SIR ROBERT : Would it be agreeable to you if' I began by a short narrative, not very long, but a little narrative of' the day's events, because this morning I told both Government parties that I was proposing to retire and I told them the reasons in terms with which you are now familiar, and then this afternoon, Mr. Holt having been elected to be the Leader of' the Liberal Party, and Mr. McMahon the Deputy Leader, I went to Government House and told the Governor-General that I was resigning. I produced the document in such English as I could command and advised him t" send for Mr. Holt, which as I know he did. Oddly enough, this doesn't mean that I am now the I spoke to one of' my old friends who is an ex-Minister and an ex-Ambassador the other day, and he said, " You know, there is nothing so ' ex' as an ' ex"' Well, I am not yet because following the normal practice, I act as a sort of' " caretaker" Prime Minister until, what, Wednesday morning, perhaps it depends on when Mr. Holt feels that he can assemble his Government, but I would anticipate about Wednesday morning. So until then, as I said to my party this morning, I am Prime Minister but with no obligations on your part for either obedience or respect a caretaker.
Well, that in short is the story of' the events of' the day.
There are very many people who are looking in tonight I am told it is almost compulsory, this! but, as there are so many people looking in that perhaps they might like to know, as you already know, why I have taken this decision. It is not an ordinary decision. This is something that doesn't happen very frequently for a man to go out of' office under his own steam. I've gone out of' office before today under somebody else's steam but this time under my own. The answer is quite short and simple. I am now 71, as you all know. By the due date of' the next election, and I'm assuming that it will occur at the due time, I would be 72. I couldn't see myself at 72 after, by that time, seventeen years of' Prime Ministership and six years leading the Opposition and a lot of' history behind that, couldn't see myself' saying to the people of' Australia, " I want you to give me another term.'" I don't think it would be fair to them and I don't think it would be fair to me, for what that matters. And therefore I said to myself, ' Well now, if I'm to go out, should I go out now or should I battle on, assuming the people voted for me and my party in 1966 ( the end of' 1966) should I go out now or should I see it through?" And quite frankly and I am now speaking as an expert on a matter of which nobody else either listening to me or looking at me knows as much as I do 16 years of accumulated Prime Ministership in this country with national problems, with massive problems and international problems, they take their toil or as some of the cricket commentators will say, they take their toll but anyhow I in an old-fashioned way call it " they take their toll". One becomes tired. One becomes not quite 100 per cent. in efficiency. And I have an old-fashioned belief that the Prime Minister of this country ought to be 100 per cent efficient at all times.
Well, what was my choice: to go on for three years conducting a struggle which would become more and more difficult every month and every year, or leave this year? And, if this year, when? Now, or in six months' time? N~ ow, gentlemen, I have seen from a distance, and sometimes not so distantly, a well-know Prime Minister retire from office too late, so that his successor had no hope of creating if I may use the blessed word his own image and being himself and being a leader and having his own Cabinet and his own policy, his own individuality. I wouldn't have that. In my opinion, my successor must have the better part of a year in which to establish himself, not as Menzies' lieutenant, but as himself. And therefore I have decided that the choice being now, or subject to the will of the electors, in three years’ time, it must be now. And that's why I have gone.
I am very happy to tell you that my wife, who is well known to you all as a wife and a mother and a grandmother, and is probably lurking somewhere in the premises I don't know but on this occasion I am happy to tell you that she thinks I am right, this is a good decision, and indeed if she hadn't thought it was a good decision then I, having regard to what I owe her, would have had great hesitation. Anyhow, that's the decision, and that's why I made it, and in the result my successor, Mr. Holt, elected today and subsequently seen by the Governor-General, will in the next two or three days assemble his own Government. I will not choose it, he will. Every Prime Minister has his own responsibilities on these matters, and all I can say is that just as I have had the most loyal service from people associated with me in politics, in Parliament, in Cabinet, in Parliament in the organisations outside in both parties, let me emphasise that immense loyalty from both the Liberal Party and the Country Party - so I would hope and believe that my successor will enjoy the same benefit.
It is not always understood that over these years the stability of Government, the continuity of Government, these things have. been based upon an alliance between my Party and the Country Party. which in all these years has never been broken and in the whole of which I have been profoundly indebted to members of both parties. Who, * 1Jthh-ooug, h they may be critical and of course undoubtedly are from time to time, have been staunch and loyal, and so in bowing out I want to say to them " thank you".
