning in Melbourne at the Colombo Plan
Conference0It was greatly Cdiscussed in Ljondon at the Prime
7
Ministers1 Conference, One of the ironies of the post-war world
has been that great nations like the Unitod States of America
and small nations like our own have, in varying degrees, found
very large suns of money for the economic assistance of new nations
in the world, particularly in Africa and Asia, particularly, in
our case, in South East -sia, These great sums of money have been
found and they are designed to help these countries someday to
meet their political independence with a measure of economic
independence, enable them to produce more things on their farms,
in their fields and in such factories as they develop. But when
all thatts done, what happens? Some of the great donor countries
will then say " Sorry, we can't take your commodity, We have a
tariff against it or we have some protection against it, and it's
just too bad," The result is that, particularly the more undeveloped
countries, but it also applies to us, have been living for
ten or fifteen years on adverse terms of , rade in which they find
the average price of their exported commodity falling and the
average cost of the things they buy from the rest of the world
rising, This is true of Australia, There has been a tremendous
fall in the terms of trade so far as we are concerned it goes
for a lot of these other countries that I have in mind and,
therefore we have been advocating that rather than think of it as
a mere master of money-in-aid the great industrial powers of the
world ought to sit down with the rest of us and work out commodity
agreements which will maintain a reasonable and. payable price and
an adequate market for the things that are produced in the
countries that get the aid,
The old slogan not so very old now was
" trade not aid" and for once it happens to mean something. If
you could raise the prico and maintain the markets of the primary
commodities produced in Colombc Plan countries by five per cent.,
it would do more good than all the millions and hundreds of millions
that have been paid to them. This is a very great problen in the
world and we propose to continue to devote our efforts to it.
Indeed, we have a selfish, a properly selfish interest in this
matter in Australia because if the old traditional preferred
market is to go, then we have a lively interest in having world
commodity agreements which will enable the things we produce to
pass into adequate markets particularly in the Old World, but to
a large extent in the New,
Now the last thing, Sir, that I want to say is
this, We have been in office now for twelve years or more
it's getting near thirteen years it's been a very remarkable
period. In fact, the whole post-war opriod in Australia hs been
very remarkable because so mrch effort has been directed and I
don't say improperly to what I will call the redistribution of
wealth, the whole social service structure, the whole taxation
structur e These things have been designed, consciously,
unconsciously, both in the direction of redistributing, of gebting
rid of the acute chasms between great wealth and great poverty,
and a remarkable job has been done in that field, But we are now
reaching a point of time when ou:. great task is not just to think
about redistribution as if the thing to be redistributed could be
taken for granted; we are beginning a period in Australia in which
our major task is to create to create wealth, to create more
resources, to create trade, because to redistribute a static
quantity with a growing population is, of course, the very
definition of despair. It is a creative task, and this is the
Party to engage in the creative task, Not a party that has old
shibboleths of socialism hanging around it, but a party that really
believes in its bones that the task of governmont, when it sets out
to create, is to encourage the private citizen to create, to
encourage him to have confidence, optimism, a conception of the
I
-8
f'u -t Ur 0,0 I'liis coraative ts:-rising pop ulation, new resources,
raarlia s td-is I t-h-ini:, the Prea tes t challen go thiat we have
had a: nd a!-1 I can say, Mr,, President, is th. at if tlhu, Liberal Party
of' Australia can't Meet tLatl. challengo, nobody can. We wouLd be
denying the verNF reason f'or ou: r ex. Jtstenc--: if wel rocoile-d from such
achallenge, It is ouro task todU o h hU tig eas
the Comonwealth. p-owers a,, re limited., but to g" Lve effective loadersi-
ip, encou: L-v Yell; nt., ex~ r. n. ple, Jn the task of" louildlng up the
resourceS, 7 the we-. lt'a of Astralia, logwith. its population, the
trade of Aut~~ aalong with its population so tiraL at the end of
th'-e next twelve ;' as-and that is not impossible at the end
0of the next twelvje years do' be fri* Lghcene-d, I won~ t be here then
at the end of the next twelve years of Liberal administration. we
will be able to look back over a pe. riocd -in which Austr_-alia has
accepted thne challenge and has done great things0
Ithlik it was thc othe: r_ day in Lithgow that I
ventured to offer an observation obout " knockers" and " knockers"
who are anxious to teoll you at a. ll timues that Autralians wonvt
work, that thney d. o -this or the-y don't do that all this miserable,
wretched attitude0Well, of Ccourse, there are some loafers in
Australia, 7 but there are far-more acti-, ve and energetic people. You
have only to look1-. around you in this country to see the things that
have boen dono in -this country and thLat hiave been clone in the last
dozen vears in this country and you have -to feel proud of the
people who did thaem0 Of course triero's plenty of energy. ] plenty
of ingenuity, plenty of uinderstanding of these things, but wVe have
to give up being " lknockers" l about our ow,, n cour. try,,
And if I may oancludo by saying it, what t'Llo Liberal.
Party wnts, in its organisation right thiroughout its structure,
is a little p-ri* vatc-slc " onwt h kokr Plenty
of " knockers", about. Pl-ent'. y of people whfo know wcell they can
do it. Bu~ t the people whlo vot tha.. gs dono in th-_ is world are not
the " knocken-s but the CTreAtcrs, and wherever you find a crea to r,
you will find a " knocl-c-" to ma tcahmedw r o ihu hm
Not without 0~ ouY hmhavcel h2ad ,.-: pericnco of this your
Ba n ches, in your Divisions, going around " Oh, Well, T dont
know0And whaen a follJow -says) " I don't know" in that fashion,
it' quitc7 oblio0u hat ho-. dr; nt-t know,-J and he oughit to ho told,
ALne. so 1 say " Doi-mr withL thei Clknockers' up with the people who
want to get-things done" 0heoau~ so flr'om wherever I may be at the
end of* * thtpor'-iod and _ L , Jouldn' t like to k[ now xwhoro would
like to-be ab ' Le to look--up or down or back or around and fool that
th-is gr: eat Party already a great P'irty ftad played its great
part in creating thel next sootIon of anew and great !. ustrQ ia.