I want to say to my own people in Kooyong - people forget about Kooyong you know. I sometimes do. I am greatly indebted to my wife because she pays more attention to Kooyong than I do. But they are very wise people and very understanding. On the whole they would prefer to see her than to see me and anyhow, they have all taken the attitude that if their Minister, their Member, is a Prime M1inister or a senior Minister well, that's good enough, and so as I look back on it, I would say that for every one letter I get from our own electorate, I get 25 from other people's electorates, and I am greatly indebted to Kooyong. Talking of that I must tell you-I have not made as yet a decision about retiring from the Parliament because I owe it to my own committee in my own electorate to go down to Melbourne, which I will do tomorrow afternoon to have a talk with them about this matter, and when I have had that then I will have more to say.
This has been a terribly interesting period of time 16 years plus 6 before that as Leader of the Opposition not easy and therefore very stimulating, but very strenuous. I am delighted to think, and I say this without claiming any personal credit because I don't claim it I am delighted to think that after all these years I can look around my own country and say,' This is a strong country; its people are prospering, its population has grown; it does matter in the world and is listened to with respect in the world," and if in the slightest degree one can have made a contribution to that, that's very good.
Anyhow, I am not leaving a sinking, ship. Do you remember Winston's famous remark when a member of Parliament who had been elected in the Labour interest decided to join the Liberal Party for some obscure reason? In England, I mean. The old man said, "That's the first time I ever heard of a rat swimming towards a s Un ship." I mention that with reminiscent pleasure about the Great Old I-an. But I'm not moving out because the country is in great difficulties. It seems to me that if ever there was a time at which a man could do something sensible and logical and reasonable and make way, it is this time in the history of Australia. Now there it is, for _ 7 perfectly certain, knowing how you have been accumulating your questions over the last few years, that you would like to put some to me.
QUESTION: Sir Robert, I cannot envisage you after all this time going quietly what do you intend to do?
SIR ROBERT: I am going to devote my time to the three R's reading, writing and arithmetic. Do you follow me? I must say that some earnest gentleman the other day told me in the press that I had already written two volumes of memoirs oh, I thought, what a pity I haven't. But I may yet. I will do a little writing I hope, but I am not putting down a programme in front of myself. You know, much as it may surprise you, for the next two or three months I would like to be quiet and private I might even go to a Test March, without anybody sitting next to me and saying, " What are your views on the political questions of the day?"
QUESTION: Sir, you say in one of your later paragraphs of your statement this morning that after your period of of freedom you would now wish to abandon your interest in Australian or world affairs. Would it be too much to suggest, reading between the lines, that you propose after you have had your rest that we may see you as some sort of roving ambassador?
SIR ROBERT: Oh dear me. Look, the answer to that is that I don't know. It's unreasonable I think to suppose that a man who has been in the middle of every argie bargie in Australia and almost all of those out of it for so long will suddenly become indifferent. I won't of course. I'm not anticipating, indeed I would view it with horror, being asked to accept some political office of some kind. I haven't it in mind. But of course I'll continue to have an interest in such matters and, if the results of my arithmetic as apart from reading and writing are such as to enable me to move around the world a little, then I would hope, as President Johnson was kind enough to say today in a message to me, to keep in contact with him, to keep in contact with the Government in Great Britain. And you never know.... You know these people are infinitely charitable. They might occasionally say to me, " What do you think?" And, without prejudice, I might make a reply.
QUESTION: Sir Robert, have you any plans to go abroad this year?
SIR ROBERT Oh, I haven't thought of that. You know, the only immediate plans in my household are the plans of getting into this house in " Have-a-look" Avenue in Malvern which is a very much smaller house than has been my wife's and mine for the past 16 years, and she has plenty of ideas. She's very good in these matters and I have one or two. I want to become almost literate once more because for many years now half my library has been in store and when it comes out it smells intolerably of moth balls. You know? And so, give -is a little time give us a little time. a
QUESTION: Talking of a sinking ship, would you care to forecast the success of your old friend, Arthur Calwell
SIR ROBERT No, I would not. You know Arthur Calwell I opened the Melbourne" Herald" tonight and I see that he has written an article about me and some of the remarks in it are very friendly as I would expect. I'm not a personal enemy of Arthur Calwell. I wish him long life and happiness.
QUESTION: Sir Robert, you spoke of problems facing Australia. How do you, from your strategic point, see the problems confronting Mr. Halt? What are the major problems facing Australia?
SIR ROBERT Well, I think they will continue to be, as they have been, they will change their weight and intensity of course, but our great problems are to keep on developing the country, to keep on building up a greater and greater population in the country, and the two things go together, and to have this population growth and this development growth the development of resources side by side with a reasonable degree of stability in the currency so that people will continue to find that it is desirable to invest because we're always short of capital in Australia. And all those things have to be done side by side with the defence of the country which is not a narrow coastal defence but a defence which involves our association with our friends and our allies and therefore tends to put increasing burdens on the defence vote. And therefore there will be this great problem. It's by no means an insurmountable one; if we all look at it unselfishly we'll see it quite clearly. Increasing defence burden, increasing demands for national development, for growth, for a strong immigration programme all of these things put burdens on the individual. But really you know, our own country we are, putting it broadly, so well off, aren't we, that we can carry the burdens without pretending that something is happening to us that doesn't happen to other people. Now this is the broad task and I'm perfectly certain that Mr. Holt and John McEwen and the boys in the Cabinet will pursue these lines with great vigour and determination.
QUESTION: Sir Robert, will we see you in the Parliament again?
SIR ROBERT : I think not. But I must first of all, as I said, talk to my supporters andmy Committee in Kooyong who usually see me once in three years delivering a policy speech and then perhaps once a year thereafter. They're marvellous people, but as I have said, if my wife hadn't paid a little courtesy to them, they might have forgotten who I was. e a a ./ 6
QUESTION: Sir Robert, in axing yourself, if not ex-ing yourself, have you been influenced by any medical advice?
SIR ROBERT None whatever.
QUESTION: Any other influences, Sir?
SIR ROBERT None whatever.
QUESTION: Did you delay your decision because you thought you were the only member of Cabinet who had experience in the African situation with regard to Rhodesia?
SIR ROBERT No. My only reason for well you say delaying my decision well, I've never been quite receivable of the idea that when somebody in a paper tells me that this is bedecision I ought to say " Hooray, this is it." I always like to make my own. And this was a decision as you know, because you've read what I have had to say, not easily arrived at. This is a very difficult decision and really almost unique in its own fashion and I've always belonged to the school of thought which says, " I must make this decision by early in 1966 and until then I go on with my business."
QUESTION: It was not related to Rhodesia.
SIR ROBERT : Oh no, not in any way. Oh dear no.
QUESTION: Sir, in an interview today, Mr. Holt spoke largely of his wife and in another interview Mr. McMahon spoke largely of his wife and tonight you've done something similar, Sir. How do you feel about retiring at the very moment when the first woman Prime Minister in the world is appointed? Is this a trend?
SIR ROBERT : Well, I'll convey to Mrs. Ghandi your ideas on this matter. I know her. She's an extraordinarily able woman and I wish her well. But she's not my wife. I have one of my own. Harold has one of his and Bill McMahon, God be praised, has one of his. Vie are not answerable for our wives. They, poor dears, are answerable for us.
QUESTION: Do you think Dame Pattie might turn up again, say, in politics somewhere in Kooyong for instance?
SIR ROBERT: I don't think so. I've never detected in her any desire to go down into my circuit. She's much too wise for that.
QUESTION: What do you see as your most lasting, achievement of these sixteen years?
SIR ROBERT: That's a very difficult question, isn't it? Because one doesn't want to be claiming credit for things unnecessarily. On the political side, looking at it as a political problem, I think I look back with most satisfaction on two things - one the creation in 1944 of the Liberal Party out of about fourteen fragments, and this was a highly individual task. I look back on that with great satisfaction. And again on the political side, I look back with great satisfaction on the fact that there has been a fruitful and constant alliance with the Country Party in the Federal Parliament. We have for all these years been a joint Government. I have had the most tremendous loyalty not only from Country Party Ministers, in particular Mr. McEwen, who is a most distinguished man, but also his private members. Now it is not always easy to have a marriage of this kind sustained and whether it is through blank stupidity or insensitivity or whatever it may be, I'm rather pleased to remember that this alliance has continued so fruitfully all this time.
Then, externally, I think that our relations with the United States have improved enormously. If I were asked which was the best single step that had been taken in the time of my Government I think I would say the ANZUS Treaty because the ANZUS Treaty has made the United States of America not perhaps technically, but in substance our ally. In other words, we have a species of alliance. Don't hold me to it as a technical expression we have a species of alliance with the United States. And placed as we are in the world, that is tremendously important.
And internally, inside Australia, well, I need to try to remember all the things that have been done about social services - but I do know that when I sit under my own vine and fig tree and look back, I would like to remember what has been done about education, about the universities, about It may interest you, when I came back into office in 1950, the total Commonwealth expenditure in the field of education was œ 8M, of which the better part of œ 6M. had to do with post-war rehabilitation training, and this year it is œ 55M., and each time I have a look at a few demonstrators from a-university, I look at them and say to myself, " I wonder how many of you boys would be at a university at all if it hadn't been for this revolutionary change in Commonwealth policy." I look back upon that with I hope you will allow me to say so some pride. Yes I'm sorry, I cut somebody off over here.
QUESTION. Looking back on that same era of your successes, what would you see as your mistakes or blunders that you have made in that same time?
SIR ROBERT Oh, don't ask me that. Look, perhaps I might put it this way. Every time I open some journal, I read of some of my blunders. Twenty five per cent, of them are right, the other seventy five per cent, were not blunders 0 0 0 0
QUESTION. Is Canberra blunder?
SIR ROBERT Canberra is my pride and joy. It is indeed. Look, this is something, it will continue beyond all question.
QUESTION. Was the Communist referendum a blunder, Sir?
SIR ROBERT No , the vote was. ( Laughter)
QUESTION. Sir Robert, you were speaking of' your alliance with the Country Party. Do you foresee the day vhen the Liberal Party may govern in Australia without the assistance of the Country Party?
SIR ROBERT I don't. If you are asking me, at any time over these years if I had come back with an absolute majority for the Liberal Party on the floor of the House, I still would have said to the Country Party, " I want you to be in" because I believe it is in this alliance, this conjunction of affairs that a great deal of strength has existed.
QUESTION. Sir Robert, going back over the sixteen years of your ministry and your mention of the ANZUS pact, would you say that the Viet Nam problem was the most dangerous situation facing Australia in those years, ever greater than Korea?
SIR ROBERT When you say "dangerous", I don't know quite what you mean. The Viet Nam position has tremendous problems in it but I have never had any doubt that we were right and that the United States was right because I have never had any doubt that what the problem is there is an attack, externally and internally, on a free people by a Communist organised power, and the thing that has to be remembered all the time I would like to say this because this is of immense importance to us the thing that is important all the time is that in the Western European zone, the old conflict between the Soviet Union has become a species of stalemate. One begins to think that the Soviet Union does believe in peaceful co-existence. That doesn't mean that the Communist problem has ended. In point of fact it has been transferred to South-East Asia with the other great Communist power, and we will make a cardinal blunder in our country and so will other countries in the West if we fail to remember that the South East Asian problem is not just a regional problem, it is a global problem. This is a problem in which the challenge of aggressive Communism has to be met here in this part of the world, instead of there in Western Europe. This is tremendously important. I know there are all sorts of people, including some so-called intellectuals which is a very broad and comprehensive word I used to be one myself when I was an undergraduate. But I know there are all sorts of things being said about this matter, but believe me, ladies and gentlemen, if w-- fail to understand the significance of what goes on in Viet Nam, our failure will be to our danger. My Government has been entirely in favour of what the United States of America has been doing, and we are jolly lucky to have a great Western power like the United States which is prepared in an area that may appear to have very little to do with her, prepared to put in forces so large that nobody ever thought of them since the Second World War.
QUESTION. Sir Robert, would you like to comment on the opinion that you rode the wave rather than controlled it during your term and do you subscribe to the tiger's back theory on foreign investment rather than the Australian quarry theory?
SIR ROBERT Well, I find that question somewhat incoherent but fascinating. If you are asking me whether I have been a good surf rider, I can tell you NO. The only time I ever stood in a surf on a Sydney beach I was hit by a dumper and had to go and have my face attended to.
QUESTION. Do you envisage, as time goes by, the occasional twinge of regret?
SIR ROBERT I haven't got to the stage yet of having regrets. They tell me that all old politicians when they go out of Parliament die of sheer misery and regret. I don't expect to. I hope not and if you discover any symptoms that I am suffering from regret, I wish you would call on me.
QUESTION. Sir Robert, what do you think you will miss most about having given up the Prime Ministership?
SIR ROBERT Oh, I don't know. You know there is a great theory in the world that people like myself who become Prime Ministers go around blowing out their bags and feeling a great sense of power. I have never had any feeling of that kind. All my life as Prime Minister I have been too busy beginning each day saying, " How many things must I deal with today?" and I think, on the whole, when I am out I will get up in the morning and read the papers by that time they will have given up writing about me so I can read them with some calm and say to myself, " How lucky you are"
QUESTION. Will you listen to the Parliamentary broadcasts in the evening, Sir?
SIR ROBERT Well, Harold, I would like to be able to say " yes", but the only three times I have ever listened to the Parliamentary broadcasts I have had a painful experience because each time I was listening, I said, " Now that fellow is pretty good. This is a pretty good speech," and when I got back to the House and discovered who it was, I then realised how wrong I was. On the whole, no, don't put me down as a listener.
QUESTION. Sir Robert, could we just say this that having successfully 22 years ago at Albury founded the Liberal Party, how would you see that party and its future in the immediate years to come. Would you say that it would have a good future, it having been your own baby?
SIR ROBERT Well, I would hope so and I would believe so, but that is up to the Liberal Party. They are not to live under the dead hand of somebody - morte main, is it? - no, I have no reason to believe that with all these people, and in particular the vast number of young men and women, I have no reason to have any scepticism about the future of the Liberal Party. I have a great belief in it.
QUESTION. Can we beat the Pommies in Adelaide?
SIR ROBERT : I don't think that's a question that ought to be put to me, although now you remind me, I….. would any of you fellows write rude remarks if I went to the Test Match in Adelaide, being out of office? I think it might be amusing because with those two short boundaries, you know, there might be a lot of runs made. But I have a great respect for this English team that's here. I think it is a jolly good team, and all I can say is that it will take beating, and it is up to us.
QUESTION. Sir Robert, a few minutes ago you mentioned young people. Mr. Holt also laid emphasis on young people today. Do you think that there is going to be a very special effort for the vote of the young people who have grown up and who have known no other Government other than the Liberal and Country Party Government.
SIR ROBERT I would hope so. I think that you have put your finger on something that is quite important an-d if I were remaining and had to determine my own approach to another election, I would face up to the very fact that you have referred to, that there are so many people, younger people now some of them verging on middle age, who have never known any other Prime Minister. Now this is something that has to be coped with.
QUESTION. Do you think that conscription will influence this youthful vote?
SIR ROBERT : I think on the whole in our favour.
QUESTION. With the benefit of hindsight, Sir, do you think that in the past Sixteen years, you may have paid a little too much attention to national and not enough to international developments?
SIR ROBERT No, I don't think so. I think I have devoted a very high percentage of my time to international matters. Very high. And I don't have any regrets.
QUESTION. Sir Robert, as the elder statesman of the Commonwealth, would you care to comment at this stage on the situation in the Commonwealth?
SIR ROBERT No, the only thing I want to say about that is that I am deeply shocked and grieved about what has happened in Nigeria because Nigeria has always seemed to me to be the perfect example of the country that got self government in a steady way, and of course Sir Abubaka Balewa is one of the great men of Africa, a very great man, I have a great respect for him, a great affection for him. And what has happened -there just horrifies me and of course it could have the most tremendous effect on the whole racial position in South Africa, but I don't want to say any more about it than that.
QUESTION. Sir Robert, for the last sixteen years your Government has faced a series of very difficult international crises which have fortunately fizzled out. Do you think we are moving towards the stage when we are going to settle things amicably, whether we are moving towards Tennyson's ideal federation in the world?
SIR ROBERT Well, if you don't mind, I doubt it. I think we have a long way to go yet. Every now and then somebody has said to me, " What about a scheme of world federation" and I say, " Well, we have/ trying one in Australia for sixty-odd years and we haven't solved all the problems and yet we all speak the same language and we all have the same basic political structure. I don't think that it is as easy as some people think to set up some international federation and expect it to work. What is needed is an immense amount of tolerance and we have to get it out of our minds and so have a lot of Americans, that all you have to do with a new country is to give it a constitution and say, " Well now you are a democracy and everything will work. It doesn't happen that way. Democracy as you and I understand it, grows from the grass roots. It starts down below. Vie have beer. so accustomed to democracy in Australia that we take it for granted, but it has grown from beneath, hasn't it. In a number of these new countries, it is created from above. You create a Parliament, you create a council, you do something of that kind, and then you expect that like what that's tree the banyan tree that puts its roots down it will ultimately become rooted in the ground. Now there is very little proof of that in a number of the African countries. Democracy is a name but not a matter of substance, and we have to be patient. A number of these countries will go through periods of dictatorship, of autocratic rule, of bureaucratic rule and ultimately, as people develop, and as they are educated, they will become, as we understand it, democratic people. But you don't just assume that it is going to happen tomorrow morning. This is one of the blunders that has been made by well-meaning people in my time in more countries than one. 1
QUESTION. Sir Robert, do you expect to go to England this year to be installed as Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports?
SIR ROBERT I haven't even begun to think about it yet. I think I will have to go sometime this year.
QUESTION. They are building a flat in the castle.
SIR ROBERT : Oh, I read about that, yes. Well, we will discuss that. My wife will have valuable ideas on that matter, more valuable than mine. Will you be averse to an occasional visit to the House of Lords, Sir?
SIR ROBERT What as a guest? Oh, as a guest, yes. Otherwise, no. Or is it the other way around. I mustn't get your question the wrong way round but you understand me.
QUESTION. You stressed that South Viet Nam was a matter of global conflict; does it disappoint you that apart from America, only Australia, Korea and New Zealand have got combat troops there?
SIR ROBERT Well, I don't know how many people have got combat troops but there must be a very large number of countries that have something, whether they are medical people or engineering people, or whatever it may be, a very large number who have something, but in my experience if you have to deal with a problem of that kind, you just don't sit down and say how many other countries are going to do so and so, you have to sit down and say, " Is this the right thing to do" and after all, if we start we weren't the first if we start, other people may follow the example. I don't believe very much in the statistical theory of international relations. I think that every country has to make up its mind as to whether there is something here that matters, something that we ought to be doing something about, something on which we ought to associate ourselves with the greatest physical power in the world, and when we do it, we do it. I would like to see a dozen countries finding troops, yes. Perhaps some of them will.
QUESTION.. Sir Robert, looking back again on your own record of achievement, Sir, what have you left undone that you would have liked to have done?
SIR ROBERT : Oh, that is a very tempting question, but since you put it to me, I would like to have some something to guarantee perpetual life to your newspaper. (Laughter)
QUESTION. Sir Robert, you have had the honour of being in the Australian Federation, the longest serving Prime Minister. Could you tell the Australian people something about who you may think, before yourself, has been the best Prime Minister?
SIR ROBERT Look, I don't think that is a proper question to put to me at this stage, but in any event, I came out of my shell, what about a year ago, and went down and made a powerful speech to the Press Club a very respectable body about thirty years in Canberra, and I ventured then to make a few observations about people. I won't try to repeat them now. If I ever get to that stage where I write..... Somebody said the other day that I had written two volumes of memoirs. I wish that were true. But if I ever get down to writing one volume of memoirs, I will give consideration to what you have just put to me.
QUESTION. Sir Robert, on your return recently from your London visit, you spoke of the old Commonwealth and the new.
SIR ROBERT : Did I?
QUESTION. Yes, sir.
SIR ROBERT: Did I?
QUESTION. Yes Sir.
SIR ROBERT : I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I didn't. I have never used that expression.
QUESTION. Is your opinion of the Governor-Generaship " not for me"?
SIR ROBERT : Are you asking me whether I want to be Governor-General some day? The answer is no, no, no. Peace to my friend, Allan Fraser NO, NO, NO.
Now I think perhaps we have had enough haven't we? We are getting down now to these strange questions.
QUESTION. Sir Robert,before you go, could I ask you a question on your opinion of Australia's future role in South East Asia?
SIR ROBERT Look, I don't think this is a very appropriate occasion for delivering a long speech on our international position. I think that our role in South East Asia is important and will become more and more important because I think that we are a developed country, we are a growing country. We are not without power of our own. We are not without influence in the councils of the world and therefore we must increasingly become important in South East Asia, but don't let us get on to matters of comparison because there are other countries much more important than our own and some of them have problems of their own but we must continue to exercise the most helpful influence that we can and maintain the closest possible association with other great countries like India and so on on the Asian mainland. e 4
MR. ALAN REID Sir Robert, many of us in this room, particularly my colleagues of the Federal Parliamentary Press Gallery have had a very long association with you. This for us also has been an historic day as you yourself say. It is unique when a man steps down from a position of supreme authority, after sixteen years, of his own volition. I hope that there will be a future opportunity to ventilate this further, but in the interval on behalf, I am sure, of everyone here, I would like to wish you and Dame Pattie a long, prosperous and happy retirement and may your memoirs when you produce them, Sir, be as controversial and I hope successful, as your own long and successful career. ( Applause)
SIR ROBERT Thank you very much, Mr. Reid, and thank you very much gentlemen. You have been very patient and tolerant with me. Looking at the clock I see that we have had 50 minutes on this business and some of you might say with great justification, " Well he ought to give us 50 minutes; he has given us mighty few press conferences." Anyhow, thank you and good luck to you.